Why Great Plains reformed baptist church?

When you name something (or someone), you should think long and hard about the meaning of that name—what message that name will convey to others. (This is probably why the name Lucifer has never gained much traction.)

There is a specific reason why we chose to name our church what we did; we are not trying to be controversial, not trying to be edgy, and not trying to be devisive. Our desire it to be obedient.  

Great Plains

All of the Epistles are written to churches, and those churches were primarily identified by where they were located (Corinth, Ephesis, Galatia). Following this pattern, our desire is to let people know where we are located—, which is why we changed the name of our church when we moved from Altus, (the biggest little city) in the surrounding area and is home to the Air Force Base that bears the same name, to our permanent home in Blair. We chose the name Great Plains, simply because it describes us... not the location so much, but the make up of our church. We have members from all over the Great Plains who drive in weekly to be the church, 

reformed

In essence, this is just another way of saying that our church stands on the foundation laid by the Master and desires to function as outlined to us in His word. For a fuller explaination of what we mean by reformed, please click on Reformed?. 

Baptist

Believe it or not, this is proabably the second most controversial part of our name, since much of what many people hold as 'Baptist' has very little to do with what being Baptist really is. Traditionally being baptist meant the following:

  • Only repentant believers are to be baptized, by full emersion (normally)
  • Communion is only for those that have been baptized
  • Every church is independant and self governing and holds to a Biblical form of church polity (elder led, deacon served and congregationally ruled). This is what we mean when we call ourselves Baptist. 

Church

This is the most controversial part of our name. Just as there is much confusion about what Baptist means, there is more confusion about what 'church' means. Say 'church' and people will normally think about a building or place—

that is not the 'church'. 

At the same time, the name church is given to cults in describing them— they may be a gathering of people, they may be gathered together in a really nice building, but they are not the true church!  

To be fair, the Greek word that is translated 'church' in the New Testament is ekklesia (which literally means 'called out ones'), but has been also used to mean a gathering of people, and can literally be used to describe any group of people. 


A true church has three defining marks:

  1. The right handling (preaching/teaching) of the Word of God.
  2. The right administration of the sacraments (baptism and communion)
  3. The right application of church discipline.

When we use 'church', it is our desire to identify ourselves as a local gathering of called, elect sons of God that have covenanted together with the purpose of glorifying God through corporate worship, discipleship and accountabilty.