Does anyone know?

[Jim_Alaska]

Does anyone know of a good IFB church in Pensacola, Florida? I am asking for someone else, not myself.

[swathdiver]

Well for starters, there is Campus Church http://www.campuschurch.com/

Evangelist Dave Young lives just east of Pensacola and attends a sound church in the area but the name escapes me at the moment.  https://www.facebook.com/drdaveyoung/info/?tab=overview

 

Other than Campus Church, I have not been to Dave's local church but he has preached at mine and has been a great and vibrant blessing!

[Jim_Alaska]

Thank you Swath.

[OLD fashioned preacher]

As found on their site:

Campus Church

A local church planted in a College community

The center of spiritual vibrancy is the warm local church atmosphere of Campus Church, which operates in the spirit of an independent Baptist church (red texted added by OFP for highlight)

 

Normally I would not squabble over the wording here as to whether there was a serious problem here or "they didn't word it right (or well)". However, please be aware of the fact that as recently as 2008 (and as far back as 1978 - I don't know about prior to that time as I didn't come out of the SBC until 1977) their own paperwork promoting the Campus Church and their PCC Handbooks listed the Campus Church as "a ministry of Pensacola Christian College" (quotation marks here for a reason).

To some, this doesn't matter. The wording highlighted above leads me to believe this is still true but may not be the case anymore. Just wanted to mention it in case it might matter to you or them.

If you had asked this prior to 2006, I would have recommended either Smyrna or Joy Bible Baptist (East Milton) but Bro. Julian (Smyrna) has gone on to glory and I don't know anything about the church under Bro. Adams and JBBC after Bro. Junior left --- well, we shall just let my lack of comment stand as my comment!

[Jim_Alaska]

Thanks for your thoughts OFP.

[swathdiver]

OFP, you are indeed correct.  PCC came first, then the church which was not right.  It is my understand that this has since been corrected and that the church is autonomous now as it should be.  I shall ask my daughter who is a student there.

[Alan]

5 hours ago, swathdiver said:

 I shall ask my daughter who is a student there.

One of our daughters also goes to PCC.

Edited May 17, 2016 by Alan
revise sentence

[Jim_Alaska]

I did notice this on their website:  "We believe in the spiritual unity of the body of Christ, called the Church. It is composed of all born-again believers who have by faith accepted Jesus Christ as Savior."

The underline is mine.

Sounds like Universal Church to me. They do have a qualifier in their statement to the effect that they also believe in local church, but it sounds like this takes second place. 

[swathdiver]

Not to sound Clintonesque but what does "it" refer to?  The Body of Christ or the Church?  What does proper English Grammar say?  From that statement, I'm in agreement with you.

[HappyChristian]

Grammatically, "it" would refer back to "Church", which would be an appositive (or restating) of "body of Christ". So virtually what they are saying is that the body of Christ is the Church which is composed of all born-again believers...So, universal church.

(I had to chuckle...I've been teaching appositives and pronouns in school the last couple of weeks )

[Jim_Alaska]

8 hours ago, HappyChristian said:

Grammatically, "it" would refer back to "Church", which would be an appositive (or restating) of "body of Christ". So virtually what they are saying is that the body of Christ is the Church which is composed of all born-again believers...So, universal church.

(I had to chuckle...I've been teaching appositives and pronouns in school the last couple of weeks )

I wanted to say that HC, but just didn't know how to word it. Thanks for the grammatical name of the statement.  

[swathdiver]

8 hours ago, HappyChristian said:

So virtually what they are saying is that the body of Christ is the Church which is composed of all born-again believers...So, universal church.

I believe this to be incorrect.  The universal church adherents believe that the body of christ is made up of christians, not the church.

 

The bible teaches that the body of christ is made up of the local, visible, New Testament Churches of the kind that Christ built and died for during his earthly ministry.  Your local church might be a hand, my local church might be a foot, etc.  

The universal church people incorrectly believe that such and such saved person is a leg and this other saved person is an arm, etc.

So, if "it" refers to the church that would be a correct statement.  If "it" refers to the body of christ, that is an incorrect statement.

The contrarian can say that both are correct because the body of christ is made up of the local, visible, NT churches which themselves are made up of born-again and baptized believers!  Phew!

[Junebugwv]

http://smyrnabaptist.org

 

[Alan]

20 hours ago, Junebugwv said:

http://smyrnabaptist.org

 

I looked at the website and it seems to be a fine church. I did notice that Pastor Adams has a Master of Ministry degree from the Great Plains Baptist Divinity School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Great Plains is a fine IFB church run college.

[Jim_Alaska]

I have sent the link along to the person that asked me for a recommendation. Thanks Junebugwv.