Baptist churches taking Baptist out of their names?

Thank you . Your apology is accepted . Just don't do it again .

 

Hi Troughlolly,

Welcome to the Baptist Board!

I pray that we will be a blessing to you, and you to us.

 

names change but the message should remain the same. the truth is that churches seem to change based on whats popular instead of just sticking to the word. read "trail of blood" it gives the history of the name baptist, you might be amaized at some of the truth reveild in this small book about church history.

 

baptist means that one is re-baptized. the name anabaptist was given to churches that would baptize converts who were already sprincled as babies in the catholic church. the catholic hiarchy gave the churches the name anabaptist and eventually the name was shortend to just baptist. google "trail of blood"

 

Craigbythesea,
You are on big screens in Belguim. I know who you are now. You are Benny Hinn. Right.

 

I pastor a church w/o Baptist in the name. Why? It is not the first foot we want to put forward. Life in the West is far different than the Bible belt mentality. We are far more concerned with introducing people to Jesus Christ than we are introducing them to baptists. Regardless of what some may say, the name Baptist can cause an unnecessary hurdle for some to come to our church, so we choose to leave it out. Are we ashamed of it? No. It is just not the first thing we want people to know about us.

You may or may not know that Coca-Cola makes Minute Maid Orange Juice. Is Coke ashamed they make Minute Maid OJ? Of course not, you can find it on the back of the carton. They simply know that when people are seeking OJ they don't look for a label that says Coke.

 

Where I just moved from (only a few hundred miles north of CBTS) in an area of about 200,000 population everyone of the Baptist churches are dying. They simply have not done evangelism and have even fought some over the years. Next door to one of the SBC churches is a church that was about 20 in attendance years ago. A friend of mine was the pastors son. In the 30 years of pastoring his dad took that church from 20 to about 1000. In the next eight years the next pastor (who had served as an associate pastor at the church) has taken the church to about 2000. While at the same time the SBC church went from about 125 to about 10. The tenure of an average pastor in the SBC is around two years. How can anyone expect a church to grow with changing pastors? Even the non-Christians have more sense than that. A businessman I have known for years mentioned to me one time about how can churches expect to grow, if pastors leave so much. At a church I was pastoring a non-Christian asked me about why so many pastors at the church I was pastoring had left. I learned quickly what that was the case. Infighting.

The last place I lived I helped a friend of mine start a church and the majority of Christian people who showed up were people who were attending Baptist churches.

In some areas of the US Baptists have a history of denouncing anyone who disagrees with them. The reasons may be valid but at the same time they did not use wisdom so people have gotten to the point where they will not listen to them. If they do listen they will not come because they have felt put down before. It is much like the idea you can pick or your brother or sister but you wouldn't tolerate the same thing from someone else.

I have not ever heard Rick Warren criticize other faiths. Criticizing other faiths is often criticing non-believers. It is seldom well received by them. By slamming someone else you do not gain credibility in their eyes. If anything you lose what you had. You show a disregard for them a person and anything they might have that is positive to work from to get them to allow you to talk with them about Christ. If I went to a dealership to buy a car and the salesman staretd teliing me about hopw bad every other car was and how I needed to immediately buy his car I would walk out. Even if I came to buy hs car I would still walk out.

My mother who is RCC as a child heard her faith criticized by Baptists. She only knew what the RCC taught because that is where her parents went ot church. As a child we heard about some of the things she had to say. They were not vey nice. So all these years she has viewed Baptists as the enemy instead of a messenger trying to help.

Can you imagine going to school and having the teacher tell you about everything you are doing wrong rather than teaching you what is right?

 

There are so many different types of Baptists that taking the name out is sometimes needed. Let's face it, some Baptist groups are not good representatives of Christianity.