Baptist....But Don't Proclaim It????

People have an opinion about the name Baptist but they cannot have much of an opinion about a particular church unless they know more. It much like the idea that most people know about McDonalds but not much about Jolly Kone. Jolly Kone makes better hamburgers but people would not know that until they went there or heard about it from someone else.

We are not here to proclaim Baptist but Christ. For 1500+ years the organization know as Baptist never existed. But Christianity did.

 

Their procedures do not appear to follow the biblical pattern.

In my church, if you see your brother/sister doing something "wrong", you should first go to them and talk to them in private. If they won't listen, then obtain two or three witnesses. If they still won't listen, then it will be brought before the church (extremely rare to get to this point). All of this is based on Jesus' teaching in Matthew.

 

Why?

Just wondering.

 

It is the fad now to get rid of names that denote who you really are, so that people will feel more comfy coming in. Names like dayspring, north community church are fuzzier than first baptist or whatever.

Just about every baptist church in our town has changed to warm fuzzy names. It isn't just baptist it is all churches. We have a community church that is a way out reform, we have assembly of God that are named anything but assembly of God.

Its kind of like being a McDonald's and changing your name to Donnys hangout or something to get away from the typical fast food syndrome.

 

Having the name "Baptist" does not denote who you really are...

 

There are many "Baptist" churches that embarrass me, quite frankly. The name means nothing to them.

But if you aren't changing the doctrine and your teaching, why does having "Baptist" in the name matter? Our church has Baptist in the name, but if it didn't, I would preach the same, our doctrinal statement and practice would be the same. It would make no difference.

 

The name doesnt matter so much. I agree with Larry though. It is embarrassing in some cases.
Unless it is a liberal baptist church when you see the name baptist out front you can assume a few things such as the "baptist distinctives" which are in my estimation pretty bibilical.

 

If the Lord taries long enough we could see history repeat itself. Now everyone is trying to be so generic in order to attract people that in the end doctrinal lines will erode over time.
Then those who are really desiring to live holy, biblical lives will again have to seperate themselves much like at the end of the 19th. century into the early thirties.
I think Jesus is coming soon though. All this global coming together in the world and in churches is just paving the way for one man to have all the answers. The Antichrist.

 

In the unchurched culture where our church is located, Baptist means nothing. We left it out simply to avoid the extremism connotations of the Baptist movement that tend to make the news.

Baptist is simply not the first foot we want to put forward. The "assumptions" of unchurched people regarding the name Baptist is usually not something to be proud of. No need to create unnecessary obstacles.

 

I believe too much emphasis is being placed on a denominational name. We are first to be Christians, then whatever denomination the Lord has led us into.

 

I am an SBC church member, and I've never seen overseers...not even in the church of 2,500.

 

My Goodness Gracious! Here I thought all along that the Baptist Churches were established by Jesus Chris!

 

I said "Just about every baptist church in our town has changed to warm fuzzy names. It isn't just baptist it is all churches. We have a community church that is a way out reform, we have assembly of God that are named anything but assembly of God."

I was not saying anything against baptists, I was simply pointing out many churches are changing their names and that knowing what they are is even harder.

I was not saying "Baptist" was important in the name - just that it used to be that a name gave some indication of who you were, today not so. Used to be Christian church meant a certain polity and to some extent doctrine.

Southern Baptist used to say something about what the church was.

Dayspring doesn't tell you much. Sunnyside church doesn't tell you much. People's church doesn't tell you much. (One is baptist and two are assemblies)

Everyone is changing names, colleges as well. One here was Western Baptist Bible college, they removed bible, then few years later baptist was almost eliminated and now they have become Corban College.

Businesses are changing their names, I may change my name .........

 

We are not ashamed to be affiliated with Baptist, but I am sure everyone in our church does not know we are "Baptist". Some would probably say we are "non". We don't hide it but neither do we promote it. To be honest with you it is not nearly as important in our cultural context as it is in the Bible belt in which I was raised.

 

Every Baptist does. "Overseer" is one of hte terms for the office of pastor. It may not be that they function in the way described above however. And it is entirely possible that the above description is inaccurate. I would be skeptical that such is true. It may have been miscommunicated or misunderstood.

 

Rockrambler did somebody catch you drinking a beer? hee hee. It just struck me funny that you kinda threw that in there.

 

Larry, I think you know what is meant by "overseer". They don't mean the office of the pastorate. They mean tattlers...spies in the church for the pastor/administration, to take the place of the Holy Spirit.