Featured Is there a Movement Afoot to become Charismatic

CCM is the floodgate through which it is pouring.

 

I'm in one!

...not to worry EWF, you are not going to be infected with leprosy, or come down with a fatal disease should your church suddenly break out in tongues. :smilewinkgrin:

The truth is, there are those churches that are practicing the gifts, but they do not use these gifts in the services. It is a small, after hours group of believers who meet in homes for these enhanced services.

It would be wrong to take this into the general population of the church, as it would present itself as a stumbling block to many, and that is forbidden by Scripture!

Don't worry EWF, those of us who believe in these sort of heretical things will always be cognizant of those who don't and not push to bring it into the church before the general body is ready to receive it! raying:

We call this enhanced meeting a meeting of Prayer Warriors, and we are dedicated to praying for the general population and their many needs!

Shalom!

 

Contemporary Christian Music. Groups like Casting Crowns, Third Day, Skillet, Pots and Pans, Switchfoot, Mercy Me, Sidewalk Prophets, Israel Houghton, Chris Tomlin, Newsboys, etc...

 

I'm not seeing any of this in our area as far as switching but I have seen some flirting with the idea and have witnessed preachers brought in who spoke highly of Copeland, Hinn, Meyer. The pastor of this church was infatuated with Copeland and said he was in a motorcycle gang in the past (which we believe to be a fabrication) and liked Copeland due to his motorcycle ministry. He was since fired as pastor and he now attends cowboy churches.

I have had people tell me in a bragging manner that they are 'bapticostal' and specifically one gentleman told me this and I said we're missing nothing from them and their doctrine is dangerous. He was shocked at the statement.

As far as seeing Baptists removing their name from the sign, and becoming charismatic, I've not seen this nor have I ever heard or witnessed them naming themselves 'Bible' churches.

I do know of several Baptist churches who do not employ the name on their church sign. Most who do not are more solid doctrinally and are typically of the reformed persuasion.

 

Of the churches in our town, yes, those who are Baptist but do not use the term in their name are actually solid bible preaching churches.

 

I'm not familiar with the OPC.

I have always liked D James Kennedy and R C Sproul. Of course I reject infant baptism, but they were/are both solid preachers.

 

There could be any number of reasons. Bad experience while called the old name, geographic identity, disassociate with whack job cults that use the name, etc.

 

There is a negative connotation to the name "Baptist" among a large number of Americans, and it isn't just recently from the Westboro church's reputation (they aren't affiliated with any Baptist denomination anyway). People still believe the Southern Baptist church in town doesn't approve of dancing, drinking, and preaches fire-and-brimstone-hellfire-and-damnation -- in other words, strict legalistic pap (I'd use another term, but, in the words of George H.W. Bush, "it wouldn't be prudent"). Unfortunately, in some cases, those opinions are correct. Small-town churches of every stripe tend to be slow in growth in their doctrine, being influenced by generation upon generation of the same families, which tend to cling to old concepts, right or wrong.

What many people fail to realize -- including many baptists themselves -- is that such attitudes, while still existing in a great deal of small town Baptist churches, Southern or otherwise, it isn't what the Southern Baptist doctrine is today. My wife was somewhat trepidatious in beginning to attend my SBC affiliated church when we first started dating. She had been pretty much shunned and left to deal with life on her own when she filed for divorce from a drunkard husband who, among other things, would pick up their children while they were separated drunk as a skunk and drive them to his parents' home where he was staying. There he would continue to drink, pass out, and leave the kids to play among themselves or be entertained by granddad and grandma, who all along were telling my wife "It's your problem, not ours." This from her father-in-law, the head deacon at the church! That was in a small town SBC church on the northern fringes of Kansas City, Missouri (by the way, for clarification, when someone says "Kansas City" they are almost always talking about KCMO -- KCK is is the armpit (or worse) of Kansas, except for where the speedway is located).

That experience colored her opinion of SBC churches. So naturally she wasn't sure about beginning to attend another one, especially given her Disciples of Christ background. She was amazed at the strength of teaching, the love shown to her as my friend and guest, and was quickly won over. She's going to be joining the church later this month (she's a NICU nurse and works each of the next two Sundays).

Many people have similar experiences with one church and automatically assume all SBC churches are like that. For that matter, many people form that opinion of just about any denomination based on one bad experience with one church. Because the SBC is the largest non-Catholic denomination in the U.S., it is not surprising the SBC has this larger reputation among conservative churches. There are more SBC churches, therefore -- especially given the SBC's penchant for the autonomy of the local church -- there are going to be more instances of local churches being bad examples.

So, having gone on for sometime here (sorry), I will conclude by saying that some Baptist churches change their name to get away from the erroneous misconceptions people have of Baptists and Baptist churches. Also, most people don't know that there are over 200 Baptist denominations in the U.S., aside from the SBC, so that misconception is largely undeserved. The fact is, there are a lot of legalistic Baptists, in all denominations, including the SBC. They aren't living or breathing either the Bible, or their churches doctrine (with exceptions: Some Baptist denominations are just plain legalistic). Tendency toward legalism lends to this reputation so that any church with the name "Baptist" on the door or the sign gets painted with the same broad, erroneous brush.

That's why so many change their name to something that proclaims their faith, without revealing (and I don't think it is dishonest) they are Baptist-affiliated.

 

If I were a true baptist church in Westboro, MA...I'm probably changing the name

A name is nothing in the big scheme of things. Its what's found inside that matters.