Since we shifted away from the Baptist label, many people have wondered if we’re a Baptist or non-denominational church. (I wrote about the name change here.)
I say we’re both.
By that, I mean we don’t operate under a denominational hierarchy. Actually, we never have. The Catholics, Episcopalians, Methodists and others have hierarchies that determine what they believe, who leads the church and what property is bought or sold. We have no such hierarchy. We own our buildings, hire pastors and staff and make decisions about our property. These aren’t unilateral decisions made by one person. We’re Pastor-led, Deacon-served, Committee-advised and Congregationally-approved. Our church is governed according to the by-laws we adopted in September 2014.
However, our church does have Baptist roots and our theology aligns with the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message. We voluntarily partner with the Southern Baptist Convention which runs the largest missions, disaster relief and church planting organizations in the world. Our church was founded as First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach, Florida in 1901. We started doing church as Family Church in 2010 when God began using us to plant neighborhood churches. We’re currently one church in 7 locations and 2 languages – and we’re still growing!
We aren’t about a name or a denomination. We’re about fulfilling Jesus’ mission to go and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey His commands in the context of a local church.