SBC WON'T CONSIDER NAME CHANGE

[USN2Pulpit]

In response to gb's post above, that's a real shame. I was a member of a fine SBC church in the San Francisco bay area quite a few years back.

I don't think "us four and no more" characterized that church, but they did have a little trouble attracting new folks. They were a very loving and caring group of seniors and embraced and cared for my family and the few other younger families that came.

What I'm trying to say is that "us four and no more" isn't the problem. I'm not sure what is, but that's not it - at least in my experience. It does seem to be a west coast problem though - making the baptist church relevant to the surrounding culture. (Don't flame me here - I know it is actually relevant. I'm talking about culture's acceptance/rejection of fundamental doctrine.)

 

[ballfan]

Originally posted by Dr. Bob Griffin:
Southern is looked upon fine in Atlanta or Dallas, but just about anywhere they are looked upon as yokels, hillbillies, good old boys, rednecks, Billy Sunday wannabes.

And they're so offended they're trying to take over by moving in droves to the South.

At Myrtle Beach you can't even take a step without tripping over someone not from the South.

I think the reason is envy.

 

[JGrayhound]

Originally posted by gb93433:
Where I live SBC means dead churches.
They believe in "Us four and no more." The average age of the people attending the SBC church in the town where I live is about 70. While the area has more than doubled in the past few years.

It isn't because they are called SBC..the name probably has very little to do with their being dead. There are many thriving SBC churches outside of the south.

Your assumption that they would start growing if the SBC changed its name is way off.

How would you like it if some churches came to the south and called themselves the Western Baptist Convention.

I would care less what the name of the group they associated with was called (remember the individual churches are autonomous and don't HAVE TO associate with the SBC). I would care what they believe, and if the WBC was a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching group...I could care less what the name is.

I am in favor of keeping the name for purely pragmatic reasons....no need to waste money to change a name (and this would cost 10s if not 100s of millions of dollars) and there has not been ONE good reason to change it. Who cares if it accurately reflects the geographic regions it represents? That means nothing in the long run. When people hear "SBC", they know what it is and what they stand for...even if they hate us. No name is perfect, but like I said, we are the same group no matter what name we are under. That hatred of us will always be there.

Moreover, some have said that it hurts our evangelism efforts. Which is ridiculous. No one accepts or rejects the gospel because of the name of the SBC. Actually, there are some regions of the world that our reputation gets us into to do evangelism because they know they can trust the SBC. So, a name change might hurt those efforts.

Anyways, there remains no good reason to change the name.

 

[Bro. Jeff]

Originally posted by JGrayhound:
I would care less what the name of the group they associated with was called ...

Anyways, there remains no good reason to change the name.

Well said.

 

[Bro.Bill]

The name is only important for ID purposes. What I am concerned about is 10,000 churches with not one single baptism. That means no witnessing. That means that thier discipling program needs help because some of it is missing.
It used to be when you talked about the SBC you were talking about witnessing churches who believed the Bible,preached it, taught it,and lived it.
Now I am sure there are many SBC churches that are witnessing,Bible beleiving, teaching and preaching churches and Praise God for them.Just pray the other 10,000 local SBC churches will get back in line with God's Word.

 

[JGrayhound]

So, how does changing the name of the SBC affect that?

 

[USN2Pulpit]

Originally posted by Bro.Bill:
Just pray the other 10,000 local SBC churches will get back in line with God's Word.

I sure do pray for that...but especially in my own church. We have baptized this year...but being a rookie, I don't know who to report that to! (I don't want my church to be included among that 10K who didn't baptize!)

But here's a question...even though we pray for revival in every church, isn't it likely that some ought to die out...due to inactivity and disobedience?

 

[All about Grace]

But here's a question...even though we pray for revival in every church, isn't it likely that some ought to die out...due to inactivity and disobedience?

Based on the statistics, I would say many have already died. A few showing up on Sunday does not equal life.

 

[Kiffin]

I think a greater problem that the 10,000 local SBC churches that baptized no one (and that is a problem) is Churches baptizing many but unable to each only a third or Half their "converts" remain in the Church while many of the others return back to the world. This issue needs to be addressed.

 

[Trotter]

Kiffin,

Get High Expectations by Thom Rainer. It is a follow-up book to his Effective Evangalistic Churches.

Both books stem from a study Dr. Rainer conducted among the most evangelistic churches in the SBC. While the first book looks at the methodologies used by these churches (there were 576 churches that participated in the study), the second book, High Expectations, looks at those churches of the study that are retaining those that come to Christ.

Both books are great. EEC deals with what these churches are doing to reach the lost, and HE details what these churches are doing to close the back door.

Both are available at Lifeway.

In Christ,
Trotter

 

[atestring]

I will never be offended by the word Southern.
Paul was Southern. He said " I speak in tongues more than Ya'll"!!!

 

[delly]

Let's see now, We are being asked by business to get rid of our Southern accents so we must give up our personalities and our uniqueness. We are being inundated by restaurants from other regions of the country, so we are asked to give up our Southern cookin". Lots of folks don't like our slow and easy way of dealing with things, so we are being asked to give up our Southern way of life and our great Southern Hospitality. When all of the older generation dies out, the South will be just like the rest of the country. Our kids already speak Yankee.

Now we are told that calling ourselves Southern Baptist is insulting to the rest of the United States. What in the world will y'all come up with next.

All I got say is, if you don't like us, leave us alone. We are tired of being put down and looked down the nose at just for being Southern. We are Southern Baptist because we started in the South, right here in Tennessee. Now, if any of you Western Baptist or Northern Baptist want to come to Tennessee, we don't care at all, (unless you are a cult). We welcome those who are interested in seeing people saved. The name of the church is not as important as the message it brings.

Most Southern Baptist churches don't advertise that they are Southern Baptist. You would never know it by the name on the sign because it's never put there. We have First Baptist, Englewood Baptist, East Union Baptist, Popular Corners Baptist, All Southern Baptist, but you don't know it unless you read the doctrinal statement, someone tells you or you come to the worship service. Then you find out we ain't Methodist and we ain't Pentecostal. I had a woman from Michigan tell me once that they were moving back up there because the Northern Baptist churches are more like Pentecostal churches and she liked that style of worship more.

Oh, we do have new people coming all the time and we have baptised quite a few young people in the past year.

 

[gb93433]

Originally posted by delly:
Let's see now, We are being asked by business to get rid of our Southern accents so we must give up our personalities and our uniqueness.

Now we are told that calling ourselves Southern Baptist is insulting to the rest of the United States.

All I got say is, if you don't like us, leave us alone. We are tired of being put down and looked down the nose at just for being Southern. We are Southern Baptist because we started in the South, right here in Tennessee. We welcome those who are interested in seeing people saved. The name of the church is not as important as the message it brings.

People are leaving you alone, all by yourself because you are refusing to change and adapt.

Let me give you a few facts about the SBC churches where I live. Not one of them are growing. In fact most of them are at about 30 to 40 percent of the attendance they once were 25 years ago. While at the same time the area is growing.

However Saddleback (SBC)has made the change and is doing very well. Yet the SBC has not made the same change. The point is reach out or die. It's really that simple.

People from the outside are leaving you alone. They are progressive and you are seeing their movement. You refuse to change while they are forcing change on you. That is the problem with the SBC churches where I live. They have continued to be southern churches in the west with zero outreach to those around them. They love their southern church and not the western ways. So their church is a southern transplant. Even many of the pastors are leaving the SBC. I am one of those. I help to start two churches, replanted one, and spoke at some of their conferences as the main speaker. I simply got so tired of all the religious nonsense. As a child I grew up in the Catholic Church and saw and heard loads of religious nonsense. When the SBC infighting came to a head I had enough. As a pastor I was spending so much time with the problems instead of evangelism and discipleship like I once did.

[ July 17, 2004, 02:26 PM: Message edited by: gb93433 ]

 

[rsr]

The real reason to change the name is that is no longer accurate. The SBC a half-century ago decided it would be a national convention and it still pursues that goal, with some success. To keep "Southern" in the name is to perpetuate a misnomer.

"Baptist Convention of the Americas" is already taken, and given the SBC's decision to withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance and create its own organizations, how about "Baptist General Convention of the Earth?" Or maybe "World Baptist Convention?"

Don't get me wrong. I'll keep my "ya'lls" and "all y'alls" and my chicken fried steak, but Southern really has no business being in the name of the convention.

 

[USN2Pulpit]

 

[rsr]

Thank you for your support. You have made a most eloquent comment.

 

[USN2Pulpit]

You're welcome...and thanks.

Wait a minute - on second thought, it occurs to me that you're really not grateful for my support - nor do you appreciate my shameless method of upping my post count.

Here's what I meant though: "How long will this debate go on?" I personally like the name "southern baptist," but if southern baptists vote to change it, my church will likely go along with it. There are many more important things to concern ourselves with.

 

[rsr]

Yes, there are more important things. Lots of things.

But if the SBC really wants to change its knickers for pants, it should change its name in line with its mission.

 

[delly]

You speak of Southern as if it were a curse word that must be eradicated for our language.

I guess we should call ourselves, "The Church formally know as the "S" Word". We could change the name of the whole region to get rid of that terrible dreaded "S" word. We will be saying North, East, West and that "lower" region". Wow, I'm on a roll. Let's see, there's North AMerican and the America down under. How about the Top and Bottom Poles instead of N and S.

I see this as just another "let's look down our noses at the South" kind of thing, since we are now being separated from the outside.
But wait. I guess I could take that as a compliment because if y'all are on the outside we must be on the "inside". I would rather be on the inside any day since the outside is really cold and cold hearted. It appears to me that the rest of the United States can't leave us alone. We seem to be the punching bag for Americans.

As for not being progressive, I would like to hope that the three little girls who were saved yesterday at our church are a sign that we are still progressing. I know many will say "only three", but every soul is precious to God. It is a sign that we are progressing in our neighborhood. We reach the world one soul at a time. Who knows where God will send these three.
They are already bringing their friends in. WE appear to be progressing pretty well.

Maybe Southern Baptist churches shouldn't be where they aren't wanted, especially if the natives are hostile, but the Lord send us all out to preach the gospel even to those who care more about the name on the church sign than the Jesus who is preached about "inside".

 

[rsr]

You speak of Southern as if it were a curse word that must be eradicated for our language.

No, it's just not accurate. The SBC considers itself a national convention (even international), so its name should reflect that. That's all.