Could someone explain basically, what Baptist Churches are like?

Hi L4JC,
I grew up Pentecostal and am now in a Baptist church. I will tell the differences in relation to my Pentecostal church. In no way am I characterizing all Pent. churches as I do mine.

Baptist churches can have two types of music, either praise and worship or traditional hymns or a combination. Typically, the church is very cordial and dress is usually a little more reserved (no shorts for adults). The sermon is usually a very heart felt, literal Bible interpretation based talk of about 45 minutes. Baptist churches seem to be more positive than my experiences in Pentecostal church. My Pent. church was very much into scaring the congregation with fire and brimstone. Baptists don't believed in backsliding, which I think is one of the main differences b/w most Bapt and most Pent churches. Baptists are also teetotalers (no alcohol). Most Baptist churches are not KJV-only, but most preach from the KJV. From my experience, I believe Pent. churches are typically KJV-only. (Again, I am only relaying my Pent. experiences, not an overall characterization.)

I found the Baptist's positive nature through preaching a focus on the love and grace of God a very refreshing theology that coincides with Biblical teaching. They do balance this with the reality of condemnation, but they do not focus on it. Our Baptist church typically preaches 3 positive for every negative Scriptural precedent. (I looked through my notes to check this. )

Typically, Baptist preachers present communion once a quarter, so 4 times a year and on special dates. Sermons are typically regulated to fit within the time constraints and Baptist preachers typically try to get out on time.

The Baptist message again is a literal expositional preaching style. Preachers will look at a passage's context and the history and language behind it to preach from.

God bless,
Dave

PS- when I went to Fairford for an airshow, my crew stayed in Swindon. We looked for a Baptist church but could not find one, so we went to a beautiful Methodist church on the outskirts of Swindon. It was a very good sermon and the people were so nice.

I'll offer my opinion/experience for what it's worth...

I grew up in baptist churches (my dad was a preacher), and I am currently the pastor of a baptist church. However, prior to taking this pastorate, I worked full time for four and half years at an Assemblies of God college. It was a great learning experience for both me and those with whom I worked. We were able to do away with a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings that we had about each other.

The differences really only existed in doctrine. Specifically the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. They believe the baptism of the HS is something subsequent to salvation and is evidenced by speaking in tongues. Baptists believe the baptism of the HS is something that happens at the moment of salvation and is a fact not an experience. But when you work together day after day, you find that you can set aside what turns out to be such a minor difference and embrace each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

I found almost no difference in the style of worship in their AoG services and the baptist worship services that I'm used to. Music was similar and the preaching was similar. A lot more people in the AoG churhes (and chapel services at the school) lift their hands during music. Fewer in our baptist churches do that.

Of course, there are a lot of different styles of worship and preaching in baptist churches...it all depends on the part of the country (or which country) you're in. I think that is probably true about AoG churches too.

Anyway, that's my experience...but I'm in the U.S. I don't know if this is helpful at all.

Praise God anyhow!!

Each individual Baptist church is an autonomous entity that can determine policy, style and doctrine independently of other Baptist churches. So you will find that one baptist church often varies significantly from another. I've only attended Pentecostal service once and found it relatively similar to a typical evangelical service.

I would say that the church that daveleau describes is fairly representative of a majority of Baptist churches. But it is very possible that there could be another baptist church just down the road that is more like mine.

1. We sing about 80% CCM with 20% more traditional hymns (in a contemporary style)
2. Our dress is very casual. Shorts and jeans are common sights.
3. I'm not sure what not believing in backsliding means but our baptist church is not a Calvinistic Baptist church
4. We are not tee-totalers. Moderate alcohol consumption is common
5. We preach from various translations but usually use the NIV, rarely KJV
6. We observe communion once a month, and have some additional "special" communion services.
7. Our pastors are pretty good about preaching for 30 minutes
8. Their sermons would not be described as "expository" but dig deeply into the scriptures
9. Their sermons also would not be described as strictly "literal" and are definitely not "fundamentalist" or "fire and brimstone".
10. I think conservative evangelical and generally more topical would be a fair description of the type of preaching.

Althought the term "backslidden" is not a Biblical term Baptists do believe that christians can fall into sin but not lose their salvation. Just as a child breaks a parent's rule that doesn't mean they stop being their child but is punished for it such as Hebrews 12:6-10 talks about God chastening his children when we sin.

In the south you will find a wide variety of churches and worship styles. Some churches stick with mostly hymn books and a few choruses but some do use the time for a praise and worship time. The churches are going through a changing in many ways of style of worship. From my experiences visiting a few Pentecostal type churches are more into "emotional" type services and you really don't go away with anything deep.
Most Pastors though do have deep Biblical Bible studies in their preaching you leave with know more about the Bible and also a challenge to apply what you learned to your life. My pastor doesn't preach fire and brimstone as to scare people out of hell which I know some people that's what it takes but to show that God's way is the right way and that it is a good thing and positive. My pastor did come out of the Church of God denomination after personal Bible study and has been pastoring in the Baptist church for better than 20 years.
As for dress depends most of the churches here do advocate modesty no matter what the person is wearing. Not saying the outside appearance is not important but it does seem that charismatic type church focuses more on the outward appearance than on the inward appearance. We are also non-alcoholic drinkers mostly in the south you will still find members who drink but goes against what their church teaches.

I could try to explain this to you, but I think that this site does a much better job than I ever could.

http://www.baptiststart.com/doctrine.htm