Immanuel Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church in the spirit of the reformed Baptist tradition. We desire to be part of a restorative movement returning to the biblical doctrine and practices of the New Testament and the first Baptists in Britain and America. It is not a movement to create anything new, but to return to the roots of the church grounded in the Scripture and reflected in the Protestant Reformation.

 

What is sometimes called “Reformed” Baptists today, were known as “Particular Baptists” in Great Britain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and were called “Regular Baptists” in America before 1850. Immanuel Baptist church was founded in 1880 as a home church that learned under the teachings of C.H. Spurgeon’s sermons. Spurgeon was a well-known Particular Baptist. While we have contemporary ministries, we are still rooted in the same historic, biblical Gospel that our forefathers held in the New Testament, Protestant Reformation, the first Baptist Churches, and our own congregation of 1880.

 

At Immanuel Baptist Church, concerned with the state of the modern church, the “gospel” that is now being proclaimed, and the depravity of our culture, our elders are intentionally aligned with the historic faith, practices, and biblical gospel which has endured both prosperity and persecution.

 

The Catholic Church fell into superstition, spiritual corruption, and moral decay during the Middle Ages. When the Word of God was finally translated out of Latin into the common languages of the people of Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the people began to see for themselves how far the Church had fallen from Scriptural doctrine and practice. Movements began to try to reform the Catholic Church to bring it in line with Scripture. This movement to reform the Catholic Church is known as the Protestant Reformation.

 

When these reform movements failed to renew the heart of the Catholic church, the Protestant Reformation birthed new churches such as the Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches in the 1500 and 1600s. These groups shared a common God-centered doctrine of Christ, grace, man, and the way of salvation that would be to God’s glory. These shared doctrines were summed up in the Five Solas; Scripture Alone, Christ Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, and the Glory of God Alone. Baptist churches were thus founded on the biblical doctrine and practice of the New Testament and were some of the first to be considered “reformed.”

 

Midway through the nineteenth century, a shift began to take place among churches. Their biblical and God-centered doctrine was replaced with a man-centered focus. In many denominations, this resulted in becoming unmoored from Scripture and the focus moved from the glory of God to attracting man, from biblical practice to pragmatism, from discipleship to an emphasis upon decision-making and numbers, and the Gospel was cheapened so that more people could easily “accept” Christ. The result has been the formation of churches with full rolls and empty worship, and many decisions but few disciples.

 

In the mid-twentieth century, seeing the condition of the Church and the damage modernism was doing to gospel distinction, some Baptist churches began to reemphasize the biblical doctrines and practices reflected in the reformation-era Church. They use the adjective “reformed” as a reaction against the man-centered doctrine of the day and a signal that they were returning to the God-centered doctrine and the Five Solas of the early Baptists. Immanuel Baptist Church stands in this restorative movement.

 

 

We Are Confessional
We hold to a historic confession of faith. Our church’s confession is the historical capstone of all Baptist confessions; The London Baptist Confession. While we affirm Sola Scriptura, we recognize our confession to be a trustworthy summary of the Scripture’s teaching.

 

We Are Informed by Biblical Theology
We recognize the meta-narrative of the Bible as a unified story of Gods covenant of redemption to the glory of the triune Godhead. It is one story telling of the providence of God in bringing to Himself people from every tribe, language, and nation through His own grace.

 

We Are Biblically Organized
We follow the New Testament pattern of having both a plurality of elders and deacons. Our elders shepherd, oversee, and protect the congregation and ministries of the church, while the deacons serve the church in various ministries.

 

We Practice Biblical Worship
We follow the biblical description that God has given the church for worshiped. We desire what is known as the regulative principle of worship. Our worship is God-centered, recognizing that He is alone the consumer, object, and focus of worship. Our worship is also simple, stressing the Ordinary Means of Grace: the reading and preaching of the Word, prayer, and observing the ordinances.

 

We Stress Biblical Membership
We follow the New Testament’s stress on the importance of actual church membership. We are held accountable to one another in commitment. Although we place great importance upon what a church member should do and be, we place no expectation on members that is not first
stated in the scripture.

 

We Have One Great Emphasis
As a church, we purpose to put Christ first as He is to be the First in all things (Colossians 1:18) and the goal of everything we do is to His glory. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:36