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baptist density

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by nodak, Mar 12, 2011.

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  1. nodak

    nodak Active Member
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    No, not what is between our ears.

    Where I live Baptists are scarcer than hen's teeth, and if you find yourself a "misfit" with the local Baptist church style, polity, or teachings you would face quite a drive to the next nearest one.

    How many of you are blessed to live where, as my mom used to say, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting ten Baptists and two Baptist preachers?
     
    #1 nodak, Mar 12, 2011
  2. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    We have an ABC church about 5 minutes away - but they are very liberal. We drive about 20 minutes to the next closest Baptist church - SBC
     
    #2 Salty, Mar 12, 2011
  3. Tom Butler

    Tom Butler New Member

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    I live 15 minutes from my church. On the way there, I will pass a Baptist Church three blocks from my house, another one 11 minutes from my house, another one about five minutes from my present church, and another about three minutes away. I can also reach two more Baptist churches within fifteen minutes of my home. That's six.

    My wife's father pastored out west as she grew up. Most of the time, the church her dad pastored was the only Baptist church in the town.
     
    #3 Tom Butler, Mar 12, 2011
  4. Tom Butler

    Tom Butler New Member

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    I've done a quick re-calculation. Within 15 minutes of my house are thirteen Baptist churches. Some are SBC, some are Independent Baptist.
     
    #4 Tom Butler, Mar 12, 2011
  5. Dr. Bob

    Dr. Bob Administrator
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    In the 1950's the only Baptist churches in Wyoming (by and large) were offshoots of the Northern Baptist Convention. The fledgling Conservative Baptist and General Association of Regular Baptists would enter a town and if they could not wrest control from the liberal NBC, they would form a new church.

    Our city is 55,000 and had one Baptist church (3 large catholic, 6 mormon - the two major religions). CBA came in and within a year formed 3 ifb churches. Still exist today.

    The SBC shifted its North American Mission outright to Wyoming about the same time (late 50's). Started their first SBC "mission" in Casper. Today, Wyoming has 93 SBC churches; Casper has 11 and a new one that is "purpose driven" starting soon.

    So our city has
    3 IFB churches (normal)
    2 kjvonly legalist Baptist but some good folks trapped in the sect
    2 American Baptist churches
    11 Southern Baptist churches (12 if you count the new one)
    1 Reformed Baptist church (MINE)

    That is 20. Total membership would be about 4,000 of the 55,000 residents of Casper. And that is "liberally" counting, not actual attendance
     
    #5 Dr. Bob, Mar 12, 2011
  6. Robert Snow

    Robert Snow New Member

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    I would imagine that within a five mile radius of my house there are at least 50 Baptist churches.
     
    #6 Robert Snow, Mar 12, 2011
  7. Gina B

    Gina B Active Member

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    That's us.
    Finding a solid one is where the pickings get scarce! We had a *cough cough* wonderful time finding one when we moved here.
    We all seemed to just know when we walked into the right one. There are some CRAZY Baptists out there!
     
    #7 Gina B, Mar 12, 2011
  8. Joshua2415

    Joshua2415 New Member

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    I'm in your situation. There are two SBC churches, a couple of independent Baptist (more conservative than SBC), and an ABC church in Madison. All of them are 100 or less members. There are a couple of others in Madison's suburbs. After that, most of them are 30 minutes to an hour away in smaller towns. I don't know about Milwaukee.
     
    #8 Joshua2415, Mar 12, 2011
  9. Tater77

    Tater77 New Member

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    Its 3.5 miles from my road to the interstate. There are two Baptist Churches on this road. Go to the next town and there is a street literally with 5 Churches on this street, that is a half mile stretch.

    Here in Roane County Tennessee there are actually more Churches than businesses.
     
    #9 Tater77, Mar 13, 2011
  10. Joseph M. Smith

    Joseph M. Smith New Member

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    In the part of the Washington, DC, suburbs where I live, we are the inheritors of a church planting strategy carried out in the 1950's by the DC Baptist Convention, targeting then-emerging neighborhoods, PLUS we have churches that moved out here from the city once racial change brought many more African-American folks to the city (so that white folks fled to the suburbs and their churches followed them). So near my home, within three miles, are five DCBC churches (DCBC is aligned with ABC. SBC, and PNBC) plus at least two independents that I know of.

    In the city churches tend to be even closer. I could take you to one intersection where a good strong spitter could dampen five Baptist churches!

    But we are not entirely unique at this point. I know a spot in Hickory, NC, where there are three Lutheran churches in the same intersection. Different synods, different histories.
     
    #10 Joseph M. Smith, Mar 13, 2011
  11. nodak

    nodak Active Member
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    Dr. Bob--I'm thrilled to hear Wyoming Baptist numbers are up!

    When we lived in Worland, and later in Evanston, there were SBC churches. However, other Baptists were scarce and it was a LONG drive to other SBC churches.
     
    #11 nodak, Mar 13, 2011
  12. Zenas

    Zenas Active Member

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    I did a quick mental count and came up with 14 Baptist churches within a five-mile radius of where I live. There are also 3 Churches of Christ in that circle with a five-mile radius. All other denominations--just one or none at all.
     
    #12 Zenas, Mar 13, 2011
  13. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    My town has none. The one they had years ago is the one that moved to the next town and is the one we attend and work for. There's one in the town to the east but it's VERY tiny (20 people), there's another 2 towns to the west of us that's also pretty small (40 people). Umm - other than that, I can't think of any more in our township at all. So that's three within a 20 minute drive of our home.
     
    #13 annsni, Mar 13, 2011
  14. RevGKG

    RevGKG Member

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    We are the only Baptist Church in our little town but in a 15 mile radius there are 5 others.
     
    #14 RevGKG, Mar 13, 2011
  15. JohnDeereFan

    JohnDeereFan Well-Known Member
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    Funny you should mention that. I just got back from West Palm Beach where there are Baptist churches EVERYWHERE. In fact, there's a stretch on Jog Road in WPB that has five Baptist churches in a row.

    Oddly, for all of the Yankee transplants, there was only one Catholic church in our area.

    But then, I grew up in the South where you were either a Baptist or a Methodist and that was about it. I remember one Church of God and that we had a neighbor who was Catholic and had to drive all the way to the other side of Birmingham (or "over the Mountain", as we used to say) to find a Catholic Church.

    It did my heart a lot of good to ride back through the Carolinas yesterday hearing all of the great local Baptist preaching on the radio.
     
    #15 JohnDeereFan, Mar 14, 2011
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