“How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity”
King David
I recently read an article by the retired director of the Columbia SC Baptist Association lamenting that Baptist Associations are receiving less support from churches. While I don’t know the state of associations in South Carolina, it made me appreciative that here in Central Texas our area Bluebonnet Baptist Association is alive and well. Our church, then called Seguin Baptist Church, is a charter member from the Association’s beginning in 1858. I was a new young pastor back in 1984 when the then forty-one churches in the Association voted to hire our first full-time Director. We are now on our third Associational Director and I have counted all as friends. Our church consistently ranks among the top three (currently second) in financial contributions to the Association, and I currently serve on the Association’s Executive Committee and have in the past served multiple times as the associational Moderator.
Over the years it is true we have lost a few churches. In 2001, Cranes Mill Baptist Church withdrew on the grounds that they didn’t agree with the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message Doctrinal Statement which the Association had adopted. The following year, Trinity Baptist Church in Seguin stopped support for the Association as their pastor began questioning the need for Jesus for salvation. And along the way Lockhart First Baptist Church moved to the Austin Baptist Association, though this year the requested to rejoin the Bluebonnet Baptist Association. But the few losses have been more than made up for by new churches joining our Association, all of which affirm Biblical doctrines as outlined in the Baptist Faith and Message. Today, a third of the churches in our Association are church plants which have now matured into churches, bringing our total to 62 churches.
One major change over the past forty years of our Association is the use of the word “Baptist,” or lack of it, in the names of the member churches. Back in 1984, there was not a single church in the Association which did not have the word “Baptist” in its name. Today our Associational Director attends a church which does not have the word “Baptist” in its name. Our previous Associational Director attends a church which does not have the word “Baptist” in its name. And this extends to our state and national conventions. The Executive Director of the Southern Baptists of Texas State Convention attends a church which does not have the word “Baptist” in its name. The state convention’s recent annual training conference was well attended with around 2,000 people; they met at Sagemont (formerly Baptist) Church in Houston. This year’s annual meeting of the state convention will be held in November at Cross City Church (formerly First Baptist Church) in Euless. Two of the past three presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention pastor churches which lack the word “Baptist” in their names.
But the most noteworthy statistic is the percentage of people in our Bluebonnet Baptist Association who attend a worship service on an average Sunday in a church which lacks the word “Baptist” in its name. Sixty percent. Let that sink in for a minute. The average combined worship attendance throughout our Baptist Association is 12,574 people, and of that total, 7,544 people are attending churches which lack the word “Baptist” in their names. These churches are active contributing members of our Baptist Association and of the Southern Baptist Convention. (Note: I omitted Oakwood Church in New Braunfels from the count as they are members of both the Bluebonnet and San Antonio Associations; if Oakwood’s attendance is included the percentage goes up to 69% who attend churches without “Baptist” in their names.)
So to answer the question, yes, a church can be Baptist without the word Baptist in its name. If that were not the case, our local Bluebonnet Baptist Association would lose most of its attendance.