Baptists and Their Name

[SaggyWoman]

Recently I was in a training led by a man who had pastored in Baptist churches for 17 years, but is now doing training for small groups leadership in churches. (fantastic training, I might add.)

He made a comment that when he flies to where he leads training, he tries to interview people he sits by. With one man he talked with, the conversation went like this.

Trainer: When I say the word Jesus, what do you think?

Respondee: (He gave some great answer...)

T: When I say Christian, what do you think?

R: (He gave a positive answer)

T: When I say Baptist, what do you think?

He then gave a very negative response.


Do you think Baptists have a bad name? Why or why not?

 

[John Wells]

Many view Baptists in a negative light and many don't. But then many viewed Jesus and "the Way" in a bad light as well. My view is the world will hate us because it first hated Him! Compared to many other Protestant denominations, Baptists are considered the more conservative variety, and carnal Christians (wow, there's an oxymoron) do not like the "plumbline" of God's Word, thus incline toward liberalism, where they get what their itching ears want to hear!

 

[rlvaughn]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Do you think Baptists have a bad name? Why or why not? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is a question that cannot be answered with a yes or no. Baptists have a bad name with some, a good name with others, while some are ambivalent. Probably most with whom Baptists have a bad name are people who have had a bad experience with an individual Baptist or Baptist Church. One could just as well have interviewed a person who would have a negative response to Jesus or the name Christian. Perhaps if people were more educated as to the Baptist legacy for religious liberty in this country, we would have a better name.

I am curious as to why the individual was relating this incident. Wondering if he might be advocating dropping the name Baptist? One thing is for sure - all Baptists should do their part to preserve the good name that has been handed down to us. Of course, with preaching the gospel, we can't help offending some.

[ November 24, 2001: Message edited by: rlvaughn ]

 

[SaggyWoman]

I don't think he related it during the main sessions, just during a meeting with the church staff. He was telling us a lot of different things.

 

[Dr. Bob]

Saggy - The name BAPTIST "used" to tell a person a lot about the church or the individual attending it. Sadly, it doesn't any longer.

In our little city of Casper you can look in the Yellow Pages and see under "Baptist"<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>First & Bethel Baptist - dead, non-Gospel preaching ABC churches, one with a woman pastor!<LI>Liberty, Calvary & Emmanuel Baptist historic ifb churches<LI>Faith Baptist, board run GARBC church<LI>Grace, Platte Valley, Lighthouse, Bible Baptist that are Hyles-type legalistic pastor-dictator pseudo ifb churches<LI>Mountain View, Sunrise, North Casper, Boyd Avenue, First Southern, College Heights, Alcova, Bar Nunn, Heartland, Evansville Southern Baptist churches that run the whole gamut of SBC from very conservative to unbelievably liberal<LI>Christ First Missionary Baptist black baptist that takes a stand on racial issues and nothing else[/list]That is a total of 21 "Baptist" churches in our city of 45,000. Confusing? Yeah - what KIND of Baptist are you?

But abandoning the name "Baptist" and selecting any other name for a group -- "Bible" Church, "Community" Church, etc -- still leaves the same great variety of positions and NO image in the mind of what they truly believe. MacArthur's Community church is calvinistic and very baptistic; our Community church in Casper is Church of God non-trinitarian!

 

[bb_baptist]

Excellent post, Dr. Griffin!

We travelled quite a bit since coming to the US. At first, when away, we just drove around on Sunday morning and stopped at the first "Baptist" church, not realizing there were so many different kind of "Baptist" churches.

Today we know better.

 

[SaggyWoman]

At the risk of making light of this, "being Baptist" is almost like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates--you never know what you are going to get.

When you think of a living, vibrant "Baptist" church, what do you see? Sadly, it really isn't many of what you have listed in your post, Dr. Bob.

 

[TomVols]

I've always wondered why people bring up the negativity surrounding the Baptist label in leadership or church growth conferences when the data shows that doesn't matter one whit. But the name Baptist is so generic, I'm not surprised that you'd find the gamut of reactions.

 

[free2know]

I have found that unless you are a Baptist of any flavor, you may not be aware there are different kinds of Baptists! The sad part is if you run into a BAD Baptist church you tend to think they are all....BAD!

I admit generalizations of any denomination are NOT good. I happen to attend a pretty conservative ABC church who preaches the Gospel and lets you know there is a loving Lord everyweek. According to some people on here, that is unusual..... but not in my experience.

I had an awakening of sorts with another group of religious affiliation when my co-workers, one of whom was Evangelical Lutheran, the other Missouri Synod Lutheran started discussing differences in their churches. Wow. Who'd have thought they were even the same namesake "Lutheran"?

Like the one post said, even the name on the OUTSIDE doesn't reveal the spirit on the INSIDE, you have to brave and venture in and find out yourself.

I have found the definition of Baptist to be nebulous indeed. And sometimes one bad apple spoils the whole bunch, it depends on whether or not the person is able to believe their are differences on the inside and isn't that where it really matters?

 

[superdave]

When travelling for work I went to the only Baptist Church in the phone book of the city in California I was in. Boy was that scary. HyperCalvinist, KJVonly, Separatist, you name it. I didn't wear a tie and you'd have thought I was a leper. The only thing that came close to them even checking out my spiritual condition was "All the literature on the back wall is free"

The next week I researched to find a different church, and drove about 45 miles to San Fransisco to attend. What a blessing to see a Lighthouse in that community.

You can't just look at the name of a Baptist Church and figure it out, although sometimes the name gives something away. Like one I remember, the Shining Beams of Light Holiness Gospel Baptist Temple, Something about that name said, stay away, or BYOS (bring your own snake)