Which Church would you join Church A or Church B

Amen!!!:thumbs:

 

Some things you did not indicate which could be important in your decision:

1. The sizes of churches A & B. I suspect church A is larger than church B since church B does not enforce discipline. For larger churches (say over 700), church discipline is usually impractical to enforce.

2. Do you fit better in a small church or a larger church? Some people think it is important to personally know everyone in the church rather than just your group within the church.

3. Is the pastor a Calvinists? You may end up having disagreements with the pastor over this issue depending on your views.

 

I'm including my comments on each item below. Hopefully it will

1. Independent Baptist: Textus Receptus/KJV Only

I am KJVP and am perfectly happy in a KJVO church.

2. Church congregation is cordial, reserved, standoffish. You struggle to make connections in this church body.

I'm cordial, reserved, and standoffish myself. Given time relationships will be formed.

3. The music is very traditional only singing out of a hymnal.

I dislike contemporary services. I enjoy singing straight out the hymnal.

4. The pastor has legalistic tendencies (i.e. thinks women should wear skirts, equates drinking alcohol with adultery, considers Liberty University and Bob Jones University liberal colleges).

Unless the pastor thinks these things are part of salvation, then it isn't legalistic. Based on #5 I don't think he is legalistic.

5. Here's the kicker....The pastor is the best preacher/teacher you've ever heard. The pastor is also a very deep studier and thinker of the Bible you always learn something new about the scriptures under his teaching/preaching ministry.

Sounds like my pastor .

6. You've also developed a love for the pastor's family and the assistant pastor and his wife.

Sounds good!

 

Bingo. Was reading through the posts and hoped this kind of reply would come. I would suggest that you and your wife commit yourselves to individual prayer, prayer together, and fasting. The Lord WILL direct your steps.

 

So you think that salvation by works isn't worse than a lack of church discipline???

 

While both sound appealing, I'd choose church A. Why? It pretty much describes the church I'm currently in, except our pastor practices church discipline.

 

Exactly so. Either of these would be a no-no for me, but I could more easily put up with the legalism as it is described here.
Also, remember that according to the OP, Minister B isn't forever harping on about secondary issues, he's preaching fabulous expository sermons. I can forgive a lot if folk will just preach the word. Ideally though, I'd be off to Church 3.

Steve

 

Wow. Salvation by works is a denial of the gospel itself.

 

The OP is almost exactly my situation. I've basically chosen church A, been attending there for 3 years and only just this week had my interview for membership. I will admit that there are times when I second guess myself regarding church B but the legalism and KJVO from the pulpit is just not my cup of tea. Trust and obey, for there is no other way...

 

Go to Church A and hope that the pastor at Churh B posts his sermons on the web?

 

Church A is exactly like my church, even the size is the same, except we don't grant membership privileged to people before they are baptized. Therefore, I go with Church A. I think you will find them to be warm and caring people who love the Lord.

 

I visited B a few years back with the hope that it would work out. The pastor told the congregation that day that the King James was the only authorized Bible, and there was only one hymnal that was appropriate for Church music and Christian worship. He held up a copy that, of course, we all had in front of us. No, he was not kidding. I told my wife at that moment that I would not be returning.


We now attend a Church very similar to A. There are two services with the 11:00 service having a nice blended style of recent songs and some hymns but very few "7-11" choruses. The Sunday School Bible Classes are very solid. There is a strong sense of community, fellowship and caring for one another. The Pastor's style has been too topical for my taste but he does draw from scripture in his sermons; though indications are that may be about to change for the better.


I am glad to be a part of Church A. If you scrubbed Church B a little, keeping the solid Biblical teaching while getting rid of the silliness and excessive legalism, I could be happy in it too. We attended an independent Baptist Church some years ago that had solid expository Biblical preaching, a friendly and active membership, and pretty good Sunday School Bible Study classes, but there was some Preacher worship and church polity was a mess. The lack of accountability for the Pastor led to his undoing as took a few un-authorized personal loans for the collection plates. I honestly believe he saw it as harmless with every intent of making things right when he could, but it was still over the line. He was dismissed/resigned and the Church lost some good people. We had already moved on before this happened for totally unrelated reasons, but we had maintained fond ties with that Church leading up to the mess.

Moral of the story is none of them are perfect I guess, but God is able to do his work in spite of our imperfections. So I would chose A.

 

I would have to keep looking, there has to be other options if at least one church is running 800.

 

If you want a feel good, seeker sensitive church, choose A.

If you want a church that will preach against sin, choose B.

To tell you the truth, I've never been in an IFB church that fit the description you paint of Church B. Every one I have visited, the members made me feel welcome. Never heard an IFB pastor teach women were to wear skirts only. I have no problem with singing out of hymnals only. I would agree that LU and BJU are leaning to the liberal left more than they did 15-20 years ago. Never heard an IFB preacher equate drinking alcohol with adultery, but have heard them call it sin, and I tend to agree with them on that too.

 

Church A , no doubt. Church B is too legalistic for my liking.

 

Where do you feel led of the Lord to attend?

 

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=+0][SIZE=+0][SIZE=+0][SIZE=+0][SIZE=+0][SIZE=+0]I seriously doubt that many actually attend a church because they are "led of the Lord." No doubt some may claim they were led and even think they are led, but are basing a call on personal feelings so in truth it is highly unlikely and nothing but personal choice. If they were "led" they would go with a predetermined mind to join the first Sunday before they even heard the sermon or met a soul and even if the teaching was as corrupt or false as any can be, knowing this is where the Lord wanted them. No, few are actually led. By led I mean like the early apostles who were led to go here or go there even if it meant losing their lives. They went because they were led to go, not because it seemed good to them or fit their liking. They did not need to check things out ahead of going. They just went knowing this was of the Lord and the same with any call from the Lord.

In fact very few pastors are actually led to a church. I have talked to pastors and asked them if they felt led to a certain church and they say they felt no leading one way or the other, they just accepted the church as a place to carry out what they felt led to do and that was pastoring. It is true that some will say that they were "led" out of piety, but if honest they needed a change or a job and felt a particular church would suffice. They actually had no real leading from the Lord if you base leading on the examples given in scripture as how He has done it in the past. The same with calling a pastor. There is no need to listen to him if the church is being led to call him. Just do it.
The same with most believers. We are called to attend, but few are called to a particular church even though some make great claims to the contrary. While it may make us feel and even sound spiritual to claim we were led to a certain church, the truth is most just decide a certain church fits their liking or attend because they are commanded to attend church, not because they have a direct call from the Lord to that particular church.

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