Featured Diffference between independent and Southern Baptists -part II

Jeff - when I read your response - something immediately came to mind!
I had been attending and considering joining a IFB church -
Well, according to their constitution - they had over a dozen committees
Which was fine when they were running about 200 members.
Well, there was a big split in the church - actually 3 groups left and started their own church.
Well, the attendence was down to about 25 members - yet they still had the 12+ committees
with 4-6 members on each committee. That meant that each member was on 3 committees

Granted - that is not typical of all IFB churches - but with thousands of IFB's - there are way to
many to make such a broad statement.

BTW - the pastor at the time had two things going - 1) he was involved in the "Operation Rescue" movement
and he was arrested a number of times. The chruch told him they were paying him to preach, not to be in
jail - and 2) in spite of having went to Liberty Baptist College - he became a pentecostal.

 

In the past the GARBC approved schools for the benefit of churches affiliated with the GARBC
Around 1990 or there abouts - Dr. L. Duane Brown (a well known and respected leader in GARBC circles) was concerned about the approval system.
It would be the council of 18 who would make the formal approval of mission boards, schools, and ect. The problem was that several of the board members were the Presidents of said agencies. Anotherwords - it was the case of the wolf guarding the hen house. If I'm not mistaken, Dr Brown wanted the GARB constitution changed so that any salaried person of a GARB approved agy could not be on the council of 18. In addition, since the GARB was an association of churches, than only pasotrs should be on the council of 18. check out this book Dr Brown wrote:

and as Squire has said - all the GARB schools are accredited.
One other thing - Ceadervill University - has also been "approved" by the SBC as well - some GARB are not too happy about that.

 

Forgot to mention - the reason I did not join was becacuse, I moved from the Salt City to Virginia.

 

Thanks, been many, many years since I have seen Dr. Brown. I did have lunch with in 1986 (the day the space shuttle exploded)
Then I think I saw him a couple of years later at his home in NJ.

 

and keep in mind that all IFB are not KJO

 

First, just a minor techincality - I do not capatalise "Church" unless I am speaking of a specific church.

As far as denomination:
There are two general definitions
1) an organization with a hirecharcy
2) a group of churches who have similar beleifs.

So a IFB that is not in an organized association - would stll be in a denomonation
as those baptist churches have similar beliefs

Actually no Baptist church is in a denomination as any church can leave at any time
and that group has no authority over them. Granted, there may be times when there is
a finanical interest - say a church has borrowed money from an association to help build
the building, make repairs, ect. Part of the agreement is that church must stay associated
until said loan is paid off. I do not consider that as ruling over that local church - as a similar
principal would be involved if money were to be loaned by a bank.

Groups such as the Southern Baptist Convention - is not a denomination (first definition) as the
SBC has no control over the local churches. The SBC is not able to force any local to use Lifeway, to
demand that a certian amount of dollars be sent to the co-op program, to insist on certian doctrines -
(yes, we have the 2000 BFM - but all chruches do not accept all articles in it.
But since all SBC churches have similar beliefs - that does make us a baptist denomination.

Nothing to get all worked up over about.

 

I fully agree with Dr. Brown on that issue. - The book I mentioned "What Happened to the GARBC at Niagara Falls?" was speaking
of the National Conference in 1990. At the point in time I had been out the GARB for many years. So I was not up to date on those
issues. During my travels,a few years later, I had stopped at Dr Browns home and at that time he gave me that book.