Hear these gospel lessons:

An AP news story by Susan Montoya, "Baptist Strategy: Change Church Name To Attract More Members," reports a trend among Baptist Churches of removing ‘Baptist’ from their name in an effort to increase membership. For instance, in 1992 the Trinity Baptist Church of Round Rock, TX, changed its name to the Fellowship of Forest Creek and added hundreds of members. The Rev. Roddy Clyde said, “I’m not ashamed to be a Baptist, but a brand name can be a hindrance. Some people mistakenly associate the Baptist name with an angry, judgmental kind of fundamentalism.”

In Grapevine, TX the 6,000 member Las Colinas Baptist Church has now become the Fellowship Church in order to draw a new, younger crowd. “Basically, we changed the name for one reason - to reach as many people as possible,” said senior pastor Ed Young. “People now don’t have the product loyalty, or the denominational loyalty, they once had.” While their numbers increased dramatically when the name changed, they also had some conservative members leave because of it. At the Lake Hills Church in Austin, TX, pastor Mack Richard took Baptist out of the title to remove what he regarded as a barrier to people of other denominations.

Other Baptists, such as Ken Hemphill, president of the Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX, disagree that removing Baptist is the crux of the matter. “The key issue is not necessarily the name, but changes in the content of what happens in the church,” he said.

The New Testament teaches there is one church (Eph. 4:4). The church belongs to Christ. He purchased it with His blood (Matt. 16:18; Acts 20:28). There are no denominational names in the New Testament (including Baptist). For this reason, we do not use them.

The church of Christ is not a denomination within Christendom. It was not built by men, organized by men or named by men. The term, “church of Christ” is a descriptive term of possession - the church that belongs to Christ. The church does not belong to Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans, or any other denomination. It belongs to Christ. When sinners obey the gospel, Christ saves them and adds that person to His church (Acts 2:47; 4:12).

Some brethren have adopted a similar approach to the “name” of the church as these Baptists. They no longer use ‘church of Christ’ to advertise themselves to the community. They conclude it alienates potential converts and have decided to use it sparingly, if at all. I understand there are a variety of Biblical descriptions of the church, any one of which satisfies the need to identify the people of God. What concerns us is the thought that Christians are swayed by public opinion to minimize Scriptural practices. The “whole counsel of God” (including the truth about the church) must be preached and practiced at all times, even when others view it with disagreement or even hostility.

For instance, many people view the church of Christ as an “angry, judgmental kind of fundamentalism” because we do not use instrumental music in our worship. Should we therefore move a piano into our worship hall - so long as we do not play it? Others are turned off by the moral strictness of the Bible. Should we therefore begin to teach it is okay to go to the bars to mix and mingle - just don’t drink the liquor (1 Cor. 15:33)? Should we begin to advocate attending dances - just as long as you don’t dance? (Maybe we can draw more people to Christ that way?) What about offering a basketball league to the community? Don’t you imagine we could draw a lot of young people that way? So goes men's wisdom.

Let the Baptists drop the name Baptist; It isn’t in the Bible anyway. Let them go back to the New Testament for all they do. We do not need to be like the nations around us to succeed; We need obedient faith in Christ. 

-The Spirit's Sword, 17Jan99, revised

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The Spirit's Sword is a free, weekly publication of the Mt. Baker church of Christ, Bellingham, WA
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