Have you noticed anything different?

If you've driven by our church property lately, you may have noticed something different:

New "temporary" sign, with our new name

We recently changed the name of our church to Creekside Bible Fellowship.  We did that for a few reasons:

1. We are no longer affiliated with a particular Baptist denomination, and the name "First Baptist Church of Eagle" caused many people to think that we were.  We had visitors asking whether we were Southern Baptist, American Baptist, Independent Baptist, etc., and generally this caused us to go into a fairly lengthy discussion as to why we were no longer affiliated with the American Baptist denomination.

NOTE: We still teach and practice baptism by immersion - that hasn't changed, and (Lord willing) never will.

2. We felt that a change to the name of the church would make us more accessible from the standpoint that many folks these days seem to have an aversion to attending a church affiliated with a national church denominations, and would prefer to attend a non-denominational church.

I am not going to address here the my thoughts on whether the advantages of being part of a national (or international) denomination outweighs the potential disadvantages.  I will state that I believe there are some definite advantages, however that is the who we are right now, and our name should reflect that.

3. We felt that of all things our church should be characterized by, that first and foremost we believe in and are under the authority of  Holy Scripture.

Religious denominations come and go.  Man-made traditions and liturgical practices, while at times helpful, can over time not only lose their real meaning but worse, turn into points of orthodoxy (e.g. dress codes, how the Lord's Supper is administered, Bible translations, worship style) .  As Christians and as a local church fellowship, we must always be on guard to correct our beliefs and our practices against the unchanging word of Scripture.

4.  In regards to "Creekside" - we do have a small creek running through the property.  We would like to develop it and add some landscaping so as to make it stand out as a "feature" of the property.

Regardless of what our church is named, or what the sign says out front - it is my hope and prayer that our local church fellowship will always be a place where God is glorified through Biblically-faithful teaching, preaching, and living.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Original "temporary" sign.