Baptists AMA: Other Associational Baptists (non-SBC) and Independent Baptists

/u/MilesBeyond250 gave a great summary of Baptists

For the Southern Baptist AMA click here! They'll answer all your SOUTHERN BAPTIST related questions. :) For other Baptists, we have...

A Wild Reformed Baptist AMA appeared!. Check that one out too.

(OTHER) ASSOCIATIONAL BAPTIST

AMA PART A

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship,

Baptist General Convention of Texas,

Canadian Baptist Ministries

About: Why have ANOTHER Baptist AMA? Aren't we just the tiny associations not part of the SBC? Well, actually, no!

There are 33 million baptists in North America. There are 16 million Southern Baptists. We are in fact, more than half. We will list our particular association by our names. Some, like the Texas Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist fellowship, also cooperate with one another (committees on committees and associations on associations!). Keep in mind there are many other BIG associational Baptist groups we do not represent: Like the American Baptist Churches USA, and the largest Historically Black churches are Baptist as well (The National Baptist Convention, the Progressive National Baptist Convention).

In fact, to really drive the point home, the Baptist World Alliance has a membership of more than 44 million Baptists worldwide--of many associations/ fellowships/conventions. This does not include non-associational (independent) Baptists or the Southern Baptist Convention) More than 2/3 of worldwide Baptists are not SBC.

Without further delay, here are our Baptists panelists.

/u/MilesBeyond250 Canadian Baptist Ministries

I'm a member of Canadian Baptist Ministries (CBM), which is affiliated with the WBA, and have served as a pastor in that organization.

(^ A man of few words about himself. What humility!)

/u/lillyheart

Affiliation: Baptist General Convention of Texas

Position: UCC Pastor

I'm a Texas born lady who attended a Baptist university and Baptist seminary. I have pastored a non-baptist church for almost 2 years, because there wasn't a Baptist church to hire me (the few that hire women were on the bit more established side, and none of the rural churches were interested.) This meant that for a year, I was the only female senior pastor at my decently-sized seminary.

I am a strong believer in the Bible. What scripture says is important to me- we can't write it off, and we must seek to be honest and in line with scripture. I believe in Congregationalist polity and believers baptism. I am a pacifist and have a very low view of anyone's spiritual authority over me except God. I attend both conferences for the BGCT and CBF, and was the recipient of significant scholarship money for both. I'm part of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

As far as the BGCT: The BGCT is the oldest surviving Baptist Convention in Texas, comprised of a variety of baptist denominations, including the SBC, CBF, two-seed, primitive, reformed, landmark, Baptist World Alliance, etc. During the "great split" in the Southern Baptist Convention, Texas, being full of the independently minded folks it's famous for, refused to pick a side or cede to the demands of splitting. It wasn't until 1998 that the SBC finally "gave up" and created it's own SBCT. Most SBC churches are still members of the BGCT as well. It runs from Fundamentalist to almost liberal. While churches are free to decide how to interpret scripture when it comes to women in ministry, the BGCT is closed to LGBT issues. It follows the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message, not the 2000. For updates, please check out the newspaper The Baptist Standard. It covers what we do.

Our current president is Kathy Hillman, the second woman president of the BGCT. It partners nationally with both the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist convention. It partners with or has control of 9 different universities in Texas, including Baylor (where it has little power except at the seminary), Dallas Baptist, Houston Baptist, Mary Hardin Baylor, Wayland, Baptist University of the Americas, etc. All in all, it helps to educate more than 27,000 college students each year. It also runs the BSMs for most (all?) of Texas. It also runs 6 hospital systems. Buckner International is a BGCT institution, as well as a number of other family services including children's homes. The BGCT focuses on advocacy in Texas- the Christian Life Commission lobbies Texas government on issues about poverty including stopping predatory lending and opposing gambling. It also endorses over 700 chaplains for hospital, hospice/nursing homes, police and military work. It does a LOT of church planting.

Many folks know of the BGCT through their disaster relief and the work of Texas Baptist Men (a group), which is absolutely phenomenal and one reason that despite different beliefs, we work together. We are in the same place, are all baptists, and all called to the same Christian responsibility to love our neighbor.

/u/Tepid_Radical_Reform

Affiliation: Cooperative Baptist

Special snowflake title: Broadly Reformed Ecumenical Evangelical Baptist/ English teacher

I too attended a Baptist college and have seriously considered seminary (also took a class at a small Cooperative Baptist seminary).

I grew up Southern Baptist but transitioned to being Cooperative Baptist in college. The CBF arose from disaffected "moderates" within the CBF in 1991, as a result of the "Conservative Resurgence/ Fundamentalist Takeover" in the Southern Baptist Convention. Young earth creationism, complimentarianism, all became requried for seminary and students, missionaries, and office workers in the SBC. When it became clear after 2 decades of these "Baptist wars" that more moderate theology would not be tolerated in the SBC, the moderates left.

For me, it was not as simple transition from Southern Baptists to Cooperative Baptist as you might imagine. Inbetween, I was very anti-Baptist. I sojourned with Lutherans, Anglicans, Nazarenes, Presbyterians--anyone who wasn't "Baptist" or non-denominational (Baptist in disguise) I avoided. It was not until reading Stephen Holmes "Baptist Theology" that I realize there was something to be proud of in being Baptist and there was a thought-out history. I was very interested in Church tradition at this time: and I was surprised to find out there were some Baptists who agreed with me!

It is really true, you can find a Baptist church which believes almost anything. Everything from footwashing pacifist Baptists, to Bapto-costals who speak in tongues, to Bapto-Catholic who follow the church calendar and do the stations of the cross. They are able to do this because of congregational autonomy.

The separation of Church and state, believer's baptism, autonomy of the local church, fighting for religious freedoms for all (like the Baptist Joint Committee on religious liberty does), keeping the two ordinances, are religious commitments.

We are not creedal, but many of our statements of belief, historically, were written not as litmus tests but to say to other Christians "Look, we're not heretics we promise!"

Theologically, there are OTHER Christians who believe much of what we do. Ecclesiologically, we are unique.

I gained an interest in what being a Baptist meant historically, theologically, ecclesiologically. And it is only in the past two years, I've actually been proud (not prideful, just proud) to be a Baptist rather than feeling like a "lesser Christian".

I am also a teacher. I taught English and Journalism in Kentucky and, soon, I will be leaving to teach a year in South Korea!

In addition to our "Other Associational Baptist" panelists, we also have one Independent Baptist u/oarsof6. He has written about himself and Independent Baptists.

AMA PART B Independent Fundamental Baptist history and bio:

##Distinguishing History

Independent Fundamental Baptists began to distinguish themselves from other Baptists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in response to those in the Christian Modernist movement of that time. The name Independent implies that the local church is not governed or associated with any other church, convention, or body. Fundamental implies that the church acknowledges the five fundamentals of the faith:

1. Inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture.
2. The virgin birth of Christ.
3. The Deity of Christ
4. The substitutionary atonement of Christ.
5. Christ’s bodily resurrection and eventual bodily return to earth.

##Distinguishing Beliefs

As the churches are fully autonomous, other beliefs and doctrine among Independent Fundamental Baptist churches varies greatly (including Calvinist vs. non-Calvinist theology), but there are several distinctive that we have from other Baptist denominations (taken partly from my church’s constitution):

1. We believe that God not only inspired every word in the 66 books of the Bible, but has preserved, and believe the King James Version is the preserved Word of God for the English-speaking people. We also believe in the literal interpretation of the Scriptures in their grammatical and historical context. (Psalm 12:6-7; II Timothy 3:15-17; I Peter 1:23-25; II Peter 1:19-21).

2. We believe in and practice the doctrine of Separation from persons not of like faith and the world. (Amos 3:3, Ephesians 5:11, 2 Corinthians 6:14, John 17:13-16).

3. As part of #2, we do not use contemporary style Christian music in the church, or listen to contemporary style music outside of the church (Job 14:4, Jeremiah 6:16, Romans 12:2, Colossians 3:16).

4. We do not belong to any association – all churches are independent form one another, and are lead by the pastor(s) and the deacons.

5. We believe that it is every Christian’s duty out of love and faith to share the Gospel with others. Therefore, we regularly go door to door in confrontational soulwinning to tell others about Christ and lead them to salvation (Proverbs 11:30, Matthew 10:32, Matthew 28:19, Luke 14:23, Acts 20:19-21, Galatians 6:7-8).

##My Personal Bio

I am thirty, currently live in Tennessee with my wife and daughter, but was born and raised in Maryland. My parents attended a local SBC Baptist church but left just before I turned 6. I continued attending, then started going to my grandmother’s ELCA Lutheran church during high school. Though the liturgy was a bit of a culture shock for me, I read the catechism studied Lutheran beliefs, and was used by the pastor in the procession/to distribute communion. In college, I was President of the school’s Lutheran Episcopal Campus Ministry, but had a large disagreement with the group’s chaplain over the Bible's authority and reliability. I started attending church at a local Independent Fundamental Baptist church, and my then girlfriend (now wife) and her family were converted after attending as well. I went through a long period of what I can only describe as zealotry, when I would proselytize door-to-door and in public areas, sing and preach for multiple congregations, and planned to go to bible college to become a preacher. After moving to Tennessee, I reevaluated many of my beliefs, and no longer believe in many standards of the church (specifically regarding dress/music, KJV onlyism, lay-person soul-winning, etc.), and have some unanswered questions on eschatology, church structure/leadership, the place of tradition in the church, etc.

I have limited time to post today, but will answer any questions as I can.