Reformed. Christianity. Evangelism. Modern Culture.
If you are church shopping [this article was first published in OCTOBER 2011] or looking for a local Christian fellowship a Reformed Baptist Church may not be your cup of tea 🙂
Well you see, Dr. James White has (honestly) noted that in a Reformed Baptist Church…
You don’t get to leave after every sermon feeling good about yourself. You may even desire repentance.
- You don’t get to hear the sermons in the same way you may be used to. It’s frequently verse by verse, maybe not even relevant to your current situation.
- You don’t get to be entertained. We don’t want to entertain you.
- You don’t get to go to church every weeknight for programs. We don’t have ‘em.
- You don’t get to be ‘lost in the crowd’. We tend to have accountability to one another.
- You don’t get to hear social commentary. Sermons are mostly biblical and serious.
- We’re not considered ‘seeker-friendly’. We don’t believe in seekers. Apart from regeneration, they don’t exist.
- You’re asked to apply the sermons to your life.
- You’re asked to attend services regularly, to support your elders in prayer and give sacrificially to the advance of the Gospel.
- You will experience conviction of sin with regularity.
A Twisted Crown of Thorns ® 
We left the RBC churches and could not be happier and more thankful. Born and bred in an RB church. What did it produce? A cold, legalistic heart. Hurt. A wrong view of God. Pride. Damage from sexual abuse that was never dealt with and was actually covered up by multiple other pastors. Yes, the women dressed modestly and the prayers were long and wordy but underneath children and women were being abused. We were never allowed to fellowship with “those other Christians.” And you know what? The body of Christ is way bigger than the tight RB circle. Churches outside of that circle are faithfully proclaiming the Gospel. Christians are growing in churches outside of the circle. There’s accountability. There’s good preaching. I never knew how much I was missing until God led us out of the RB church scene.
Sadly, something about this article reminds me strongly of Luke 18:11: “The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector….”
Rather than focusing on the positive aspects of a more traditional and somber assembly, this article instead packages it in an ironic way that stabs the knife deep into the back of a jumbled composite of a straw man church, all the while priding itself on its own “most biblical” way of worshipping and associating …..
As a member of a reformed baptism assembly for 40 (yes-40!) years, the scales finally fell from my eyes and I realized that true, faithful Christendom doesn’t disappear the moment you walk out of a Reformed Baptist Assembly. In fact, the opposite was found true – there were at 5 other fairly local assemblies that gave faithful expository and topical preaching, convicted of sin in a humble and gently manner, did not “ major on the minors” and was strong in encouragement and fellowship – all the while offering gracious children’s programming (what an amazing ministry to exhausted parents and to the dear children who need the cookies on the bottom shelf) and drums as a musical accompaniment to songs with solid lyrics that (gulp) weren’t in the second sacred canon: the Trinity hymn book.
Dear reader, if anything in this article smacked of pride to you, I would take a serious step back, listen to the Holy Spirit (why? Holy Spirit guiding my decisions??) , and pray seriously about whether you want to join an association that will become a proud echo chamber that thinks they are a cut above , all the while doing very little to entangle themselves as a whole in the messy and complicated lives of the sinners and community and even churches all around them. Not to mention it was be extremely messy to leave, even for approved reasons, should you ever desire to leave and join a different fellowship.
I could just as easily give you ten straightforward reasons NOT to join a reformed Baptist church, but there’s just not the room here. Forty years of experience was enough to make me praise the Lord for extracting us from such a toxic , proud environment.
CAVEAT EMPTOR!
I love this.
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Reblogged, hope you don’t mind:)
Reblogged this on where life meets theology and commented:
Great article by a good online friend
Other good reasons:
You’re well versed with the failure of the Shepherding Movement and you’re not keen on experiencing it for yourself.
You can’t find the exact wording of the document that the disciples signed in order to become official members of the Church in the Bible and don’t want to sign something they didn’t sign.
You’re read one too many stories about spiritual abuse coming out of the RBC and aren’t willing to risk becoming one.
You don’t think that elders, by virtue of being old men, are automatically holier, more right and have sound judgement – particularly when it comes to how you live your life.
You’re not interested in a pink and blue version of the faith and being pigeonholed into an either/or situation.
You know that you are unique and you want a church that celebrates that, not quashes it.
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This sounds my kind of church!! You are determined to get me out of the church of England!
Good to be reminded again with this list of reasons.
11. You will not receive a Carnal; Christian t-shirt since we do not believe this is a valid Biblical concept.
I like #1. I feel like I haven’t been to church unless I’ve walked out having had my feathers ruffled.
Interesting there is no mention that you are encouraged in your sins are forgiven!
The encouragement is left to the Holy Spirit – to give assurance of their salvation and sins being forgiven.
Oh…wouldn’t that them make it a form of prophecy 😉
Oh, contrare! Encouragement comes when we are being taught and are reading the word ourselves verse by verse and we find out how lost and wretched we are apart from the grace and mercy of Christ and then we can truly look on Him as our Savior and appreciate what He has done. His word is being taught accurately. We have to see our lost state to appreciate His goodness.
Though I’m a member of the church of Christ, the ten reasons not to join a Reformed Baptist Church sounds good. I never joined the church of Christ. I was added to the church by Christ at my baptism at the age of twenty-four, after hearing and believing the Gospel. Thanks for sharing. Connie.