Bingo!

Some of these made me laugh out loud. Enjoy.

Thankful for These Experiences

I'm thankful to God for providing me with numerous experiences that have challenged the way I think about Jesus Christ and His church. It has been quite an array of different people and places that has shaped what I now believe and who I am. I share these not to boast in any way, but to thank God for His great grace in allowing me to be a part of these things:

I was raised in Houghton, NY. Houghton is a small town in western New York State that is home to Houghton College and Houghton Wesleyan Church. In this environment, I met many missionaries serving around the world. Since Houghton College is attended by Christians of almost all evangelical denominations, I was able to talk to many people about why they believe what they believe.

When we moved to Georgia in 1996, we began attending the First Baptist Church of Springfield. This was our first exposure to Southern Baptist doctrine, life, and tradition. After four years at FBC-Springfield, we moved to another local SBC church. That church, Emmanuel Baptist, had a much different worship style (contemporary vs. traditional), but much the same structure and beliefs.

Study Shows One-in-Six Americans Are Baptist

I didn't realize that there are so many Baptists in the USA. The Pew Forum has found, however, that about 17% of our country claims to be Baptist. The chart below helps us see how the numbers break down (click directly on the image to make it larger).


To read the full article, click here.

Let's Know Church History

Baptists (myself included) in general have little knowledge of those who have gone before us. This is not a good thing. We should be aware of who the Baptists were, where they lived, what they believed, when they lived, and why they are worthy of remembrance.

I encourage you to visit the Baptist Cameos page at The Reformed Reader. You will find numerous short, biographical sketches of Baptists from the past. These include theologians, pastors, missionaries, and historians.

For example, the first paragraph about Charles Spurgeon says, "Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) was England's best-known preacher for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1854, just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 20, became pastor of London's famed New Park Street Church (formerly pastored by the famous Baptist theologian John Gill). The congregation quickly outgrew their building, moved to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall. In these venues Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering more than 10,000—all in the days before electronic amplification. In 1861 the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed Metropolitan Tabernacle."

As another example, the sketch on William Carey reads, "Father of modern missions. He was the author of An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (1792); preacher of the sermon at the Baptist associational meeting in Nottingham, May 31, 1792, on text of Isaiah 54:2-3 and the theme, 'Expect great thing from God; attempt great things for God'; and leader in founding The Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen (later named the Baptist Missionary Society) at Kettering on Oct. 2, 1792, which in turn launched the "society method" of missionary support and direction, and the whole modern evangelical missionary endeavor. With physician John Thomas he went to India under the appointment of the Baptist Missionary Society, devoting 41 of his 73 years to India without a return to his homeland. He was an able linguist and translator; a botanist of considerable reputation; and a missionary statesman par excellence."

Let's know our history and be thankful to God for the service of those before us.

Good Info on Historic Baptists

Click directly on the image to make it large enough to read.



(Taken from this site.)

Text of Baptist Faith & Message 2000 on Wordle

Click on the picture to enlarge. This shows the most prominent words in the BF&M 2000.



To see more on Wordle, click here.