When it comes to our church, you know, we might do certain things that are just traditional
things to do, but you know what is the problem is when we basically are confronted with the
Word of God that's telling us that something that we're doing is unbiblical, but we just
say, "Well, this is how we've always done it, you know, and this is how it's been done
for hundreds of years, and I don't think all these other people were wrong."
Are you telling me that Brother So-and-so was wrong?
The hero of the faith?
No.
The Bible is our final authority in all matters of faith and practice, not Baptist tradition.
You know, there are things that Baptist churches have been doing for hundreds of years that
might not necessarily be right.
Let's throw them out.
Let's not do it.
You know?
I mean, personally, you know, I'm not a fan of the altar call.
You know, everybody comes and bows down at the feet of the pastor, at the steps leading
up to the pulpit, you know, and basically, or the Baptist confessional booth, where we
all bow our heads and close our eyes and, you know, if you're struggling with sin in
your life, that I just preached on, you know, slip up your hand, no one's looking around,
and it's like, okay, I see that hand, okay, I see that hand.
It doesn't seem biblical to me, I don't see it anywhere in the Bible, it seems Catholic,
you know, all of those things seem Catholic.
I'm not saying that churches who do that are bad or wicked, I'm not criticizing them, I
don't, I'm not saying that that church is a bad church, don't go to that church, that's
not what I'm saying, I'm just saying we're not going to do it in our church because it's
not biblical.
And I've even had people get upset at us for not having an altar call and invitation, saying
that we're not doing it right, we're not right with God, you're, this is a liberal church
because you're not having an altar call and invitation.
Would you just raise your hands up high all over this room so Jen can see them really
high?
Put your hands everywhere, we're just going to wait, we're going to give you an opportunity,
we're just going to all write, what is it that you want to surrender to the Lord and
we're going to come lay it all over this altar and even on the stage because it might be
a bottleneck.
So right now, just all over this room as we sing, just come kneel, don't be shy, everybody's
going to come.
If you want to kneel, you all can kneel.
You know what?
It's not biblical, we are trying not to be based on tradition here but rather to be based
on the word of God.
So if I see something that's just not biblical, let's cut it from the service.
I mean good, how long do you guys want to be here tonight?
You know, I just want to just be here as short as possible and get the job done.
So let's just only do stuff that God told us to do.
Let's cut out all the fluff, right?
Let's sing the hymns.
Let's pray.
Let's preach.
Let's fellowship.
Let's not waste a bunch of time bowing down at a staircase when the Bible said don't make
any stairs to go to the altar, specifically.
I mean look, I'm all for having a long church service if it's packed with profitability,
if it's packed with God's word, if it's packed with learning and doctrine and singing and
praising God.
Not just this drawn out whatever service, just wasting time.
And I just don't want to waste my time with stuff that's not biblical.
I feel that everything we do in this church is biblical.
Singing a hymn is biblical, praying is biblical, reading the Bible is biblical, and preaching
is biblical, you know, that's what we're going to do.