A little advice please

[Maffers]

Me and my wife are looking at babtist churches in the in our region and I am sorry if i sound ignorant but what is the difference between First, calvary, and southern and so on.
thanks
maff

 

[Ephesians4]

First Baptist simply means (generally speaking) that the church was the first Baptist church in the area.

Calvary Baptist is just the name of the church.

If you live in the Southern US, almost every baptist church will be either Southern Baptist or National Baptist. However, there are many, many additional baptist groups. In the Northern US and out West, you'll see both of these two groups plus a heavy influence of American Baptists.

To clarify for a moment, all baptist churches are 100% independent. What I mean is that they do not belong to a higher organization like Catholics (who have parishes, dioceses, etc. up to the Pope), Presbyterians, Methodists, etc. Each baptist church runs itself and may even have its own unique beliefs.

However, baptist churches may choose to join an association. Often there are church associations at the state level. There are also church associations at the national level (the Southern Baptist Convention or the National Baptist Convention, for example). To join the association, a church must agree to certain beliefs. Typically there is also cooperative giving towards mission work from all churches in the association. (i.e. pooling funds to send missionaries out, etc.)

There is not much difference in theology between Southern Baptists and National Baptists. Because both sprung up in the Southern US during and after slavery, sadly, these two groups divide on racial lines (with some people of each racial groups attending the other, but it tends to be a minority). National Baptists are typically African American. Southern Baptists are a bit more likely to be a mix of Caucasian, African American and Latino.

Here is a list of all Baptist groups in the US from Wikipedia.

Major Baptist organizations in the U.S.

The Handbook of Denominations in the United States identifies and describes 31 Baptist groups or conventions in the United States.[4] A partial list follows. (Unless otherwise noted, statistics are taken from the Baptist World Alliance website, and reflect 2006 data.)[2]

• Alliance of Baptists: 100 congregations, 60,000 members[3]
• American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA): 5,800 congregations, 1.4 million members
• Baptist General Convention of Texas: 5,700 congregations, 2.3 million members
• Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV): 1,400 congregations, 400,000 members
• Baptist General Conference: 1,000 congregations, 140,000 members
• Conservative Baptist Association (CBAmerica): 1,200 congregations, 200,000 members
• Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF): 1,900 congregations, 700,000 members
• General Association of Regular Baptist Churches: 1,400 congregations, 130,000 members[4]
• National Association of Free Will Baptists: 2,000 congregations, 200,000 members[5]
• Old-Line Primitive Baptists
• Progressive Primitive Baptists
• Southern Baptist Convention (SBC): 44,000 congregations, 16.3 million members[6]

• African-American Baptist groups:
  • National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.: 12,000 congregations, 3.1 million members
  • National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.: 33,000 congregations, 8.5 million members
  • National Missionary Baptist Convention of America: 300 congregations, 400,000 members
  • National Primitive Baptist Association: 1,500 congregations, 250,000 members[7]
  • Progressive National Baptist Convention: 1,200 congregations, 2.5 million members

• Associations holding to Landmarkism
  • American Baptist Association: 1,800 congregations, 275,000 members[8]
  • Baptist Missionary Association of America: 1,300 congregations, 235,000 members[9]
  • Interstate & Foreign Landmark Missionary Baptist Association

• Independent (non-aligned) Baptist churches
  • Baptist Bible Fellowship International: 3,400 congregations, 1.4 million members
  • Independent Baptist Fellowship International: 540 congregations[10]
  • Southwide Baptist Fellowship: 900 congregations[11]
  • The Spiritual Baptist Archdiocese of New York, Inc.
  • World Baptist Fellowship: 900 congregations[12]
  • In addition, there are many Independent Baptist churches not aligned with any group

I would just suggest trying out some of the Baptist churches in your area one by one and seeing what you think. Each will be slightly different because of the church members as well as the pastor. Some may be more traditional; some more contemporary; some more charismatic--it all varies.

Here are a few more relevant links:

Wikipedia: Baptists in the US: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptists_in_the_United_States

National Baptist Convention:
http://www.nationalbaptist.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Page&PageID=1000000

Southern Baptist Convention:
http://www.sbc.net/

American Baptist Association:
http://www.abaptist.org/home.shtml

I hope this helps!
e4

 

[heymikey80]

Me and my wife are looking at babtist churches in the in our region and I am sorry if i sound ignorant but what is the difference between First, calvary, and southern and so on.
thanks
maff

For what it's worth, there are some differences among every denomination of church (and even within that denomination). I'd say, attend in good faith and don't worry about it at first, just be sensitive to what God will make clear. Look for people whom you can say, "He's humble! And he's connecting with me. And he can tell me where to search in Scripture for his view."

I would also add something to this, but keep in mind it is not always necessary. If you're going to be explaining your faith to people who notice all the denominations nowadays, you may need this. You will also need teachers who know about the views that they don't believe. Then they can explain why they don't believe things, and help you make sense of those things they don't believe as well.

This last attribute is strictly so you can make sense of your own ideas in the noise of millions of viewpoints. It's not always needed, especially if you need to concentrate on your own walk with Christ for awhile. So look for the first three points I mentioned, first.