In England denominational loyalty is very loose for most Christians. A church will usually have people from many different church backgrounds. What matters is the individual church, not the grouping that it happens to belong to. In the last 20 years or so, the co-operation between churches in England has increased considerably.
I know a former Baptist minister, who following his retirement become an ordained Anglican clergyman, and is part of a team ministry serving a groups of Anglican churches. So much for retirement! (There was a Baptist church in the area, but not for me to comment).
Just because a church is baptist doesn't make it sound. Or, it might be sound, but soundly asleep, or irrelevant to the surrounding lost society.
(When I went away to University, my (Baptist) minister warned me to avoid the main Baptist church in the city as it was theologically liberal).
Hants,
Here in Australia the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational denominations joined to form the Uniting Church of Australia in 1977. Most who 'united' were of a theologically liberal persuasion, so the Uniting Church is now predominantly theologically liberal.
However, because of some twist in organisation, a number of conservative Presbyterian churches continued as the
Presbyterian Church of Australia. It's a small denomination of about 38,000 people across the nation.
My wife and I attend one of those congregations for these reasons:
(a) When we moved to Brisbane, we checked out a number of churches, including Baptists, in our region and found only the Presbyterian that was preaching soundly (expositionally) from the Bible. One Baptist church we attended never even read the Bible in the entire service;
(b) The gospel light in much of the rap music sung in the congregation is in contrast with much of the theologically sound material in the older hymns. The organ and piano are still played at this Presbyterian church and hymns are sung.
There are some disadvantages:
(a) I do not support covenant theology that plays itself out in infant baptism. On Sunday week there is an infant baptism and I choose not to attend for such.
(b) Associated with its strong emphasis on TULIP Calvinism, this church does very little evangelistic outreach. I had one conservative Presbyterian minister (a former Baptist minister) who told me, 'God will bring them in'. No evangelism was done in association with that church.
(c) Since I am a Reformed Arminian by theological belief, I do not support some of the Calvinistic emphases.
(d) The congregation is becoming grey-haired and reducing in numbers. However, some Presbyterian churches are into rock 'n roll Christianity (you now know my era) with the music in the services. I have a friend who attends such a service and he tells me that he puts a plug in his ears for the first half of the service, but he appreciates the substance of the sermon.
I understand that a leader of a Baptist denomination in my part of the world tells retiring Baptist pastors that they ought to attend a local Presbyterian church. That's what I heard from one retired Baptist pastor.
In Christ, Oz
