Why A Baptist?

[righteousdude2]

With the country, no, the world full of religious sects and denominations, why have you settled into the Baptist denomination? Even within the denomination of Baptist are many different teachings or doctrines, and this post is not about any or all the differences of opinions within the Baptist organization. Let's keep the question simple. Why a Baptist???

And at what age did you believe the Baptist teachings to be in line with your view of God's Kingdom and His teachings?

I was associated with the Church of God-Anderson, IN at one time, and as a pastor, I got tired of alter calls filled with people needing to reconfess their sin and be saved all over again! Plus, I loved the fact [some the COG didn't believe in, that believers do fail and fall to temptation; thus, they sin] that we were not just erring or making mistakes. I loved being able to preach on believers still being subject to sin, and the need to confess those sins, as we read in 1 John 1:6-10. At my first COG assignment, the board nearly fired me for preaching and using the word sin in the same sentence as a believer. They teach holiness [like SBC does] but when it came to the subject of sin, it was boo-boos, errors, mistakes, slip-ups, etc. But never call it a sin!

Since the gal who led me to Jesus was an SBC, and I attended her church for a few years, I liked the once saved always saved doctrine! So, I dropped ut of COG-Anderson, and hooked up with a local SBC as their youth pastor, and later another SBC church as Associate Pastor and Worship Leader, and it was there that I was ordained.

:thumbs: I'd love to hear your story, and I am quite positive others would too. Just try not to turn this into a doctrinal debate! Those are on another forum, and this is meant to be a feel good introduction to the Baptist Chruch by the personal testimony of you, the board members! THANKS!!!!!:smilewinkgrin:

 

[Tom Butler]

My first exposure to church was the North Jackson Baptist Church in Jackson, Tennessee. It was a block from my home and there's where my parents sent me at age 7. The Lord saved me at age nine.

I went where my parents went, which was always to a Baptist church. But it wasn't until I was a young adult that I began to test what I believed as a Baptist against other views. I was prepared to abandon my Baptist beliefs if they could not survive a rigorous test.

But they did, and my re-examination of my beliefs only strengthened my conviction that they were Biblical.

I think such a re-examination is healthy.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

With the country, no, the world full of religious sects and denominations, why have you settled into the Baptist denomination? Even within the denomination of Baptist are many different teachings or doctrines, and this post is not about any or all the differences of opinions within the Baptist organization. Let's keep the question simple. Why a Baptist???

And at what age did you believe the Baptist teachings to be in line with your view of God's Kingdom and His teachings?

If you read my brief testimony on the "What were you doing ... ?" thread, you will know I'm unique. I became a Christian just three and a half months shy of my 41st birthday. I'm a "4%-er." Only four percent of Christians believe in Him after 40.

I was raised in a Methodist church that had mostly Baptists as members. It was a small rural farm-community church that had been there for 90 years or so -- now it's 155. You have to understand, back then, seven miles, which is how far it was into town, was a "long ways" to go to church or anywhere else if one didn't have to go. The church was one of the last circuits the UMC had in the country. The pastor was there every other week. In the off weeks, a deacon would preach, and all the deacons had come out of a Baptist background. The preaching was totally different, and I followed my mom's lead -- Dad didn't go much -- and disparaged the preaching of the Baptists. Mom had been raised in the UMC, and the Baptists were mostly of what I know now to have been IFB and Primitive backgrounds.

When I was 11, the circuit was dissolved and the church had a new full-time minister assigned, and Mom didn't care for him. He blared Christian music over loudspeakers every Sunday morning and preached a lot like the Baptists did, which is to say -- please take no offense anyone -- legalistically. Mom was big on grace, and we didn't hear much about grace from the new minister. It was mostly "do this and don't do that." We just quit going.

I knocked around in and out of various churches, including flirting with the Catholic Church, for a good 30 years. My best friend in Vietnam was the son of a black Southern Baptist pastor from Tupelo, and he witnessed to anyone he could get to sit still for two minutes, including me. My problem was, I could only sit still with him in that mode for a minute 45 seconds. What I didn't know was that I was hearing what he was saying, and it stayed with me for years. He died on 4 February 1972 in the A Shah Valley on a badly botched op, and I went into revenge mode -- for 21 years. I suffered PTSD, anger management issues, and problem drinking if not outright alcoholism.

Fast forward. After getting out, suffering through my addictions and a divorce, I found myself going to a Baptist church -- SBC, this time -- and beginning to recall what Brian, my friend, had repeated often all those years ago. It had made sense to me even then, though I wouldn't admit it. Hearing it again, applying what I heard to the condition of my life, I came to Christ. The messages and beliefs I was absorbing made sense from the start, and I've changed my opinions only slightly over the 21 years I've been a Christian through my own careful and exhaustive Bible studies, and those opinions comfortably line up with SBC doctrine.

The balance of love, judgment, grace, mercy, responsible living in Christ all have stabilized my previously chaotic, out-of-control life and inspired me to become the addictions and marriage & family counselor I've become. I still build houses because it's fun, I like it, and it provides for retirement. Christ is always first with me. When I met my then-not-yet-wife and explained that to her, she immediately acknowledged that is also what she believed, and while she had always been independent and a borderline feminist, she admits now that what she was really looking for was a man who would gently take the reigns of leadership in the home while respecting and honoring her and the abilities and gifts God has given her.

That's how we live, and it is through Christ and Christ alone. That it happens to also align with SBC Baptist doctrine is nice, but if it didn't, we wouldn't be in an SBC Baptist church.

 

[Rolfe]

Raised in the Swedish Lutheran church. After coming to the U.S., I attended a Pentecostal church for a time. Never was comfortable there- nice people, but they were nuts. Wandered into a Baptist church with an interesting, intelligent pastor who taught. Stayed and was fed.

Been Baptist since.

 

[kyredneck]

.....was fed.......

Ditto......

 

[Scarlett O.]

• Was raised in a Baptist church.
• Was saved in a Baptist church.
• Was hired by a Baptist church to be pianist.
• Was led by a Baptist church to work with children and adults.

I just stayed and serve there.


I'm sure there are other non-Baptist churches that I would feel comfortable in as long as they preach and teach the truth of the Word.


And, I am sure that there are Baptist churches that I would run from like the wind because they do NOT preach and teach the truth of the Word.


In other words, .... I'm not hung up on believing that Baptists have a monopoly on the truth.


I don't remain in a Baptist church because I serve the Baptist denomination.


I'm there because I serve God and He called me to serve Him there as far as church service goes. I actually serve Him wherever I go.

 

[Thousand Hills]

easy answer, have you checked out MethodistBoard.com ? == boring

 

[ktn4eg]

The question that R D 2 posed in his OP reminds me of an old anecdote that this old Baptist pastor posed to one of his members:

PASTOR: Tell me, brother, if you weren't a Baptist....then what would you be?

MEMBER: Don't rightly know, Pastor. How about you; what would YOU be if you weren't a Baptist??

PASTOR: Well, I tell you brother....If I weren't a Baptist, I'd be ashamed of my self!!! :laugh::laugh:

 

[Yeshua1]

With the country, no, the world full of religious sects and denominations, why have you settled into the Baptist denomination? Even within the denomination of Baptist are many different teachings or doctrines, and this post is not about any or all the differences of opinions within the Baptist organization. Let's keep the question simple. Why a Baptist???

When the Lord saved me, attended AOG church for good while, but drifted away from Charasmatic excesses/chaos, and found that Baptists tend to teach/hold to the Bible doctrines as written by the Apostles!

 

[HAMel]

Why am I baptist? ...ah, let me count the ways.

Well, first, it's easier to tell some one that I'm Baptist vice trying to explain that I'm a member of a United, First Self-Righteous, Free Reign, One Half Full Gospel, Serpent Handling, Church of the Trinity, Glory to Mary Congregation Pastor'd by the Most Reverend, Dr. Shirley Smith..., you know the one. It's just over the county line there in Chick-a-Lupa County where all the Lodge Brothers congregate. :wavey:

Second, the man that lead me to the Lord was a Missionary Baptist.

 

[kyredneck]

easy answer, have you checked out MethodistBoard.com ? == boring

Well you snookered me, I looked, of course it's boring, it doesn't exist!!

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

easy answer, have you checked out MethodistBoard.com ? == boring

Well you snookered me, I looked, of course it's boring, it doesn't exist!!

Until I saw this, I hadn't tried the link. Yeah, things that don't exist are pretty boring, I'd agree!

What amused me was the message I got from my browser:

If your screen isn't resolved fine enough to read it, it says "Firefox has determined that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

The problem can sometimes be caused by a disabling or refusing to accept cookies."

Hey! I accept cookies! Cake, pie and ice cream too!

Yes, I know what it means.

 

[Reformed]

I became a Christian while a nominal Roman Catholic. I began my Christian journey in the Assembly of God denomination. I became disenchanted with charismania and walked away from the Lord for a few years. In His mercy God brought me to repentance and I started attending a conservative Baptist church in Kearny, NJ. I have remained Baptist now for 30 years. Why? A commitment to the proper teaching of the Word of God. Baptists have historically been people of the book. That is why I remain Baptist.