Just came back from a Southern Babtist Church . . .

[GraceLikeRainFallsDown]

NOTE: Sorry I misspelled Baptist in the subject line. :doh: It would not let me edit it. :sorry:

Hi All!

I have been attending a non-denomination church for many years. We moved to Hawaii last week and I just went to the local Southern Baptist church. It was different than my last church, but seemed fine.

I have a question . . . What makes a Southern Baptist "Southern". How are they different from other Baptists?

I think I have an idea, but I do not know for sure. I will just tell you my thought on it and then maybe someone can correct me.

Is the only difference between Southern Baptist and other Baptist that the Southern group has decided on a Statement of Faith that they will uphold. While the other Baptist may believe the same things, they just have not "signed up" with the group.

Let me know if I am anywhere near correct or if there is more to it.

Thanks! :)

[daveleau]

It has to do with our origins. Today, it is a misnomer, because "Southern" Baptists are all over the country (and all over the world.) The Southern Baptist Churches are led by the Southern Baptist Convention for government. You are right that there are other Baptist conferences that hold the same beliefs, yet are not under the convention's governance. But, at the same time, there are a lot of Baptist churches that are higly divergent from SBC beliefs. There's an Seventh Day Adventist Baptist group that is more conservative in theology. There is also the American Baptist church which is notably more liberal in theology. So, all baptist are not the same, but the SBC is the biggest segment of Baptist churches.

I too came from a non-denom background. Well, my background is much more varied than that (Pentecostal Holiness, charismatic non-denom, non-denom, Episcopalian, Lutheran). But, I've spent most of my time in non-denom churches until I began attending Baptist churches about 5 years ago.

In Him,
Dave

[aReformedPatriot]

NOTE: Sorry I misspelled Baptist in the subject line. :doh: It would not let me edit it. :sorry:

Hi All!

I have been attending a non-denomination church for many years. We moved to Hawaii last week and I just went to the local Southern Baptist church. It was different than my last church, but seemed fine.

I have a question . . . What makes a Southern Baptist "Southern". How are they different from other Baptists?

I think I have an idea, but I do not know for sure. I will just tell you my thought on it and then maybe someone can correct me.

Is the only difference between Southern Baptist and other Baptist that the Southern group has decided on a Statement of Faith that they will uphold. While the other Baptist may believe the same things, they just have not "signed up" with the group.

Let me know if I am anywhere near correct or if there is more to it.

Thanks! :)

If you live on Oahu, you should pay my old Pastor a visit at Olivett Baptist Church in Honolulu. He just moved there too (on the first).

A Southern Baptist Church is basically a group of Churches linked together to support Christian missions. Southern Baptists tend to be more conservative theologically and the Northern Baptist Churches (or Amerian Baptists) tend to be more liberal. I forget why the initial seperation was made at the moment but it happened back around 1845. Slavery was an issue but there were other issues as well. And obviously the SBC no longer promotes Slavery in any form.

I'll post more later perhaps. :) Im tired.

[aReformedPatriot]

It has to do with our origins. Today, it is a misnomer, because "Southern" Baptists are all over the country (and all over the world.) The Southern Baptist Churches are led by the Southern Baptist Convention for government. You are right that there are other Baptist conferences that hold the same beliefs, yet are not under the convention's governance. But, at the same time, there are a lot of Baptist churches that are higly divergent from SBC beliefs. There's an Seventh Day Adventist Baptist group that is more conservative in theology. There is also the American Baptist church which is notably more liberal in theology. So, all baptist are not the same, but the SBC is the biggest segment of Baptist churches.



What he said. :thumbsup:

[DeaconDean]

The thing that mainly defines Southern Baptist churches is the fact that most who are members in the Southern Baptist Convention are typically Fundamental Conservatives. (don't that sound like a contradiction, lol). And we really take a beating because of that. Another point that defines most, but certainly not all, Southern Baptists are their stances on the pastorate, and laity.



God Bless

Till all are one.

[BereanTodd]

I would point out that being SBC doesn't nescasarily mean conservative. It is more likely than in the other baptist conventions perhaps, but for instance there has been a war in the state of Texas because the liberals - very numerous - got control of the state convention (the BGCT or Baptist General Convention of Texas); the conservatives, or a large number of them, when they were unable to get control back split off and formed their own state convention the SBT - Southern Baptists of Texas. So Texas now has TWO state conventions at each SBC meeting.

Not only that, one of those liberal Texans went to the national convention a few years back (I don't remember exactly somewhere around 98-2000) and stood up holding his bible as he had the platform and said "Brothers our problem is that we need to realize that this is nothing more than a book" and went on to decry and attack conservative, innerant views of the Scripture.

Now to get back to the OP, the southern baptists are loosely organized, the national and state groups exert no power over local congregations which are completely independantly run. However we are the largest missions sending group in the world, thousands upon thousands of missionaries are areound the world because of the work of the SBC.

[GraceLikeRainFallsDown]

Thank you all for your input. I feel more comfortable with the church now. I am conservative in views and a huge fan of missions. I think I will try to stick with this one for a while to see if it feels like home or not.

Though, I might try the Olivett Baptist Church in Honolulu as suggested. I need to see how far it is from my house. ( Though nothing is more than 30 miles here. I am on an island.:) )