Another Baptist Church Lost

[John81]

I found out today that in a small city I once lived in the once vibrant and solid Baptist church there has made major changes. It seems they now have a female Associate Pastor and have yoked themselves to the American Baptists.

Is this sort of thing also a prOBlem in your area?

[4everHis]

Yes. What is worse, imho, is that folks have been lulled to the point that they stay there and look upon what they once were as unenlightened.

[John81]

Yes. What is worse, imho, is that folks have been lulled to the point that they stay there and look upon what they once were as unenlightened.

This was in my thoughts as well. In the church I mentioned above, there are still some folks there who somehow don't seem to have noticed what has happened. They speak of how active their church is, how their church has grown over the past few years and they are building a new church, how they have wonderful things for the children/youth (including taking them bowling and having weiner roasts), they have senior clubs, womens clubs, etc., and most of these take trips together, and the "blended services" are so wonderful...

It's amazing that folks who once would have stood on Scripture regarding female pastors now say that they see things different now because their female pastor is so good.

[JerryNumbers]

Sad, in many churches out there they be many members who will not take a stand for God's truths. They seem to think if you take a stand against false doctrine your not showing God's love. Yet in the bible we have many examples of Jesus and his 12 apostles standing for the truth and not just accepting and tolerating anything and everything.

Another thing that's even worse, many church members do not know the difference in true doctrine or false doctrine.

[John81]

This seems to be happening a lot. For awhile there were some Baptist churches falling away but many of them changed their name because they no longer wanted to be associated with what Baptists once were.

Today it seems many Baptist churches are falling away but keeping the name Baptist. This is worse than before.

Even the Baptist church I was baptized fell away. Several in this area have fallen away. Even two calling themselves IFB have fallen away and yet they still call themselves IFB!

It also seems many of these Baptist churches which have fallen away now spend time attacking those Baptists who have not.

I can forsee the day when only watered down, wordly-minded "Christianity" is accepted in America and the pastors and congregations of those churches will be among those leading the way to have true Christians silenced.

[Invicta]

I agree with you John.

My daughter's pastor in London says he always drives a particular way home after the services even though it is somewhat out of his way, as there was achurch there which was once thriving, but is now closed down. He said it warns him of what would happen to his church it they were to no longer be faithful to the Word of God.

At our seniors lunch on Tuesday last week. a member of a baptist church near us, who I have spoken to about women preachers, gave mae an article from the Baptist Times, in which the writer complains about those churches who refuse to accept women ministers who were ordained by BU churches were "unbaptist." and that if we went along with that view, we would still be accepting slavery.

A couple of weeks ago he was speaking about women preachers and asked what we would do if we had them? The two of us who were speaking to him. said "We would leave." He said that was a man's view and wanted to ask a woman, so he asked my wife, she said "We would leave." He then asked another lady and she said "It wouldn't happen." He persisted and asked what if we had women preachers, she said "We would leave." Today, he said they had a women preacher on Sunday.

Edited July 20, 2010 by Invicta

[PreacherBen]

Hi Board Brothers and Sisters,
It's been a while since I've been on, hope all is well with you. Since we last shared, I have begun pastoring a little Baptist church out in the country near my home. One sad OBservation I make is that many churches are in such a pathetic state, they wouldn't see the prOBlem of the woman pastor taking over. How very sad. This little church has been existing on (spiritual) milk and baby food for a long time. I have been preaching solid Baptist doctrine, and they have actually had an upswing in former member who left due to boredom. There's actually some good folks who used to come.

John you said:

I can forsee the day when only watered down, wordly-minded "Christianity" is accepted in America and the pastors and congregations of those churches will be among those leading the way to have true Christians silenced.

This is an unsettling truth, brother. I had a Baptist brother tell me the other day, they politely asked him to not share with the congregation anymore. He is solid, old-fashioned, and sound doctrinally. They don't like him rocking the boat. He might awaken someone in the process!

Are the last days just around the corner?


Ben

[John81]

Hi Board Brothers and Sisters,
It's been a while since I've been on, hope all is well with you. Since we last shared, I have begun pastoring a little Baptist church out in the country near my home. One sad OBservation I make is that many churches are in such a pathetic state, they wouldn't see the prOBlem of the woman pastor taking over. How very sad. This little church has been existing on (spiritual) milk and baby food for a long time. I have been preaching solid Baptist doctrine, and they have actually had an upswing in former member who left due to boredom. There's actually some good folks who used to come.

John you said:


This is an unsettling truth, brother. I had a Baptist brother tell me the other day, they politely asked him to not share with the congregation anymore. He is solid, old-fashioned, and sound doctrinally. They don't like him rocking the boat. He might awaken someone in the process!

Are the last days just around the corner?


Ben

Praise God that Baptist church is heading the right direction! I pray the Lord will continue to bless your work there.

Our own pastor is no longer invited to speak during several local events as he once was. They asked him to change his message, no more Jesus, leave the Gospel out of the message and don't mention the Bible unless it's in a very generic way. Our pastor refused so he's no longer welcome to speak at these events.

On a positive note, a member of our church is also on the board that puts on a big car show each year. Our pastor is still invited to give the opening invocation and prayer for that event with no restrictions.

[JerryNumbers]

Back in the late 90's there was a movement that took place, many Baptist Churches took the name Baptist off of everything. Some of them stayed Baptist, yet some of them completely compromised God's Word.

It would be my hope that any Baptist Church that compromises God's Word would remove the Baptist name completely from their churches.

Ben, the church I have pastored for nearly 10 years was much like the one you speak of. There was one woman in this church that was very solid on the Bible and what Go's truths were. Since being there through the years I've tried to expound on pure Bible doctrine, that which has been taught down through the ages since Jesus founded Him Church as Jerusalem.

Many of the Baptist Churches in our area have compromised for the sake of numbers and perhaps they think in doing so they're showing godly love, but the way I see it they're only encouraging people to follow false teaching. Plus, if you truly loved someone woudl you not warn them they're on the wrong track instead of encourging them to stay on that track?

[John81]

Back in the late 90's there was a movement that took place, many Baptist Churches took the name Baptist off of everything. Some of them stayed Baptist, yet some of them completely compromised God's Word.

It would be my hope that any Baptist Church that compromises God's Word would remove the Baptist name completely from their churches.

Ben, the church I have pastored for nearly 10 years was much like the one you speak of. There was one woman in this church that was very solid on the Bible and what Go's truths were. Since being there through the years I've tried to expound on pure Bible doctrine, that which has been taught down through the ages since Jesus founded Him Church as Jerusalem.

Many of the Baptist Churches in our area have compromised for the sake of numbers and perhaps they think in doing so they're showing godly love, but the way I see it they're only encouraging people to follow false teaching. Plus, if you truly loved someone woudl you not warn them they're on the wrong track instead of encourging them to stay on that track?

Yes, many Baptist churches were watering down and changing their names to something "more friendly" there for awhile. Like you I believe if a Baptist church is going to water down it's best they change names. However, that trend seems to have mostly stopped and now Baptist churches which are watering down keep their Baptist name; which is damaging the name and making it like the names of various other denominations. Very sad to see happening.

[Invicta]

Yes, many Baptist churches were watering down and changing their names to something "more friendly" there for awhile. Like you I believe if a Baptist church is going to water down it's best they change names. However, that trend seems to have mostly stopped and now Baptist churches which are watering down keep their Baptist name; which is damaging the name and making it like the names of various other denominations. Very sad to see happening.

There is a "church" near here that has changed its name to "The .net Church." admittedly it was not baptist but AOG.