Visit to an exclusively CBF church

[William Thornton]

Some of my mod/lib friends may wish to read about my recent visit to an exclusively CBF, non-SBC church.

[Neil Heath]

I'm glad you had such a good experience, William. I'm curious to know which church did so well by you, and what prompted you to visit there.

[Dave Roberts]

I am glad it was a good experience. Worship always needs to interact with scripture, not just jump from it into whatever is on the preacher's mind.

[William Thornton]

Were we closer, Dave, I'd show up at your church, sit on the back pew...

[Sandy]

In the exclusively CBF church I attended for more than a decade, a solid, Biblically-based sermon with excellent application was an every-Sunday experience. That was under two pastors. The worship was high church, which you would expect in a congregation with a choir made up largely of music professionals and a pipe organ that could double as a cooling system in the summer.

I would agree that the state of preaching in Southern Baptist churches these days does leave a lot to be desired, though I don't think that's exclusively a Southern Baptist problem. I have visited CBF congregations where the pastor lost me in his first paragraph with a sermon that attempted to tie together a series of quotations from obscure people he seemed to be impressed with, but which had little to do with Christianity. In one particular church I visited several years ago (in Georgia), co-pastored by a husband and wife, it was the wife's turn to preach. I spent the time looking around a large, ornate sanctuary at the mostly grey heads scattered here and there among yards and yards and yards of empty pews trying to stay awake by seeing if I could tell how many of the older men had already nodded off. She was trying to do some kind of creative, trendy thing, but most of her congregation was obviously there to do their Sunday morning time and get on to the cafeteria. But I've seen many similar scenes in SBC churches, not with a female preacher, but the same general atmosphere.

I don't think William is going to tell us which church he visited. I might venture a guess. There are only a few "exclusively" CBF churches in the Atlanta area, though he might have gone outside his turf. But among those exclusively affiliated, the one I would think would be the most likely location to meet his description of a "Biblical Sermon" would be First Baptist Church of Marietta.

[Dave Roberts]

[Tim Bonney]

I've some great and some poor sermons in just about any denominational church I've visited including what William describes in his blog as a patriotic fest, a red in the face shouting match, and some where you wondered why they bothered to read the Bible since it really wasn't in the sermon much.

My sermons are on the web if anyone is ever bored enough to surf over to my church page. My northern UMC friends think I still sound a little like a southerner (Missouri is south of Iowa) but to any of you real southerners I'm sure I don't.

[Dave Roberts]

Sermons from Hampton Baptist are posted each week on the website. It's probably not great reading, but anyone is welcome to see what is preached in this CBF-exclusive church: .

[Tim Dahl]

This reminds me...I need to put some of my latest sermons online so that I can get feedback/critique.

Tim

[Tim Bonney]

[Big Daddy Weaver]

There are more than "a few" exclusively CBF churches in the metro Atlanta area. I think William is much much closer to Athens than metro Atlanta, right?

My guess is FBC Athens.

I'd be willing to call Milledge Avenue an exclusively CBF church. I don't know if they are or not. But the BSU folks who worked at UGA were told they could no longer attend Milledge not too many years back due to its CBF ties.

[Sandy]

CBF's website doesn't list churches as being "exclusively" CBF or not, just those who are affiliated. Within a 25 mile radius of Atlanta, there are twenty churches listed. I know that you Georgia folks generally talk about most of the northern part of the state as being "near Atlanta," which could, for some people, include Athens, I guess. But Athens wouldn't be within a 25 mile radius.

It would be interesting to know which of those 20 churches are exclusively affiliated, and which still support the SBC. I know one of them, Virginia-Highland, is dually affiliated with the UCC. And last time I checked, Dunwoody and Second Ponce and Wieuca Road were still contributing to the CP. I have a former seminary classmate whose family attends Northside Drive, and they are big with the Alliance as well as CBF. I would guess Druid Hills and FBC Decatur would be exclusively CBF. Beyond that, I wouldn't be able to guess.

I would have thought that there would be more CBF churches in Georgia than in Texas, but looking at the list on their website, I'm surprised that only 60 churches are listed in Georgia.

[Neil Heath]

[BTeditor]

Neil- I love how the GBC forced you and another employee to leave your/our church for membership in another "approved" church — that then called me as interim pastor. Too funny.

[Tim Bonney]

I guess that's called Baptist autonomy? Yeah, right.

[Big Daddy Weaver]

We Weavers will be in Vidalia the first weekend in August for the 10-year reunion of The Oaks Baptist Church in Lyons, where my dad was the founding pastor.

The Oaks was the product of a sort of moderate-fundy split which began, in part, with $1K being in the budget for CBF. That item was removed but things went down hill fast.

I really don't know what the church is like anymore. I haven't kept up with too many people there—although my parents have. Last time I've been south of Atlanta was in 2005. But, I do know the church has changed somewhat.

Interestingly, the group that drove the "moderates" out of FBC Lyons ended up with a very very different church. The new pastor implemented a megachurch model, contemporary worship, church discipline, very connected to Southern Baptist leaders etc. That church experienced great growth, new buildings, etc. under the new pastor but also resulted in a complete changing of the guard.

Within a few years, some of the crowd that drove out the moderates (or sat silently by) ended up at The Oaks.

[Neil Heath]