Messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting worship together in between small group and corporate prayer time during the June 16 evening session dedicated to prayer at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
SBC has chosen to wander in the wilderness.
Baptists have more different flavors than Baskin-Robbins...................
That depends on the non-denominational church in questions. There are some that are very orthodox and bible believing and there are some very heterodox. With regard to the SBC, it's interesting. A year ago our Baptist church made a proposal to the congregation to affiliate with the SBC and scheduled it for a vote. I started researching them. Their statement of faith and theology is rock solid. But I stumbled onto the writings of its influential officer Russel Moore. The more I read from him the more disenchanted I got. I came out against the proposal and communicated to fellow parishioners the reasons why. I also urged them to investigate themselves. The proposal was defeated by a wide margin.
..as long as the big tent philosophy prevails where a Russell Moore can continue to be a major voice, the convention will suffer—still many great SBC churches...
SBC and non-denominational congregations differ most widely on the issue of cessationism vs Pentecostalism. I have heard some endearingly refer to their group as “Bapticostal”.
I think nondenominational churches pretty much have Baptist theology. Especially that baptism and communion are just symbols and you make a profession of faith and only then get baptized, etc. Generally no bishops, etc. Grape juice probably used for communion.
I’ve attended non-denominational churches for many years. The ones I have been at spurn the concept of church membership. (we are members of the body of Christ instead.
That said, I had the pleasure of being asked to promote an organization that I belong to at the Southern Baptist annual meeting a few years ago.
An older lady was asking about our group and said she was a member of the WBA or some acronym group. I looked at her with a blank stare that indicated I had no idea what the group was. She said “You’re not Baptist are you?”
When I said No, she did a quick 180 and walked away.
I thought it was pretty funny. One think I’ve noticed is that some Baptists seem to be Baptist first and Christian second.
Having little involvement with denominational churches, the concept is very foreign to me.
That said, if I were to move on, a Baptist church would be on my list of churches to check out.
So Southern Baptists don’t drink? ha ha “Non-denomination” churches represents a pretty wide spectrum of beliefs. You can’t lump them all together.
This article is so full of generalizations and stereotypes as to be meaningless.
I have been a member of a nondenominational church for almost 3 years now. One of the main guiding principles behind why my church is nondenominational is that denominational churches tend to build barriers between each other. Can’t help but take a little offense to the “common” joke about drinking booze. I’ve sure never heard that but whatever. It’s about THE WORD anyway......just my 2 cent.
Nondenominational just means the local pastor gets to come up with his own doctrinal error rather than having it imposed by someone else.
SBC can run the spectrum, but most SBC churches are bible believing and conservative.
Maybe in the cities it's different. I'd say that's where the divide might be.
Really, most rules of thumb with respect to denominations are hard to justify anymore. There are conservative Methodist, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian congregations. And there are far left "rainbow" congregations from the same denominations.
One rule of thumb that does work is that a lady preacher generally means a liberal congregation, and liberal preaching.
Baptists used not to do that beaming back at you thing with the raised up hands. That’s the charismatic type of people, more like Pentecostals
Non denominational = people who can’t make a decision.
CC
“Nondenominational parishioners are slightly more supportive of same-sex marriage and slightly less supportive of abortion rights, but these differences are small,”
The implication of that sentence is that Southern Baptists support abortion, which, of course, is not true.
And I tend to believe that no Baptist supports same-sex marriage.
Although there is no telling whatsoever what the idiot Russell Moore believes.
Bump
To Read Later
Baptists are not Protestants. They are the progeny of the European Anabaptists who were brutally persecuted by the Protestants and Catholics
As is typical - overly-broad generalizations and failure to even do a modicum of research has resulted in yet another pile of steaming dung.
No - I am not SBC, though I have many friends who are, and I have several connections and work WITH SBC ministries in a couple of active areas. But I am also a student of church history and theology - with a Master’s Degree in such.
“Nondenominational” is like naming a shape a “polygon”, while saying SBC is a rectangle. Not specific as a square - but a rectangle.
Nondenominational can and generally does encompass everything from Charismatic Universalism and even light liturgical Catholic-like evangelicalism, to very much “Baptist” congregations that just shun the label, but their doctrinal beliefs are 100% conservative Baptist. It is such a huge umbrella (that has no connection whatsoever) as to be essentially meaningless. Some non-denom congregations are simply Assembly of God or Pentecostals that choose to not be aligned with either denomination (similarly - there are quite a few “non-denom” churches that have the same non-relationship to Baptists, despite sharing their beliefs).
“Southern Baptist” still means that a church officially professes to believe and support the Baptist Faith & Message of 2001. Yes, many congregations have shifted in a rather liberal direction. And yes, there are more than a few non-denom churches that are more “Baptist” than some of those liberal SBC congregations. Still... not a well written or researched article.
The difference is that, having voted their county dry, the nondenominationals move to another county. The SBC stays.
Back in Missouri we used to answer the question
“ Are you a member of an organized religion?”
with a NO! I’m a BAPTIST !