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

I have no idea whether that is correct or not. My suspicion is that it was miscommunicated at some level. But who knows ...

 

You mean the gossipers? Gotta have those for comparison to one another. What is a church on a program of church growth without the experts from the headquarters. New fads always work for awhile. Ever notice how some churches buy into every new program but stay the same.

 

Rockrambler,
Catchy nickname by the way.

Alot of churches are drawing up covenants these days. Some are lengthy some are not. I don't think it is a good practice personally. It is a trendy sort of thing. There may be some folk in here that can shed some light on the reasons behind these agreements. (I'm not talking about church covenant & by-laws) I talking about these covenants new members are asked to sign saying they will tithe, be behind the church etc.... Those kind of covenants are a new thing. I'm just a little leary of them myself.

 

ACtually, those kinds of covenants are very old. Most people just don't know about them. IN our church, the covenant has existed at least since the mid-50s. Our is the typical church covenant, probably identical to one that many Baptist churches have. Today, more churches are getting away from covenants, or at least not enforcing them, it seems to me.

The churche is a good idea, IMO. It spells out what is expected of members so that there is no confusion. It usually talks about the fellowship and unity of the body as described in the NT.

 

Cool Larry,

I'm not really against it or for it. I signed one at the church I became a member of recently.

I know churches have had covenants for a long time. These are different from those like i said our church has its by-laws and covenant then we have this other agreement thing that we signed. It must be a new way of doing a older thing.

 

Larry, if you've read the PDL He has this covenant, pledge kinda of thing at the beginning. The document I' m talking about is a agreement thing kind of like that.

 

The PDL one is a good example of a modern one.

 

You mean the gossipers? </font>[/QUOTE]Call them what you will, gb...they are still spies for the pastor. I don't go for that jive...never have and never will. If the pastor feels they have to play the part of the Holy Spirit or have babysitters of grown people, then maybe that pastor shouldn't be in the ministry. I think that is what is called "being Lorded over". No wonder so many Christians in churches like this have an uprising!

 

You said: but is it strange that a church is Southern Baptist, but they don't have it on their sign, or talk about it? ....

In my neck of the woods, until the convention started raising all its nonsense of the last few years, almost every Baptist church in the area was SBC, so you assumed it was, unless it said it wasn't. For that reason, some of them didn't have it on their outside signs.

Even INSIDE we don't sit around on Sunday discussing whether we're SBC or not. We discuss God. If we stop discussing God to start discussing "SBC" I'm quitting.

 

TexasSky...I hope you're not attributing that above statement to me.

 

I know when we were attending a larger SBC church, being an SBC member over an IFB member did come up twice, but only for a short portion of the class, and that was only because my wife and I had come from the IFB churches. The second time was when another couple came from the Presby's. But, it was more or less in passing. And it was clear that our church was SBC, or Baptist anyway.

 

Amen to Old Regular

 

In other words, "we only care about having a lot of people, not about having good, decent members."

Not a church I would want to be affiliated with.

 

BTW, there are several PB churches that we associate with who don't even have a sign on their building at all.

Most of our associate churches use Primitive Baptist, but there are still some who use Old School, Old Regular, Regular Primitive, and a few others.

How are we to know one another if we refuse to use the same, or similar, names?

Since we believe that we are the true church, then we could very easily justify calling ourselves Spring Grove Catholic Church, but that would just cause all kinds of problems.

The purpose of the names is to get an idea of whom we can and can not associate with.

I really don't see why any church would not want to use a name which verifies who and what they secretly claim to be.

If this community church is SBC, then they should let it be known rather than using trickery to get people in the door.

I could change my name to George Bush, but why do that unless I want to trick people into thinking I'm someone I'm not? I'm still James Reed, and I have no problem telling people that upfront, whether they like me for it or not.

 

Since Baptist churches are autonomous, then the local congregation decides the name of the church. Churches are a great boat to fish from.
If the name Baptist helps the Cause of Christ and helps make disciples in a particular church , then by all means use it. If calling it Baptist does not help or is a hindrance to the local church then "can" the name,
"BAptist".

 

Av, No, wasn't responding to you.

Rock, "I don't say, SBC."

I respond to the question with, "My religion is Christian, my denomination is Baptist," sometimes in recent years I will stress "Southern Baptist," because I don't want to be confused with the cults that claim to be Baptist.

I consider "Proclaiming," something to be a bit more than answering a question. I gladly, happily "Proclaim the news of Christ," I don't "proclaim" my denomination. I'm not ashamed of it, but I feel it is the least important thing related to my service to Christ.

 

I really hope that your church is more than the name on the door or near the street.

At one time I though Primitive Baptist meant they were snake handlers.

Anyone knows that a church can be SBC and can range from hyper-fundamentalist to rather liberal. They can range from a liturgical style of worship to almost rock and roll. They can range from being an all white church and all black church to a mix of ethnic groups. They can range from being mean spirited to gracious and loving.

 

gb, this is true of ANY denomination!