Do you have Questions for a Southern Baptist?

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lanman87 said:
Not in Alabama. Some states have a liberal group that left the state convention because the state convention refused to budge on inerrancy of scripture, homosexual marriage and so forth.
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What is the ordination process like? I realize each church is in charge of selecting its own pastor, but I’m curious about the general process if there is such a one. I know the SBC has seminaries. How common is it for pastors to be seminary graduates? Is there any type of search process for a new pastor? And is there any kind of religious service or ceremony that accompanies ordination?
 
ltwin said:
What is the ordination process like? I realize each church is in charge of selecting its own pastor, but I’m curious about the general process if there is such a one. I know the SBC has seminaries. How common is it for pastors to be seminary graduates? Is there any type of search process for a new pastor? And is there any kind of religious service or ceremony that accompanies ordination?
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Typically,
When a young man (or any man) senses he is called into the ministry by the Holy Spirit he will work with a mentor pastor. At some point, the mentor will bring in other ministers who will interview the young man about his faith and calling. If the group agrees, they will bring the young man before the church and the church will affirm that the young man has been called into the ministry. At that point, an ordination ceremony will be scheduled.

During the ordination ceremony the young man will sit in a chair in front of the alter area and all the men in the church who have been previously ordained will take turns laying hands and praying for the young man.

More often than not, those who are called to be a pastor go to Seminary, but not always. There are many non-seminary trained pastors, particularly in the rural areas.

When a pastor leaves a church the members form a search team who then goes out to find a new pastor. Usually the church appoints an interim or transitional pastor. Interim pastors are usually retired pastors who live in the community. When the search team reaches a consensus on someone to call as Pastor they will invite him to the church to preach and for a meet and greet. The church will then vote on whether to call the prospective pastor to be the new pastor of the church.
 
lanman87 said:
Typically,
When a young man (or any man) senses he is called into the ministry by the Holy Spirit he will work with a mentor pastor. At some point, the mentor will bring in other ministers who will interview the young man about his faith and calling. If the group agrees, they will bring the young man before the church and the church will affirm that the young man has been called into the ministry. At that point, an ordination ceremony will be scheduled.

During the ordination ceremony the young man will sit in a chair in front of the alter area and all the men in the church who have been previously ordained will take turns laying hands and praying for the young man.

h.
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Hmm…so the young man is laid hands on before going to seminary for training? Not after training?

Well…what happens if he decides later to not go through? Will he still be considered ordained? or rather, what would be the status of his “ordination”?
 
pablope said:
Hmm…so the young man is laid hands on before going to seminary for training? Not after training?

Well…what happens if he decides later to not go through? Will he still be considered ordained? or rather, what would be the status of his “ordination”?
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Yes, Baptist view ordination as being “set apart”. It is a response to a personal call of God to devote their life to be a pastor, missionary, or some other Christian vocation. When they are ordained they are “set apart” for the ministry. There are no education requirements to be “set apart”. Most will go on to college/seminary in order to be better equipped to carry out their calling, but not all.

If he doesn’t continue in the ministry then he just will not get called to be a pastor of a church.
 
lanman87 said:
You should come to my church because you will be loved as a brother in Christ. You will be encouraged and taught to grow in your faith. You will be encouraged to use your spiritual and natural gifts to expand the Kingdom of God. You will develop relationships with Christian Brothers and Sisters who will support you as you deal with the trials of life and rejoice with you when you experience the joys of life. You will be given the opportunity to serve the Lord both in the body and in the community.
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I can do this outside of a building. Are there other reasons that I should come to the church building on Sunday or any other day?
 
josephback said:
I can do this outside of a building. Are there other reasons that I should come to the church building on Sunday or any other day?
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The Catholic response to this would be to participate in the heavenly worship and to receive the Eucharist.
 
josephback said:
I can do this outside of a building. Are there other reasons that I should come to the church building on Sunday or any other day?
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You can do that outside of attending the church building but I submit that is very difficult, if not impossible, to do it outside of the local church. To a Baptist, the church isn’t the building. The local church is a group of believers who meet together to worship, pray, support, equip and encourage each other to grow in faith and live out the Gospel.
 
lanman, I have a question…

Can a person be baptized more than once and when would this be appropriate?
 
ajcstr said:
lanman, I have a question…

Can a person be baptized more than once and when would this be appropriate?
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We adhere to believers baptism. The only time I’ve seen someone baptized more than once is if they come to the pastor/elders and say they didn’t believe the first time they were baptized. This happens occasionally. Usually it is someone who was baptized as a child or teenager and did so because their friends were being baptized or because they felt pressure from family to be baptized. Faith wasn’t involved in the decision. Later on in life they will realize that they came to faith in Christ sometime after they were baptized and ask to be re-baptized as a believer.
 
lanman87 said:
We adhere to believers baptism. The only time I’ve seen someone baptized more than once is if they come to the pastor/elders and say they didn’t believe the first time they were baptized. This happens occasionally. Usually it is someone who was baptized as a child or teenager and did so because their friends were being baptized or because they felt pressure from family to be baptized. Faith wasn’t involved in the decision. Later on in life they will realize that they came to faith in Christ sometime after they were baptized and ask to be re-baptized as a believer.
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How about if they just feel they are not leading a Christian life?

What I am getting at is Catholics would use the sacrament of penance if he/she believed sin was excessive, there does not appear to be a parallel in protestant thought. I’m guessing once saves always saved would make this unnecessary.
 
ajcstr said:
How about if they just feel they are not leading a Christian life?

What I am getting at is Catholics would use the sacrament of penance if he/she believed sin was excessive, there does not appear to be a parallel in protestant thought. I’m guessing once saves always saved would make this unnecessary.
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We believe that Christians who fall into sin are convicted of that sin by the Holy Spirit and are called to repentance. When this happens the person will often confide in a pastor, relative or close friend that they are under conviction and will get counseling in how to overcome the sins they are struggling with.

For instance, if someone is watching porn and comes under conviction they will often go to a pastor and enter into counseling. This is done privately and the members of the church are not alerted to what is going on. This also happens with marriage problems, alcoholism and so forth.

There is no formal process of penance, like within the Catholic church. Our pastors don’t say, do something (Hail Mary’s or whatnot) and you will be absolved of you sin. They say, stop doing what you are doing and pray to God, confessing what you have been doing and ask Him to change you and make you more like Him. But we understand the God uses counseling, doctors, friends and family as well as the Bible and the Holy Spirit to shape us and mold us and make us more like Him. Sometimes there is a miraculous “God took the sinful desire away from me” moment but most often the fight against sin is a struggle and we, as the family of God, are all enlisted to help each other deal with that struggle.

The Baptist church is about community and we do our best to bear each other burdens, help each other overcome sin, and encourage each other to live a life worthy of the Gospel.

But to finally answer your question:D, no, if someone feels they have drifted away from God then they aren’t re-baptized. They are encouraged to repent and confess then worship and serve and seek the Lord with all their heart.
 
lanman87 said:
To a Baptist, the church isn’t the building. The local church is a group of believers who meet together to worship, pray, support, equip and encourage each other to grow in faith and live out the Gospel.
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This should be true for Catholics as well. The community of believers is ultimately the Church, though that is not for us separate from what we’d call the Petrine dimension of the Church (Bishops, priests, deacons). Each Catholic household should be a Church. Now, we still believe in having the community liturgy and the sacraments, too.
 
lanman87 said:
There is no formal process of penance, like within the Catholic church. Our pastors don’t say, do something (Hail Mary’s or whatnot) and you will be absolved of you sin.
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Only because we have had some discussions in the “James” thread and I kinda know where you are coming from, I just wanted to clarify this. Hopefully I will be able to explain this properly. In confession the sin is forgiven once the priest absolves the confessor. The actual forgiveness of the sin is not tied to the penance. The penance is a way of repairing the damage that the sin has caused. This can be done through prayer, alms giving or fasting. Normally the penance is prayer but it could also be reaching out to an injured party or something like that.

Pope Francis had a great comment on confession:

To go to confession “is not like going to the dry cleaners to get a stain removed,” the Pope said. “No! It’s about going to meet with our Father who pardons us, who forgives us and who rejoices.”
 
ajcstr said:
Only because we have had some discussions in the “James” thread and I kinda know where you are coming from, I just wanted to clarify this. Hopefully I will be able to explain this properly. In confession the sin is forgiven once the priest absolves the confessor. The actual forgiveness of the sin is not tied to the penance. The penance is a way of repairing the damage that the sin has caused. This can be done through prayer, alms giving or fasting. Normally the penance is prayer but it could also be reaching out to an injured party or something like that.

Pope Francis had a great comment on confession:

To go to confession “is not like going to the dry cleaners to get a stain removed,” the Pope said. “No! It’s about going to meet with our Father who pardons us, who forgives us and who rejoices.”
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Thank you for the explanation.
 
josephback said:
I can do this outside of a building. Are there other reasons that I should come to the church building on Sunday or any other day?
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I believe Christ founded a Church that would be visible to the world. I believe that is why we have Church buildings.
 
Lanman, have you figured out what the Southern Baptists teach about Romans 3:1-2?

MJ
 
MartinJordan said:
Lanman, have you figured out what the Southern Baptists teach about Romans 3:1-2?

MJ
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As far as I can tell there is no particular theological teaching from that passage. The only references I can find basically say that the Jews had the advantage of being given the revelations of God, and just because some of them were unfaithful, God was still faithful.

Apparently, some were teaching that God uses our sin to prove His own righteousness(v5) and that the more we sin the better (v8)

v 1-4 seem to be an introduction to Paul’s argument against that teaching.
 
Michael68 said:
I believe Christ founded a Church that would be visible to the world. I believe that is why we have Church buildings.
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I agree, but I believe the visible church is the people who are in the world but not of the world. I see the building as a tool used to equip the saints to go into the world and live the Gospel in such a way to make Christ known.
 
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