Oxymoron of the day: Independent Baptist Church Fellowship

On my way to visit some of the Tolkien sites earlier in the week, I came upon a Baptist church.  What intrigued me was the sign.  It was Woodstock Road Baptist Church which featured just under the name of the church, the descriptor evangelical.  And beneath this the somewhat brain twisting phrase, "A member of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches."  I am not sure how one can be independent and a member of something at the same time.  Doesn't one preclude the other?

But I was caught by the sign and had to visit them at worship.  Their sign told me quite a story.  They were Baptist.  But not that ordinary British kind of Baptist.  They were evangelical.  And not just evangelical mind you, they were independent.  I had in mind when I went a sort of fractious congregation of overly theologically argumentative folks who would spend most of their service bashing all the other churches that were the other kind of Baptist (whatever that means) and excoriating them for not being evangelical (whatever that means) and ready to proclaim their independence from all the evils of the denomination (whatever those are) and still committed to doing it in a group (whatever that is).

I mentioned I was going there to some of the faculty Friday at High Table.  They politely acted as if they didn't know much about the place or have an opinion.  Although one instructor, who came from the pastorate to Regents, did give me some interesting nuggets.  They had once been in the Baptist Union, years ago but had separated over theology:  precisely over their commitment to a Calvinist position (which seems in a way another oxymoron Calvinist evangelicals).  The church's pastor did not have formal theological training and they used the New International Version in worship (which apparently makes you a conservative church here in England).  He did go on to relate that as a pastor, the minister at Woodstock Road would call him from time to time to tell him he was going to send some visitors on to visit his church as they might fit in better there.  It seemed a bit like a backhanded compliment to the now instructor at Regents Park.  His church wasn't theologically sound enough to fellowship with, but among the heretics was sound enough to recommend people to join.

This information in hand, I went in expecting the worst.  My fears seemed ready to be confirmed when the first people to come through the gate were this dour faced older couple with Bibles under their arms that looked like they could substitute for dumbbells.

Yet as the time went on, I found something altogether different.  Yes the church was more conservative theologically than I am.  Its Calvinist leaning peeked out from under the covers of worship on a couple of occasions.

My first encounter was with the 23 year old young man who was preaching today in the pastor's absence.  Jon was bright and friendly, a recent graduate of Oxford with a history degree.  We had a delightful conversation about the church.  It was a toddler by the standards here having been founded by New Road Baptist (where I went last week) in 1890.  The sanctuary had once been longwise in the rectangular building, but the pews had been replaced by chairs and everything now pointed not to the front of the building but the side.  They had a projector and practiced paperless worship.  But, they sang traditional hymns and had overall a very traditional feel.  To be honest the architecture of the service was closer to what we have at Faith than what I found at New Road.

The room slowly filled and by the time worship began, a large group (by British standards) had gathered and most of the seats were filled.  There were several families with children that burgeoned the congregation.  There was a tenor of friendly expectation and hope in the worshipers.

The sermon was very linear and included some interesting reflection on Acts 4:21-30.  The illustrations were much the same as you might hear in most churches in the U.S.  It was not a scholarly approach to the scripture, but a pastoral and doctrinal one.  There wasn't any screaming or yelling or histrionics.  Jon really didn't seem that mad about much of anything really as he called the congregation to recognize the sovereignty of God and to respond with prayer.

When the service concluded a gentleman introduced himself to me as a biology professor at Oxford's less famous but equally large university.  He and his wife were very gracious and spoke with me for almost twenty minutes as hosts circled the room offering tea or coffee to anyone who was staying for conversation.

I had gone in hoping to see a fight, but I left having seen something much better.  I wouldn't attend Woodstock Road Baptist if I lived here, but I can certainly see why so many people do.