I\u2019m an avid student of denominations and have served as an unpaid consultant to two major handbooks of denominations.\u00a0 I realize we are living in what some call a \u201cpost-denominational\u201d era, but in reality denominations are alive and well and proliferating.\u00a0 There are at least 300 distinct denominations in the U.S. with over 5,000 members and I\u2019m sure there are more that haven\u2019t been discovered yet.\u00a0 And new ones keep popping up all the time.\u00a0 Two of the newest are ones I belong to by virtue of my church membership.\u00a0 (Calvary Baptist Church of Waco is dually affiliated.)\u00a0 They are: The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF), a moderate Baptist group mainly in the South, and The Baptist General Convention of Texas.\u00a0 That\u2019s right\u2013the BGCT is now a distinct denomination entirely separate from the Southern Baptist Convention.\u00a0 The BGCT consists of mostly moderate Baptist churches that used to be Southern Baptist but now have trouble identifying with that denomination.\u00a0 (I use the word \u201cdenomination\u201d as most sociologists of religion use it\u2013for any distinct grouping of churches whether highly organized and hierarchical or not.\u00a0 Baptists traditionally prefer to call their groups \u201cconventions\u201d or \u201cconferences,\u201d but to sociologists they are all denominations.)\u00a0 The BGCT has churches in surrounding states.\u00a0 I wonder if someday it will drop the term \u201cTexas\u201d from its name?\u00a0 Well, not likely soon.\u00a0 Texas pride, you know.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s very ironic is that the Southern Baptist Convention counts among its members churches that do not want to be considered SBC such as my own congregation.\u00a0 When you hear that the SBC has \u201cover 16 million members\u201d you should be skeptical.\u00a0 Here\u2019s how that works.\u00a0 The SBC simply counts as members all churches and church members that belong to certain regional associations such as ours\u2013the Waco Regional Baptist Association which has over 150 churches.\u00a0 Many of those churches and certainly many of their members (such as I) do not want to be affiliated with the SBC.\u00a0 And if we sent \u201cmessengers\u201d (delegates) to the annual meeting of the SBC they would probably be denied credentials (i.e., they could not vote).\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because we ordain women deacons!\u00a0 And my church had a woman pastor for almost 10 years!\u00a0 So, we are counted as Southern Baptist by the SBC even though we could not send delegates to their annual meeting and even though we don\u2019t want to be counted by them.\u00a0 There doesn\u2019t seem to be any way to stop them from considering us \u201cthem\u201d even though we aren\u2019t really among \u201cthem.\u201d<\/p>\n
I consider this a matter of integrity.\u00a0 The SBC and other denominations need to put out realistic statistics and stop counting as member churches those, like mine, that do not consider themselves SBC and whose delegates would not be seated to vote at the annual SBC meeting.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s another matter of integrity I want to raise.\u00a0 These days more and more churches are hiding their denominational affiliations.\u00a0 It\u2019s very common now to see \u201cCalvary Church\u201d or \u201cChurch on the Rock\u201d or \u201cFaith Tabernacle\u201d or \u201cPrairie Wind Church,\u201d etc., with no identification of its denominational affiliation.\u00a0 A little digging often reveals there is such a denominational affiliation; the church just doesn\u2019t want to advertise it.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Are they ashamed of it?\u00a0 If so, then they should drop their affiliation.\u00a0 I think it borders on false advertising when churches take on generic names and also hide their denominational affiliation so that even their web site doesn\u2019t clearly state what it is.<\/p>\n
I often get e-mails from friends and acquaintances asking me to help them identify a particular \u201ccommunity church\u201d (or whatever).\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty good at sniffing out those churches\u2019 denominational connections using their web sites.\u00a0 There\u2019s almost always some hint there.\u00a0 But the average lay person would not find it.\u00a0 It irritates me when such churches have a strong affiliation with a denomination but do not reveal it clearly.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s unethical.<\/p>\n
Some years ago I taught a Wednesday evening series at one of the original market-driven churches.\u00a0 If I named it many of you would have heard of it.\u00a0 It\u2019s pastor has written many books on church growth.\u00a0 He and his staff were among the first to hire a marketing firm to help them \u201cgrow\u201d their church.\u00a0 Some of the lay people in my class on doctrine complained bitterly that they had chosen the church as their spiritual family before being told it is Baptist.\u00a0 Then, when they asked to join, they were informed they would have to be (using their terms) \u201cre-baptized.\u201d\u00a0 They had no clue the church was Baptist until they inquired about membership.\u00a0 I could only agree with them that they had been mistreated by the church.\u00a0 (Needless to say, I was never invited to speak there again!)<\/p>\n
I would call on all churches that have denominational affiliations to be very up front and clear about it.\u00a0 It\u2019s a matter of integrity.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m an avid student of denominations and have served as an unpaid consultant to two major handbooks of denominations.\u00a0 I realize we are living in what some call a \u201cpost-denominational\u201d era, but in reality denominations are alive and well and proliferating.\u00a0 There are at least 300 distinct denominations in the U.S. with over 5,000 members […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n