Baptist relationships

you know Jon; i'll be waiting for this answer too?

 

Jon, there is an old saying, where three baptists are in one room, there are four opinions...hence,,,two baptists had a disagreement and three more organizations were formed.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Since baptists don't answer to any kind of ecclesiastical hierarchy, they are free to set their parameters for cooperation as narrowly as they wish - and most baptist groups in the US wish to set them pretty narrowly.

Since the local church is not defined by its cooperative bodies, a church can be a part of as many different groups as it wishes. The local church simply finds a group (or groups) whose goals/missions/publications it wishes to support, and then they write a check.

In this sense, baptsist churches can be very cooperative - with other baptists of like stripe. Since the larger regional and national bodies are groups formed for specific purposes (theological education, mission work, and publishing are the big three) - cooperation isn't as much of an issue.

Most folks do use a church's regional affiliations to gauge how liberal or conservative the church is - and make their membership decision accordingly.

Joshua

 

Jon,

There are about 8 different Baptist associations in Canada. Some have connections with USA Baptist groups. They are mostly evangelical, with the liberal Baptists in the provincial Conventions, similar to the Baptist Union in England.

The other groups are more affiliated with the Evangelical Fellowship which umbrellas a few different denominations, but many independent and union Baptists have chosen to join.

There is a very strong German Baptist group in Alberta with a few churches extending beyond those borders, but the main associations would be" The Baptist Conventions (of each province); the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada (about 600 churches); the Regular Baptists.

Cheers,

Jim

PS. The two Baptist Churches I served in Quebec, were formed by early Scottish settlers in the early 1800's

[ November 18, 2002, 09:35 PM: Message edited by: Jim1999 ]

 

Jon,

I went to a seminary that was subsidized by the CBF, and am close friends with several of their national staffers - so I feel like I can speak with some authority in that regard.

The CBF was initially formed as an alternative for churches that were distressed by the the increasing fundamentalism of the Southern Baptist Convention. It was intended to reclaim the initial purpose of the SBC. It's meant to be a resource provider for local churches, as well as a way for churches to cooperate for mission ventures.

Although their stated purpose is to provide resources for all baptists, I doubt you would find them providing much that is favorable toward the Southern Baptist Convention.

Joshua

 

The strong line that the SBC has taken on that strikes me as a little odd. Likewise the harsh words the Executive Director of the Georgia Baptist Convention has had for the CBF.

Why the SBC can't live and let live I dunno.

Joshua

 

maybe....Many of the churches that began as Southern Baptist congregations and in recent decades hired a woman as pastor decided to cut all ties to the denomination when the issue became volatile. University Baptist Church in the college town of Bloomington, Indiana, voted last September to withdraw from the SBC at every level and aligned with CBF which supports woman pastors. It seems to me CBF needs to get inline with the word.

God Bless you

 

rsr I wouldn't say the SBC trashes the CBF, we just shine the light of truth on their practices, whats revealed is what you see, as you have so named it.Deviation from the Word of God will lead to dark practices. One thing that is shune by the SBC is woman preachers yet it is imbrased by the CBF. Now as noted in another post of biblical churches if they have woman preachers thats not biblical.
God Bless you.

 

Australia has four Baptist denominations. Baptist, Baptist Independant, Baptist Union (Southern Baptist) and Seventh Day Baptist.

The Baptist Union and Seventh Day Baptist are both world alliance members. I am hoping more Baptist Denominations will consider joining in with the World Alliance.

 

hey Jon;no matter what name brand we are,i think acts 2:44-47 explains my personal feelings toward my christian bro's & sis's, God Bless everyone.
bill

 

You're missing my point entirely. The CBF doesn't "have women preachers." The CBF doesn't ordain clergy at all. Nor does it set doctrinal boundaries for fellowship. Somewhere along the way the SBC went from being a cooperative, mission-sending agency to an instrument for theological orthodoxy. The CBF is trying to avoid that mistake.

Personally, I think they've gone too far in the other direction and it will eventually bite them. "No creed but the Bible" sounds more Campbellite than baptist to me. I just think the views of the consensus, not the simple majority, should determine what the boundaries are.

Joshua

 

This is starting to sound interesting from a personal viewpoint. In my class on diversity in education, I am to do a paper on a personal bias I have, and I got an okay from my professor to do a paper on a bias I will confess here--a bias toward mainline Protestant Christians who don't believe the way I do(specifically, CBF Baptists). In this paper, I will be explaining why I have this personal bias, and what I will do to overcome this bias.

 

One of problems you are going to have is trying to figure out what CBF people believe since there is such a diversity of opinion in the CBF ranks. They've got everything from extremely conservative inerrantists to full-blown liberals.