Featured Is it really that importatant for a Baptist church to have the name "Baptist" in their name?

Before my wife passed away, for a while we were attending a church called Salem Baptist Church, and it was part of the Southern Baptist Convention. Not too long after we started attending there, we voted for a name change to Southbridge Church. The thinking behind the name change was that we would be a church building bridges to the communities in Chicago's southern suburbs. When the new church signage was put up, they included the tagline "an SBC church."

A couple of years later, after my wife had passed, I was over that way by our old church, so I drove past it and noticed that the "SBC church" line in the signs were gone. When I got back home, I looked up their website and noticed that they were now considering themselves a non-denominational church even though their 'what we believe' page read exactly the same when it was a Baptist church.

 

I appreciate the church name revealing its' theological identity. I would not, on a regular basis, attend a church that did not identify as Baptist.

 

Chucking the Baptist name often means substantive shifts are coming or are already afoot.

 

I believe some will think you may be deliberately misleading prospective attenders to increase walk in attendance. Or worse.

 

Good advice from Annsni:

 

Since I don't intend to attend a church on a regular basis that does not have Baptist in its name, I will not know its doctrine. While sound doctrine would be fundamental criteria for regular attendance, other factors are to be considered for an acceptable worship environment.

I doubt any regular attender of any denomination, sect or cult would continue if they did not consider the doctrine to be "sound". I left a Baptist church because the Pastor change his position on the meaning of "one wife".

 

Or maybe some of us just don't see anything wrong with being Baptists.

We are what we are. If somebody is so turned off by the fact that we're Baptists, then there are dozens of other churches in the area for them.

 

I just don't understand what's supposed to be so bad about telling people upfront who you are.

We're Reformed Baptists and so we call ourselves ______ Reformed Baptist Church.

Seems pretty simple to me.

 

I don't know about other Baptist Churches but in mine the word Baptist is our identity... There are Missionary, Free-Will, Southern just to name a few... If any of these churches that claim to be Baptist took the designation out of their name what kind of Baptist would they be and how do I know if I want to attend?... I can tell you right now that their is a member on here that goes to the same type of Baptist Church that I attend but we are located on separate sides of the map, I'm in California and he is in Kentucky... You say you are scriptural in doctrine and practice?... John the Baptist, baptized Jesus in the river Jordan... We the Baptist are know for the practice of total immersion and that is our identity... Drop the word Baptist and you might as well say you sprinkle... You need to check your history, innocent blood has been shed against those who were Anabaptist... They did not sprinkle!... And you claim you are not ashamed of being a Baptist?... Makes one wonder?... Brother Glen

 

What happens when the "lost" person finds out they have been decieved?

 

If you're letting lost people dictate what you do as a church, then I don't think the problem is what name you call your church, but a flawed understanding of ecclesiology, as church is for the Body of Christ, not for the unregenerate.

Incidentally, I went to Bethel Baptist Church for years as a lost person and have absolutely no problem with it being a Baptist church. In fact, that's why I chose it.

Baptist churches are full of lost people.

 

I for one appreciate the fact that some of those churches that are supposedly "Baptistic" (baptizing by immersion, etc.) are not really "Baptist" due to some severe doctrinal differences. If the designation name ever were to be dropped from a Pentecostal-type church, from the Church of Christ, or (even worse) a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness congregation -- all of which baptize "believers" by immersion -- I would lose any ability to make a doctrinal distinction without first having to attend such churches and ask various questions. As it is, I am far more comfortable when I see designations such as "Methodist", "Presbyterian" "Episcopal", as well as "Baptist", since these already give a clue toward belief and practice. The same applies to the various cultic groups, and I am glad they self-identify as such.

So why do Baptists (apparently alone among the major denominations) seem to think giving up the name distinction and thereby allowing all sorts of confusion with various non-named interdenominational or non-denominational churches is such a wonderful option? I just don't see it.