How I Became an Unaffiliated Historic Baptist

Salvation. In 1984, when I was twenty years old, God saved me by his grace. I walked according to the course of this world, under the influence of the prince and power of the air, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. My salvation came as the result of my godly grandfather’s influence. He, in the midst of our family, stood alone for Christ until I came to the place of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I soon joined the military, looking to conquer this new battle that was now raging within my soul between the Holy Spirit and my flesh. Although I was truly born again, I wrestled with God, as did Jacob of old, for an additional four years. In 1988, Christ brought me closer to Him by His strong hand to the place of complete surrender. I praise God for His chastening love as He placed a burning desire for truth in my heart that has never ceased.

Southwide Baptist Fellowship. Although I never attended this fellowship based in the Southeast, the churches that I affiliated with were predominately influenced by this group. Other predominant influences would include an affiliation with the Sword of the Lord, various Bible colleges, such as: Trinity Baptist College, Hyles-Anderson College, Tennessee Temple University, and scores of churches that had an affinity for these institutions. Through these para-church ministries and churches, I came to believe the fundamentals of the Baptist faith, the infallibility of the King James Bible as the pure Word of God and personal soul-winning. I considered myself a staunch independent Baptist with a capital “B”. The great commission burned within my heart, and there was no greater passage than Matt 9:37-38 that speaks of the plenteous harvest. God soon called me to preach. After fulfilling my commitment to the US Army, I enrolled in Trinity Baptist College of Jacksonville, FL, under the ministry of Dr. Bob Gray. I praised God every day I was in school as great Biblical truths were burned into my soul.

Local church infatuation. My father in the Lord was a graduate of BBC of Springfield, MO and a missionary in Germany for many years. He often talked of the great doctrine of the church, although he affiliated with churches that taught a universal church concept. My pastor, Bill Duttry, and my father in the Lord, Clyde Sullivan, used to prod one another over the doctrine of the church. It was an area that they agreed to disagree. This was very confusing to me in my early formative years. During Bible college, I was required to write on the doctrine of the church. I entertained the assignment with much enthusiasm, because I did not fully understand the doctrine of the church. I knew only that it was a point of contention between two good men that had influenced me for Christ. I spent many days in the college library reading men such as: H. Boyce Taylor, B. H. Carroll, Roy Mason, Davis Huckabee, and others. These men made much sense to me as Christ burned these truths on my heart. I wrote a very basic paper on my newfound truths only to find that my professors and church did not agree. It was an early lesson on the doctrine of the church for me.

Minnesota church plant. During my college years, the Lord was working on my heart in the area of church planting in the north central region of the United Stated. I knew upon graduation that I would need further training to effectively plant and pastor a new church. I never considered a mission board because the doctrine of the church held me in its grip. The only church I knew that sent out their own missionaries was First Baptist Church in Milford, OH, under the direction of Dr. Charles Keen. My home church had a strong affiliation with this church. As I discussed my desire to plant a church with my pastor, he suggested that I finish my training under the ministry of Dr. Keen. FBC had sent out over fifty missionaries and was very active in printing the Bible. They bled missions as far as I could see. Our family of five relocated from Jacksonville, FL, to Milford, OH, to this great church.

I completed my training at Milford. I made numerous survey trips to Minnesota with the desire to plant a church in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul. It was decided by my pastor and Dr. Keen that I should raise support under the banner of FBC of Milford for fourteen months, rejoin my home church in GA, where I would be ordained and commissioned, and move to Minnesota to plant a church. Because these men had been critically involved in my life, I yielded to them without question. The Lord allowed our family to raise missionary support very quickly, and we moved to Minnesota. It was exciting to cross the state line knowing we were entering the field the Lord had for us.

BCPM. We arrived in Minneapolis in the spring of 1994 and joined the four million people of the metro region. I located a few churches that were independent Baptists and stood on the KJV as the Word of God. In deciding where to plant a church, I determined that, unless a church was an independent Baptist church and believed the KJV was the Word of God, I could plant a church right next door in a good conscience. However, that was a very tight filter. I located less than five churches that believed in the inerrant Word of God. I spent the first six months getting to know these churches, letting them get to know us, and settling my “Georgia peach” bride and three boys into a new climate. We came armed with 10,000 John and Romans and a promise from God that He wanted a church planted in southwest corner of Mlps-St. Paul.

During this time, I spent a great deal of time with Dr. Ed Johnson, pastor of FBC of Rosemount, MN. He was very helpful to me in understanding the culture because he had pastored for thirty-seven years in the state. He had a church-planting ministry relocated from Canada to his church, which he highly recommended that I become involved with—Baptist Church Planting Ministry, under the direction of Dr. Earl Jessup. Initially, I wrestled with involving someone else with the church planting endeavor because I had been planning and working on this church plant in my heart for over four years.

As I met with Dr. Jessup, I came to understand that he had planted many churches, and I had planted none. I would be a fool to reject his council. He promised John and Romans, financial assistance, and expertise from the knowledge he had gleaned in over twenty years of being a missionary. As he took me under his wing, Dr. Jessup and I became very good friends. He organized a large saturation project of the area in a very short time and gathered churches together to give manpower, finances, and clout. He organized a week of meetings and had various churches spend one night each displaying to the community what this new church would be like when it matured. The meetings proved to be successful—the first service boasted about fifty new people from the community.

Grace Baptist Church was established very quickly with nine charter families after eight weeks. All the area pastors joined in the celebration of the birthing of a new church. The church grew very quickly. Within twelve months, GBC boasted about seventy-five people. Land was purchased within thirty months, and a church building was erected by our third anniversary. The building boosted attendance to around 125 people.

Dr. Jessup moved his membership to GBC along with his ministry, BCPM. The relationship between BCPM and GBC soon became strained as the fruits of a para-church ministry and the strong personality of Earl Jessup began to emerge. The relationship with BCPM only lasted fourteen months and proved to be very costly—GBC lost thirty-five families in the ensuing eighteen months.

So that these types of things could never effect the church again, I began to seek the Lord and ask where I went wrong. He showed me that I was in doctrinal error regarding the doctrine of the church. He also showed me that, if I had not partnered with various para-church ministries, many of these things would not have taken place. This doctrine would change my life and our church forever.

Closed communion. The very first step that GBC took towards church truths was to change the way we observed the Lord’s Supper from close to closed. We had practiced close, or “denominational communion”. I had always believed closed communion; but I never had the courage to stand up for the truth. I thought it would drive people away. When we would observe the supper, I would scare everyone with strong preaching on a wrong observance of the table. It never worked. We would always have some Lutheran, evangelical, or Baptist visitor who would take the supper. In reality, I practiced close communion because I really didn’t understand the doctrine of the church. As I began to understand the doctrine of the body of Christ as His local assembly, it was obvious that the table must be closed.

Unity in missions. The next step was to unify our missions program. We supported numerous missionaries that were independent Baptists and believed the KJV—although they believed various things on the doctrine of the church. We understood that we needed to support only local church sent missionaries (i.e. no para-church mission boards, board missionaries, etc.) and men that were straight on the doctrine of the church. We also made the decision to train our own missionaries. We desired to be consistent with the doctrine that a church is the body of Christ and has been solely commissioned by the Lord for the task of the Great Commission. How could we send our people off to another school or church with a different belief in something as fundamental as the church? We would need to deprogram them again from all of the leaven they learned in these false institutions. How could we support missionaries with a false understanding of the doctrine of the church? Can two walk together except they be agreed? Only conflict and confusion would arise among everyone involved. On the contrary, what unity could be obtained if everyone we support believes the same thing regarding the doctrine of the church and the performance of the great commission. We went through the process of determining what our present missionaries believed only to find that all, except one, believed in a universal body of Christ!

Doctrine of the church. The Lord was very gracious in teaching us at GBC His church truths. He has taken me personally under His wing and is teaching me great and mighty things that I have not known. Upon studying the doctrine of the church, I determined that there are five things by which to measure a church to determine if it is a living organism or not.

First and foremost, what authority does a church have to be a church? Only churches can start churches. One must have the ability to determine the mother and grandmother church. All churches must be authorized by a mother church that was authorized by a mother church that was authorized by a mother church, etc … all the way back to the original church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many so-called churches are started by men, para-church ministries, or by churches that have been started by wrong authority themselves.

Secondly, all baptism, in order to be from above, must be Baptist baptism. God’s church must only receive Baptist baptism and reject alien baptism. By Baptist baptism, I mean John’s baptism that was foretold in the Old Testament and ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ. All baptism must be traced back to the authority of John.

Thirdly, what does the church believe about the body of Christ? Many good men talk of a local church, yet they assent to the body of Christ being all believers. This is none other than protestant universal church doctrine repackaged. The body of Christ is a local church and nothing else. There is only one body and one baptism, not two. One can quickly ascertain what a church believes by asking for an interpretation of 1Cor 12:13. There is no such thing as a spiritual invisible baptism into a spiritual invisible body. This text clearly refers to water baptism.

Fourthly, how a church practices the Lord’s Supper reveals what it believes about the body of Christ. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper stand as God’s sentinels to wrong doctrine and wrong associations. A church that claims to be local and observes open or close communion testifies a lie.

Fifthly, a church should be unaffiliated in practice to remain Christ’s church. With whom or what does your church partner and affiliate? All churches practice what they believe. One cannot claim to believe the doctrine of the church and partner with para-church ministries or false churches. We must never be part of any organization that would make polity over the local church or influence the polity of the local church. It is for this reason that all conventions, associations, and fellowships must be rejected.

Unscriptural baptism. As I began to understand the ramifications of the above basics on determining the validity of Christ’s living organism, I became very unsettled. No one I knew personally believed and practiced these things. Hundreds of men believed and taught otherwise—including my own pastor. As I continued to study, I understood it took more than doing right to be right; one must have the proper authority. This led me to investigate my home church. It became very obvious to me my home church failed on all five accounts of a church. This meant that I was not biblically baptized, ordained, or commissioned. This meant that GBC had no authority to be a church, baptize, ordain, or start churches. This meant that GBC was not a church at all! This meant that everyone that we had baptized just got wet!

Baptism, ordination, and commissioning. As large as the ramifications of such things would have been on our church of seventy-five people, I was not biblically baptized and knew it. This was not one of those convenient times of our ministry. The doctrine of church perpetuity by design told me that there had to be a true church in existence somewhere in the world. The only question was, how far would I need to go to find a church that was scriptural, and that I could trust to lead me through the steps in establishing a true biblical church in light of our present situation? The Lord led our family 300 miles north to Bible Baptist Church of Grand Forks, ND. It was evident that the Lord would set members in the body as it pleased Him, and that He wanted to set us into the membership of BBC of Grand Forks. The Lord knit my heart and Pastor Mike Custer’s heart together. He also placed a love for BBC in my wife’s and children’s hearts for which I am truly thankful. I praise God for this great church because, not only was their doctrine sound, but also their love for God, Christ honoring music, and separation from the world spoke volumes to us. After weeks of talking and shedding many tears and rejoicing, the Lord baptized us into the membership of BBC of Grand Forks. I was duly ordained and commissioned to go back to the Twin Cities and plant Minnesota Valley Baptist Church with the people that had been learning the precious doctrines of the church. The majority of the church followed and dozens of people were baptized as we organized Minnesota Valley Baptist Church a month later, thereby dissolving Grace Baptist Church. What a difference as I had the privilege of seeing a dead church (such as Sardis) become a true living organism!

A living organism. The Holy Spirit of God moved in and began His great work of teaching us biblical truths. He began to reveal to us that we had been privy to a weak gospel presentation of easy believism. It became very obvious that the gospel presentation had not been proper. We had been affected by the institutions of the Southwide Baptist Fellowship, the Sword of the Lord, many colleges and false churches. The missing element that was not emphasized was true biblical repentance. As the gospel went forth through the preaching of His Word, the Lord saved many souls that had a previous confession of Christ but no possession of salvation. Many childhood professions were revealed by the Lord as false professions of faith. Lastly, the reason for a lack of repentance was a shallow presentation and understanding of the law in evangelism that reveals the holiness of God and the depravity of man. The blood of Christ has always been, and continues to be, the focus. Even though it (the blood) is what saves mankind, our understanding of the appropriation of these truths needed to be fine tuned.

He miraculously continues to save many people in our midst. Lives are being changed by virtue of the new birth! Marriages are being revived! God’s glory is being revealed in the church! Pray for this preacher and for Minnesota Valley Baptist Church in Chaska, MN. Pray that we would continue to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God for His unspeakable gift!

Secondly, all baptism, in order to be from above, must be Baptist baptism. ...

Unscriptural baptism. As I began to understand the ramifications of the above basics on determining the validity of Christ’s living organism, I became very unsettled. No one I knew personally believed and practiced these things. Hundreds of men believed and taught otherwise—including my own pastor. As I continued to study, I understood it took more than doing right to be right; one must have the proper authority. This led me to investigate my home church. It became very obvious to me my home church failed on all five accounts of a church. This meant that I was not biblically baptized, ordained, or commissioned. This meant that GBC had no authority to be a church, baptize, ordain, or start churches. This meant that GBC was not a church at all! This meant that everyone that we had baptized just got wet!

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

Sounds like this fellow believes the only "true Christians" are in his church. And that his church is the only truly Christian church.

How sad. He's just invented another micro-denomination. Me, myself, and us.

The Idea of the Church is a false doctrine. A church is a local body of belivers not all christain every were the church is not some invisible universal force. Every time church is mentioned in the bible it is talking about a local group of belivers. That is what Baptist are. Baptist churches do not come out of rome like so many so-called churches did.

The Idea of the Church is a false doctrine. A church is a local body of belivers not all christain every were the church is not some invisible universal force. Every time church is mentioned in the bible it is talking about a local group of belivers. That is what Baptist are. Baptist churches do not come out of rome like so many so-called churches did.

"Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God," (1 Cor. 10:32)

Are you're saying that Paul is speaking only of some local church here?

"For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God." (1 Cor. 15:9)

Same here?

"For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it." (Gal. 1:13)

How how 'bout this one? Did Paul only persecute one, local church?

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her," (Eph. 5:25)

Is Christ husband to just one, local church? Which one?

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