{"id":1294,"date":"2009-05-19T23:40:43","date_gmt":"2009-05-20T07:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/?p=1294"},"modified":"2009-05-22T10:36:39","modified_gmt":"2009-05-22T18:36:39","slug":"why-fbf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2009\/05\/19\/why-fbf\/","title":{"rendered":"why FBF?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scott Aniol asks<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Pastor Harding (or others),<\/p>\n

I am honestly curious about this: what are the benefits of joining the FBF? What reason would a young, separatistic, Calvinistic (or Arminian, for that matter) brother have for joining?<\/p>\n

If he wants to go to a FBF conference because he’s interested in the topics or speakers, he can regardless if he is a member.<\/p>\n

If he wants to read or even write for Frontline, he can regardless if he is a member.<\/p>\n

I’m just really, honestly wondering what value there is in joining.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here are my reasons for being a member of the FBFI:<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Identification <\/strong>– I am quite happy to be identified by the kind of Baptist Fundamentalism represented by the men listed on the FBFI board, from the executive down to the state and country representatives level. I am fortunate enough to count many of them as personal friends (one as a former roommate during seminary days), but it isn’t just the ‘old school ties’ that bind me to these men. It is their willingness to stand up as Baptist Fundamentalists who are unwilling to compromise with modernism or its sympathizers while still maintaining a healthy Christian and Baptist ministry in their local churches. That’s the kind of ministry I want to have and the kind of ministry I want to identify myself with.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Fellowship <\/strong>– where we live and minister, like-minded churches and pastors are few and far between. The men in the Northwest Regional Fellowship are such an encouragement to me and my ministry that I can’t express strongly enough how valuable this is. It may be that men in the east have more fellowship than they can handle. Perhaps they are jaded with fellowship. All I can say is, come west, young man, and you will find out how precious fellowship is.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>Balanced Focus <\/strong>– some fellowships focus on “single issue theology<\/em>“. In my view, single-issue fellowship breeds unhealthy churches and church life. One constantly must come back to the touchstone, whether it be the Jerusalem Chamber or Geneva, or else one is suspect. In the FBFI men have differing views on points that are not matters of fundamentalism, but agree to fellowship with one another regardless. That, I believe, is a balanced focus, even if we may be critical of each other at times if we happen to address areas of difference. I have found acceptance within the FBF fellowship even though my views may not be exactly the same as the men I fellowship with. For that I am grateful.<\/p>\n

~~~<\/p>\n

Of course, on that last one, everyone could just agree with me and then we’d have no worries, right??? [Just kidding!]<\/p>\n

Maranatha!
\nDon Johnson
\nJer 33.3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scott Aniol asks: Pastor Harding (or others), I am honestly curious about this: what are the benefits of joining the FBF? What reason would a young, separatistic, Calvinistic (or Arminian, for that matter) brother have for joining? If he wants to go to a FBF conference because he’s interested in the topics or speakers, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[37,71],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2fYWj-kS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1294"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1296,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294\/revisions\/1296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}