So why did you stay?

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RAIDER

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On another thread folks have been posting their stories about leaving the IFB movement.  It has been very interesting.  This thread is for those who have stayed in the IFB movement.  I'm sure many have encountered some of the same circumstances as those who have left, yet you have stayed.  Tell us about your journey. 
 
I've never considered any church I've been in to be a part of any "movement".

Now, I could give many reasons why I stay OUT of other churches.
 
I came to know the Lord as my Savior because someone from an IFB church knocked on our door and invited me to ride a bus.  My parents were reached by the pastor of an IFB church because someone followed up on them after I rode the bus.  God performed a tremendous miracle in the lives of my parents as he saved them and totally transformed their lives through an IFB church.  I was in a public school surrounded by the drug culture of the '70s.  My parents put me in an IFB Christian school.  When I graduated from HS I attended an IFB college.  When I graduated from college I attended an IFB church.  When I have moved, we made sure there was an IFB church in the area.

Through the years I have seen the imperfections of people that attend IFB churches.  I have been disappointed by some leaders in IFB churches.  Through the years I have heard a few sermons with which I didn't agree. 

Bottom line - The pure Gospel is still preached in the IFB church which I attend.  My pastor loves the Lord and the people which God has given him to pastor.  I am able to serve and help others through the ministries of the IFB church which I attend.  I am fed by the preaching of my pastor at the IFB church which I attend. We still see people saved and baptized at the IFB church which I attend.  We still sing hymns at the IFB church which I attend.  The IFB church which I attend still reaches out to help the poor and those in need in the community.  You get the idea.

There has never been a time in my life that I have been tempted in the least to leave the IFB movement.  For every bad apple there are 100s of Godly people.  I'm not making a decision to leave based on the failure and fall of an IFB preacher no matter how big the name.  I'm not leaving the IFB movement because of the way a small group of people or a preacher treat me.  You can find bad preachers and bad people in all denominations.  I guess what I am saying is that I'm not throwing out the baby with the bath water.  In the last 48 years I have left two IFB churches.  I left one because of the direction which the preacher was leading the church.  I left the other because the preacher was not preaching sound Bible doctrine.  On neither occasion did I consider not attending another IFB church.

Please don't take this as hard criticism.  There have been several times when we were on vacation or visiting friends that I attended a church from another denomination.  The contemporary music (not every song) was not my cup of tea.  Reading scripture from another version made me uncomfortable.  The motivational speaker preaching style didn't float my boat.  Now, I know every non IFB church is not this way.  In my experience it has been consistently this way.

This is why I have stayed.                 
 
RAIDER said:
I came to know the Lord as my Savior because someone from an IFB church knocked on our door and invited me to ride a bus.  My parents were reached by the pastor of an IFB church because someone followed up on them after I rode the bus.  God performed a tremendous miracle in the lives of my parents as he saved them and totally transformed their lives through an IFB church.  I was in a public school surrounded by the drug culture of the '70s.  My parents put me in an IFB Christian school.  When I graduated from HS I attended an IFB college.  When I graduated from college I attended an IFB church.  When I have moved, we made sure there was an IFB church in the area.

Through the years I have seen the imperfections of people that attend IFB churches.  I have been disappointed by some leaders in IFB churches.  Through the years I have heard a few sermons with which I didn't agree. 

Bottom line - The pure Gospel is still preached in the IFB church which I attend.  My pastor loves the Lord and the people which God has given him to pastor.  I am able to serve and help others through the ministries of the IFB church which I attend.  I am fed by the preaching of my pastor at the IFB church which I attend. We still see people saved and baptized at the IFB church which I attend.  We still sing hymns at the IFB church which I attend.  The IFB church which I attend still reaches out to help the poor and those in need in the community.  You get the idea.

There has never been a time in my life that I have been tempted in the least to leave the IFB movement.  For every bad apple there are 100s of Godly people.  I'm not making a decision to leave based on the failure and fall of an IFB preacher no matter how big the name.  I'm not leaving the IFB movement because of the way a small group of people or a preacher treat me.  You can find bad preachers and bad people in all denominations.  I guess what I am saying is that I'm not throwing out the baby with the bath water.  In the last 48 years I have left two IFB churches.  I left one because of the direction which the preacher was leading the church.  I left the other because the preacher was not preaching sound Bible doctrine.  On neither occasion did I consider not attending another IFB church.

Please don't take this as hard criticism.  There have been several times when we were on vacation or visiting friends that I attended a church from another denomination.  The contemporary music (not every song) was not my cup of tea.  Reading scripture from another version made me uncomfortable.  The motivational speaker preaching style didn't float my boat.  Now, I know every non IFB church is not this way.  In my experience it has been consistently this way.

This is why I have stayed.               
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When I have been castigated, ridiculed and laughed at for my church affiliation, I think of what Peter said:
"to whom (or where) shall we go?"
I came out of the Rock music crowd...Don't want to go back.
Used to use the NIV and other versions of the Bible...Aint going back to that either.
Used to drink, saw the effects, aint going back there again.
Churches seem to be changing like the wind.
I am not opposed to some technology, and I like some new songs.
But I am for old fashioned, soul searching, sin hating, Jesus exalting preaching with conviction.




 
Because it was the right thing to do...most of what was taught was right.

I don't agree with throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  There are people in my church that have done exactly that.  It's sad. 

Those that throw the baby out tend to make me think they were following man before anyway and never got grounded themselves.  Hence overreacting and going to places they shouldn't be.
 
RAIDER said:
I came to know the Lord as my Savior because someone from an IFB church knocked on our door and invited me to ride a bus.  My parents were reached by the pastor of an IFB church because someone followed up on them after I rode the bus.  God performed a tremendous miracle in the lives of my parents as he saved them and totally transformed their lives through an IFB church.  I was in a public school surrounded by the drug culture of the '70s.  My parents put me in an IFB Christian school.  When I graduated from HS I attended an IFB college.  When I graduated from college I attended an IFB church.  When I have moved, we made sure there was an IFB church in the area.

Through the years I have seen the imperfections of people that attend IFB churches.  I have been disappointed by some leaders in IFB churches.  Through the years I have heard a few sermons with which I didn't agree. 

Bottom line - The pure Gospel is still preached in the IFB church which I attend.  My pastor loves the Lord and the people which God has given him to pastor.  I am able to serve and help others through the ministries of the IFB church which I attend.  I am fed by the preaching of my pastor at the IFB church which I attend. We still see people saved and baptized at the IFB church which I attend.  We still sing hymns at the IFB church which I attend.  The IFB church which I attend still reaches out to help the poor and those in need in the community.  You get the idea.

There has never been a time in my life that I have been tempted in the least to leave the IFB movement.  For every bad apple there are 100s of Godly people.  I'm not making a decision to leave based on the failure and fall of an IFB preacher no matter how big the name.  I'm not leaving the IFB movement because of the way a small group of people or a preacher treat me.  You can find bad preachers and bad people in all denominations.  I guess what I am saying is that I'm not throwing out the baby with the bath water.  In the last 48 years I have left two IFB churches.  I left one because of the direction which the preacher was leading the church.  I left the other because the preacher was not preaching sound Bible doctrine.  On neither occasion did I consider not attending another IFB church.

Please don't take this as hard criticism.  There have been several times when we were on vacation or visiting friends that I attended a church from another denomination.  The contemporary music (not every song) was not my cup of tea.  Reading scripture from another version made me uncomfortable.  The motivational speaker preaching style didn't float my boat.  Now, I know every non IFB church is not this way.  In my experience it has been consistently this way.

This is why I have stayed.               
Click to expand...
Great story Raider
 
I was reached by bus workers visiting our home. My family was reached and our lives were changed for the good. I graduated from public school. I worked to save my money for a Christian College I attended HAC the early years and worked on  campus. I attend a great church its not perfect but the pastor loves his people. We have been here over 20+ years.
 
I am a Baptist because through clear, personal and communal Bible study, I know that I am part of the group that is closely aligned with true and correct Bible doctrine.  Nothing will convince me otherwise.  A pastor once said, "{Patriotic}, it's not only Baptists that will go to heaven."  I replied, "Nope, but they will be Baptists when they get there."  (We had been joking with each other.)

I have friends - some very close friends - who have left the IFB and have attended the Christian church or the Church of God and they don't know what the differences are in what the three believe.  That is very obvious to me, and although I was taught Bible from the time I was conceived, I have also heard it preached and taught and upheld in churches where these same friends sat with me and they can't tell the difference?????

Like Raider stated, there have been times I have attended a service at another church here and there if we were traveling.  Although  I can't think of any that were of a different denomination, I have attended - ONCE - an SBC church.  He preached King James, had 3 baptisms PRIOR to the service, but we went because a relative asked us to visit their new "sanctuary". 

It wasn't until I joined the FFF that I ever saw the initialism "IFB". 
We are  just fundamental Baptists who were not associated with any denominational organization; therefore, we are independent. 
 
I remain in the IB "camp" for their distinctives.  I agree with what makes us distinct from Southern Baptists and New-evangelical megachurches.  We have many flaws that I believe are being addressed as a whole, but I don't want to lose what made us who we are.  The new IB's are going too far in my opinion and have lost their distinction.
 
cpizzle said:
The new IB's are going too far in my opinion and have lost their distinction.
Click to expand...

You'd be hard-pressed to see the distinction between them and most non-denom churches.
 
patriotic said:
It wasn't until I joined the FFF that I ever saw the initialism "IFB". 
Click to expand...

Continued proof of the educational benefits of the FFF.
 
Twisted said:
cpizzle said:
The new IB's are going too far in my opinion and have lost their distinction.
Click to expand...

You'd be hard-pressed to see the distinction between them and most non-denom churches.
Click to expand...

I agree.
I have a friend who left his church to take another ministry elsewhere.
I have known him since college.
Before he left, I could see some marked differences in his music.
Now, a new guy has taken over and the differences are widening.
It's just not me.
More praise and worship type of band music, less congregational singing of traditional hymns.
The one service I was there before the pastor left, they only sang one congregational hymn and I was really hard pressed to find a hymnal.
They put the words up on the screen, but no music to sing it by.
That's ok if you know the song off by heart, but not so ok if you don't.
Their chapel had the different color stage lights.
The new Pastor wears skinny jeans. (It was at a youth activity that I met him.)
Again, we're independent.
Do what you want, we have liberty.
But it's just not the direction I want to go.
It reminds me of the mega non-denom churches that are springing up everywhere.
 
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