What I find very sad is that so many care less of what the Bible tells us and more about what makes them feel good at that time, you can have all the faith you wait and if its based on a lie what worth will its have? God said a Child shall obey their Mother and Father and a Women shall obey her Husband and a Man shall Obey GOD, it is not shameful for a man to obey God so why is it shameful for a women to obey her husband? What I’m saying is that God’s laws to not change, so even if you wish with all your heart it will do no good. For mans laws will fade with time but God’s LAWS are Forever.

Do not ask that a person of Faith to disobey his Faith, so if the Bible tells you not to do something do not do it.

Mark

“Southwestern will not build a school in the future around anybody who could not look anybody in the world in the eyes and say, “Christ died for your sins.” Paige Patterson, SWBTS President, as tape recorded by SBC Today at their “Baptist Identity” blog on February 5, 2009

“A consistent five-point Calvinist cannot look a congregation in the eyes or even a single sinner in the eye and say: “Christ died for you.” What they have to say to be consistent with their own theology is “Christ died for sinners.” Since Christ did not die for the non-elect, and since the five-point Calvinist does not know who the elect are, it is simply not possible in a preaching or witnessing situation to say to them directly “Christ died for you.”Dr. David Allen, Dean, SWBTS School of Theology at BaptistTheology.org / SWBTS Center for Theological Research, November 2008

There are apparently a few Decatur members with IMB ties who still support the Cooperative Program. Over the past 5 years, Decatur has taken in over a million in tithes and offerings and passed along to the CP via the GBC an average of 9K per year.

So, this congregation should likewise think of how this “disfellowshipping” frees them to explore new relationships and an alternative pattern of Baptist identity.

For the past several years, denominations increasing in membership are Catholic, Jehovah’s Witness, LDS, Assemblies of God and SBS. Those decreasing fastest are Episcopal (by far), PCUSA, United Church of Christ, United Methodist.

Statistics are only as good as reporting; also, I am not implying a causal relationship — there may be many factors. But generally speaking, the most inclusive denominations seem to be on the steepest multi-year decline.

A religious denomination is simply a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name, tradition and identity. Here, the religion is Christianity, more specifically Protestant Christianity. The subgroup is the Southern Baptist Convention. Historians, particularly southern historians, regard the Southern Baptist Convention as a denomination. Baptist historians like Bill Leonard have written about “Baptist denominations” and “Baptist denominationalism.” To call the SBC a denomination is pretty standard.

I remember the big debate over at Burleson’s blog or somewhere else about “Convention vs. Denomination.” As a historian, I’m not going to make that distinction. To do so would likely imply that no Christian body in the Free Church Tradition could qualify as a “denomination” due to our focus on autonomy. Nor am I suggesting that all denominations are structured similarly. Clearly that’s not accurate. And I am willing to concede that when the Southern Baptist Convention was founded in the 19th century, it was not a full-fledged denomination as we would define a denomination in the late 20th century. The SBC might be a denomination differently than the United Methodist Church but it’s still a denomination by modern historical standards.

You could argue that the culprit is autonomy just like others might argue that the culprit is denominationalism. But there are a number of autonomous organizations/fellowships/denominations/conventions (whatever you want to call them) that have not traveled the path of exclusion and instead have embraced an inclusive spirit that affirms cooperation. It is the fundamentalist theology of the messengers to the Georgia Baptist Convention that led that Baptist body to kick FBC Decatur to the curb and possibly kick them again this Fall.