"How did Baptist go from Southern standard to pejorative?"

Faith Church (nee Faith Baptist Church) has a good reputation in Lafayette IN. They are heavily involved with training Nouthetic counselors. My guess is the GARB needs them more than they need the GARB.

[jimfrank] My guess is the GARB needs them more than they need the GARB.

Is the feeling that we are to big for a denomnation what drives this?

On another note, has it been demonstated in some survey that the unsaved and unchurched turn away from a church because it has a denominational name in it? Or are we just assuming that this is what unchurched people think? I’m sure that church has some anecdotal evidence that some people refused an invitation to attend becasue they were “baptist.”

I remember that, about 27 years ago, a prominent GARB church in the D.C. area became non-denominational:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Bible_Church

Sadly our Fellowship of Grace Brethen Churches lost its biggest church about two years ago. It was never explained to my satisfaction. Mega-churches are their own denomination. Your counseling program has more administrative help than does our Fellowship office, in addtion to the church itself. Our Fellowship and the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches are both voluntary associations of independent churches. That’s why the church must send its dues to the central office and sign the Statement of Faith every year. When a church changes its name because of a publicly-stated reluctance to identify with the Baptist “brand,” it’s only a matter of time before it withdraws from the parent organization.