'Founders Friendly' Baptist Church Being Forced Out of Neighborhood

Sounds to me like they kinda thwarted themselves. Churches are supposed to serve their community. Looking at their Facebook page (they don't have a website I could find), there is hardly any mention of outreach, community involvement, or ministry. They speak of "ministry" to other churches, but sending their choir to perform concerts isn't "ministry" or "outreach." Where is the food pantry, the beneficence fund for the hurting non-church member, the works of kindness that take Christ's name before the people?

They are a Reformed Baptist Church "holding to the 1689 Confession of Faith," which is all well and good as to doctrine, but many churches that adhere to the Confession forget the segment on Good Works, which clearly states, "These good works, done in obedience to God's commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith; and by them believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries, and glorify God, whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus thereunto, that having their fruit unto holiness they may have the end eternal life." http://www.vor.org/truth/1689/1689bc16.html It appears Cornerstone, also, has forgotten this part of the Confession.

They desire to be a "megachurch", according to their neighbors, though in fairness, none from the church ever states that. However, they did want to quadruple the footprint of their church building, and from all accounts, there is no room on the church campus for such an expansion. Still and again, we have only the community's take on this, the church remaining silent.

I think they would do well to put their scandal behind them (read of the arrest of their former senior pastor) and, if they desire to be "big" for big's sake, move. They will be happier, and so with the community.

 

City codes are making it difficult to expand. A local church wanted to expand, they went to the city and community and asked what they needed to do to make their expansion plausible - went door to door asking for input and finalized plans, went for final okay and all sorts of complaints came from the neighborhood that they had not heard earlier. Four years later they were given an okay for a much smaller add on and many added requirements for parking, landscaping to cover parking from view etc.

This is why many churches move instead of try to expand.

 

The title of the op is incorrect. No one is forcing them.