Searching for a Bible-believing Church in the Fort Worth Area

February 8, 2015 | fwdude

[fwdude]

With the appalling apostasy, both overt and subtle, engulfing many evangelical churches in these last days, I have found myself in search of a truly Bible-believing church body that is serious about the Truth taught by God through Jesus Christ.

To be specific, these are the things I am trying to avoid:
- The cultish "mega-church" mentality (though size doesn't not necessarily disqualify an otherwise orthodox church culture)
- Any sympathy, working agreement, or tacit acknowledgement of any Christian legitimacy with Rome.
- The hyper "grace only" heresy of the need just to "believe on Jesus Christ," nothing else matters (i.e. repentance, therefore renouncing sin, optional.)
- An above-all social component to church life, using Christ as the pretext to party and have a good time.
- The "contemporary worship" scene, where the great traditional hymns of devout saints are jettisoned in favor of the shallow, repetitive pap of me-centered guitar and percussion powered emotionalism.
- Teaching that completely avoids, or gives apologetic ground to, the deadly evil in today's society, especially the stridently militant homosexuality that is engulfing even many churches behind the scenes (even the SBC).
- The unlimited "welcoming" banner that is put out by many heretical bodies, i.e., no questions asked and no requirements for participate in the life of the church.

With these in mind, here is what I am seeking:
- A praying church where prayer is not just and afterthought or a mandatory formality.
- A church that holds its fellowshipping members accountable and expects real spiritual growth in them.
- A church that believes in the spiritual gifts as the Scriptures lay them out, without the emotionally caricatured ones. (I wouldn't even object to the gift of tongues if it were genuine and conducted biblically (a real existing language not learned by the practicer), and not like most maniacally charismatic church's wantonly display in disarray.)
- A church that meets regularly, and doesn't dismiss services for Superbowl Sunday.

These are obviously not exhaustive lists, but my point is that I am through wasting time in congregations that ignore the spiritual reality of the world, and focus on the empty wood, hay and stubble of the world, neglecting the members of the Body, and subjecting them to eternal danger.

At the risk of attracting caustic criticism, I'll also throw in that I've valued the teachings of Gordon C. Olson as biblically sound, so any recommendations for church bodies that adhere closely to the theology that he taught would be much appreciated.

[Elsie]

Any suggestions?

Down size as much as possible.

Don't look back!

[Elsie]

Who needs a storefront?

Isaiah was enough for the Ethiopian Eunuch!

[Elsie]

Speaking of cowboys...

Cowboy Poetry

by Bill Jones

 

 

 

Jake, the rancher, went one day
to fix a distant fence.
The wind was cold and gusty
and the clouds rolled gray and dense.

As he pounded the last staples in
and gathered tools to go,
The temperature had fallen,
the wind and snow began to blow.

When he finally reached his pickup,
he felt a heavy heart.
From the sound of that ignition,
he knew it wouldn't start.

So Jake did what most of us
would do if we had been there.
He humbly bowed his balding head
and sent aloft a prayer.

As he turned the key for the last time,
he softly cursed his luck.
They found him three days later,
frozen stiff in that old truck.

Now Jake had been around in life
and done his share of roaming.
But when he saw Heaven, he was shocked --
it looked just like Wyoming!

Of all the saints in Heaven,
his favorite was St. Peter.
(Now, this line ain't needed
but it helps with rhyme and meter)

So they set and talked a minute or two,
or maybe it was three.
Nobody was keeping' score --
in Heaven time is free.

"I've always heard," Jake said to Pete,
"that God will answer prayer,
But one time I asked for help,
well, he just plain wasn't there."

"Does God answer prayers of some,
and ignore the prayers of others?
That don't seem exactly square --
I know all men are brothers."

"Or does he randomly reply,
without good rhyme or reason?
Maybe, it's the time of day,
the weather or the season."

"Now I ain't trying to act smart,
it's just the way I feel.
And I was wondering', could you tell me --
what the heck's the deal?!"

Peter listened very patiently
and when Jake was done,
There were smiles of recognition,
and he said, "So, you're the one!!"

"That day your truck, it wouldn't start,
and you sent your prayer a flying,
You gave us all a real bad time,
with hundreds of us trying."

"A thousand angels rushed,
to check the status of your file,
But you know, Jake, we hadn't heard
from you in quite a long while."

"And though all prayers are answered,
and God ain't got no quota,
He didn't recognize your voice,
and started a truck in Minnesota."

[ViLaLuz]

“Down size as much as possible.

Don’t look back!”

in process now :)

[re_nortex]

A church that meets regularly, and doesn't dismiss services for Superbowl Sunday.

Even if the COWBOYS are in it???

I believe you have come up with a pretty good handle on just what eternity might mean. :)

[CynicalBear]

Yep! If I belonged to a church that didn’t have the sense to know the difference between the Muslim god and the God of scripture I’d leave that church the moment I found out.

[rabidralph]

Now, with less “Baptist.” LOL!

[rabidralph]

Sorry, I read the jumbled web address as Smarty the Virgin. LOL!

[Elsie]

If you can get thru them all; without a tear in your eye...

http://www.cowboypoetry.com/rn3.htm

[Elsie]

Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power!

[Elsie]

;^)

[Gamecock]

- A church that meets regularly, and doesn't dismiss services for Superbowl Sunday.
There are churches that cancel church on December 25th, if it falls on a Sunday!
No Church This Sunday—It's Christmas
Why do churches close on Sunday? (MegaChruches reduce Holy Day to holiday)
This will be an issue again in 2016.

Anyway, spending most of my adult life moving every two years or so, allow me to share my method of finding a new church:

a. It is critical, IMHO, to know the confession/statement of faith/whatever you want to call it. I am a bit cautious of nondenominational churches because they are often brief statements of faith and can change on the whim of the pastor. Not saying that disqualifies a church, just something to ask about.

b. I start with truly Reformed churches. PCA, OPC, URCNA, ARP. From there I have moved outward towards other confessional churches, if there are no other options.

c. I prefer hymns, and have found there are churches that do hymns with more of a modern instrumentation. I find that acceptable because, let's face it, there were no organs during biblical times. Psalm 150 shows instruments that would blow a lot of peoples gaskets today!

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

My rule of thumb is that the music should lead God's people into praise, not be a performance opportunity for the musicians.

d. An church that has grown inwards so much that it doesn't care about you will not feed you or look outwards to others. Two examples:

1. We visited what seemed like a solid church for about 6 weeks. On day one we were talking to the "hospitality lady" whose job was to greet newcomers. As we were chatting she saw someone walk by, excused herself quickly and promptly started a conversation with another lady about a sale going on at a local store. OK, that is awkward, but we though that maybe she should not have volunteered to greet people. Five weeks later we were seriously thinking about joining when after church I dawned on me that Pastor didn't know our name. It was a smallish church and not once did he call us by name, or even seem to make an effort, such as "hey, I have a terrible memory, tell me your name again. Then my wife realized that not once did anyone in the church call us by name. Not a soul. We never went back.

2. A couple weeks later we visited a little country church. They were a newer congregation that had just finished building a new church. As we were chatting about how beautiful it was an elder looked me right in the eye and said "we built it just for you." We were warmly welcomed and rapidly assimilated into the daily life of the church.

Anyway, I know the Reformed corner of Christianity isn't for everyone, but I do know there are solid churches of all types out there. I hope you find one that will feed your soul, and where you can help to feed others.

[ViLaLuz]

Amen! Thank you Elsie.

[onedoug]

So you get to decide who is or is not a Christian.

For himself, by all means.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Lots of Hardshell Baptists in Texas, I hear.

[Mrs.Z]

We dropped the Hulen Street “Baptist” Church from the name since there will be a certain percentage who will never walk through the doors with that name.

[Mrs.Z]

From I-20, north on Campus drive, near South campus TCC.

[Dave W]

Yes, I knew that was coming, and my apologies. However, based on your responses, I don't think you humbly solicited counsel. Yes, you were eager to show off how "authentic" of a Christian you are, but woe to those posters that were excited to share their experiences with their churches and you were completely rude and downright mean to them. I could tell they were too polite to pay you back in kind. The Catholics showed much more kindness and humility than you did and you were happy to insult them because you consider yourself so above them. And you wonder why believers such as yourself have such a bad name and reputation for being hypocrites? Do you really think Catholics were attracted to you, your beliefs and Protestant churches when they read your responses to them?

You may hate drums, but Jesus hates hypocrites more.

[Bill Russell]

Daniel, there is obviously way too much to get into the weeds on all 13,000 points which appear to be cut and pasted from many different documents and many in which the logic is hard to follow, and some with statements which may or may not be supported by the sources cited.

But just a couple of points on the RCC approach to the Bible which differs from most main stream Protestant doctrines. Your post attacks what you refer to as “RC literalism” in reference to Jesus appointing Peter as the head of the Church which he brought to Rome. This is also the same argument made by many against the Transfiguration of the Eucharist. Which is really interesting in that many of the people who accuse Catholics of being too “literal” in interpreting the direct and repeated teachings of Jesus throughout the Gospels, will insist that we must take the conflicting stories of creation in Genesis as literally.

The Catholic approach differs from this in that we approach the Bible as God’s slow revelation of himself to man. We accept the stories of creation as metaphor which make the point that God created the heavens and the earth and man. We accept that it is not a scientific explanation and have no conflict in reconciling the fact that God created the world, although the literal stories of creation as stated in Genesis may conflict with the scientific evidence of the actual physical history of the earth. But as the history presented in the Bible advances and culminates with the life and times of Jesus and the Apostles, we start taking a more literal approach — especially when Jesus repeats very specific instructions in the Gospels (as opposed to his teaching parables). This applies to the importance of the Eucharist where he states the importance of “eating of my flesh and drinking of my blood” culminating in his instructions to the Apostles to “do this in memory of Me” at the Last Supper.(The KJV is just as clear on this point as the RCC version.) This approach also applies to the other sacraments (Baptism & Confirmation,Reconciliation, Marriage, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick), created by Jesus in the Gospels.

Take Care & God Bless.

[spacejunkie2001]

Amen Elsie!!!