Posted on 08/14/2015 7:56:37 AM PDT by xzins
4:00PM EDT
A former Southern Baptist Church has decided all are welcomed in their pulpit, going so far as to ordain gay and transgender ministers.
First Baptist of Greenville, South Carolina—the church home of the first Southern Baptist Convention president—has taken a bold move in "embracing the complexities of gender identity."
"What I heard was, 'We need to do the right thing, regardless of what anybody thinks or says about us,'" Senior Pastor Jim Dant tells Greenville Online. "There were a few people who said, 'Are they going to start calling us the gay church in town?'"
After a six-month exploratory time, Greenville asked their members to affirm the acceptance of same-sex couples. According to Greenville Online, those who didn't affirm the church's decision still remained in the congregation.
In moving forward, the church ministers can perform same-sex unions and ordain any person, regardless of sexual orientation and lifestyle, to serve in a leadership role.
Greenville split from the SBC in the early 1990s, and is now a member of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Before leaving the original denomination, however, Greenville was home to William Bullein Johnson. Johnson not only served as a minister at Greenville, but was inaugural president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
On their Facebook page, Greenville received several positive comments about their move.
"Thank you FBC Greenville. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8," one commenter wrote.
Another: "One day very soon, the Southern Baptist Convention will find themselves marooned on a bigoted island of their own making, while the civilized world of sound, modern biblical exegesis goes on around them."
The SBC, however, has no plans of the sort. President Ronnie Floyd told the Christian Examiner that the SBC stands by their biblical definition of marriage, and are in prayer for Greenville.
"We pray that this church will one day return to be biblically driven in their belief about marriage and family, rather than culturally driven as they have testified in the reported story."
First Baptist of Greenville, South Carolina sounds like they want to be about as much of a Baptist Church as Westboro Baptist Church, just different extremes.
He will confidently answer you with something from “sound, modern biblical exegesis”.
>>’Are they going to start calling us the gay church in town?
No. There are no gay churches. But there are gay social clubs for therapeutic moral deists, which this organization has become.
Okay the headline says Baptist Church and the text says former Baptist. See how they lie?
http://firstbaptistgreenville.com is the web site of this anti-Bible “church”.
You've nailed it, manc. That's how the homosexual movement has advanced in EVERY corner of society to include the church. You'd have thought we would have been more vigilant.
“modern biblical exegesis”....that’s their problem right there.
“former Southern Baptist Church”
Key words.
I am really surprised Cooperative Baptist Fellowship congregations didn’t start this several years ago.
Occasionally I still hear Southern Baptists lamenting the fighting that split the Convention. It started with the Battle for the Bible in the 70’s and finally ended with the purging of liberal apostates from SBC institutions and the formation of breakaway Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in the early 90’s. I don’t think those Southern Baptists understand just how liberal those who left the SBC really are. Jimmy Carter occasionally writes and speaks about the split in terms of left/right gender politics, but the truth is it was all about the Bible. Either the Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God or it’s not. Southern Baptists believe that it is, the CBF folks do not and they were busy spreading the Serpent’s poison throughout the SBC, so the split was Biblical and right.
I understand why some Southern Baptists hated the fighting. It got really uncomfortable because it divided friends and even some families. It sure divided my family and it ultimately ended some lifelong friendships, too. But my Southern Baptist friends must remember that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” “What communion hath light with darkness?”
The late Adrian Rodgers is the pastor I measure all others by.
He will confidently answer you with something from “sound, modern biblical exegesis”.
As for me and my house, give us the old paths.
“Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.”
-—Jeremiah 6:16
That could cover just about any perversion.
Dr. Rogers was my pastor and I miss him dearly. Aside from my parents, no one impacted my life as much as Adrian Rogers. By God’s grace I was able to hear him preach for more than thirty years. It’s ironic you mentioned him, because I having lunch today with a pastor who was a dear friend of Dr. Rogers. Whenever we meet for Bible study, which is most Fridays, it’s rare that something about Adrian Rogers doesn’t come up in the conversation. What an impact for the kingdom that man had!
They’re still “Baptist”, but they have a different Baptist organization they’re now a part of...no longer the SBC.
J.D. also has a weekly special session dealing with “Prophecy Update” which is excellent. You can find J. D. on you tube.....just type in his name. I know that you will enjoy it, please let me know what you think. God’s Blessings to you and your family.
When I was a kid we went to a decent mixture of Baptist church as our family moved. SBC, Independent Missionary, an independent baptist with a Dutch reformed flavor, and my mom’s home church in North Carolina, a Baptist that was on-again-off-again independent or SBC.
Had you asked me at the time and for a decade later, I’d have sworn there was no such thing as a liberal Baptist church. But then I ran across the Northern Baptists. And then the great falling away started, and now there a host of liberal Baptist churches here and there.
Indeed. Not sure why my post was deleted either.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.