Some churches need to close their doors. First Baptist Church of Evans had long been one of those churches. People should not mourn when a liberal church that long ago abandoned biblical truth closes its doors.
It wasn’t COVID, bad music, population shifts or changes in culture that killed FBC Evans. Liberalism and bad doctrine caused the existing membership to leave and discouraged new members from joining.
FBC Evans recently merged with FBC Augusta and subsequently sold their property to a retail developer, as the Augusta Press wrote about this past week. The merger wasn’t designed to help solve a problem but rather to give the last few holdouts a resolution to the failed organization. It also solved the problem of what to do with the real estate.
Online comments were mostly negative towards the impending demolition of the building, and an online petition even surfaced demanding the scheduled demolition be halted. The petition garnered 76 responses. If as many people who commented on the article actually attended the FBC Evans, they wouldn’t have had to close their doors to start with.
MORE: Three new restaurants slated for former Evans church site
If you don’t think liberalism and bad doctrine are the culprit, consider this. The intersection of Belair and Washington roads is one of the busiest in the CSRA. Columbia County has experienced exponential population growth for decades. A church in that environment should not only survive, it should thrive. What could cause it to dwindle into obscurity and irrelevance? How have other churches in the area that teach sound conservative biblical doctrine grown during the same time?
Southern Baptist Convention versus Cooperate Baptist Fellowship
FBC Evans was a member of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) until 1991 when it left to become one of the first churches to join the the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF).
The move was in response to the SBC’s conservative resurgence that began in 1979 and lasted until 1990. That movement resulted in the SBC returning to a conservative, biblical viewpoint on the inerrancy of scripture and a return to sound doctrine. The seminaries purged the liberal professors, and any liberals in leadership who didn’t view the Bible as inerrant were run out of town. Nineteen hundred churches left the SBC to form the CBF in response. FBC Evans was one of those churches along with First Baptist Church of Augusta. (FBC Augusta is a member of the CBF and SBC)
FBC Evans has not been a Southern Baptist Church for decades. They haven’t held to sound biblical doctrine for much longer. I recently realized this is a fact many people in our community didn’t know.
CBF keeps getting more woke
To highlight just how far the CBF has fallen, I would point out the recent merger between the CBF’s Affirming Network and AWAB (Association of Welcoming & Affirming Baptists). The merger occurred in June of 2024 according to an announcement on the AWAB website.
(Note: Not all CBF churches agree or affirm with AWAB despite the corporate affiliation. Churches such as FBC Augusta that are affiliated with both the SBC and CBF would not be able to be affiliated with the AWAB without risking loss of their SBC membership. There are currently no local Baptist churches that are part of AWAB according to their website.)
The news release points to several factors causing the merger, most of which imply staff and budgetary issues. The merger was necessary to “sustain its impactful inclusionary initiatives.”
I guess even CBF Baptist’s can’t help but alliterate phrases.
Rev. Jordan Conley a AFN and CBF Pastor, sums up the point I am trying to make.
“This merger unifies the voices of LGBTQ+ clergy and allies within CBF life at a time when the Spirit’s call to bear witness to the inclusive mission of Jesus could not be more urgent…..AWAB is uniquely equipped to walk alongside CBF churches as they discern, affirm, and advocate for LGBTQ+ folk and allies.”
Rev. Dr. Paul Baxley, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Executive Coordinator, adds his words of affirmation,
“The Affirming Network was begun by congregations and individuals who share a deep commitment to inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons in congregations and our Fellowship. Because that guiding conviction is only shared by some in our Fellowship, the network has provided community to its members, particularly LGBTQ+ Baptist Christians drawn to our Fellowship.”
The bottom line is that CBF churches long ago abandoned the conservative view of scripture and instead embraced liberal, woke, inclusive ideologies. In short, they don’t believe the Bible and what it says.
We can be sad that a church closed and a cool building is being demolished, but we should rejoice that a place spewing bad doctrine under the guise of Christianity is gone.
I am glad people left FBC Evans in search of another church. Hopefully they found one that teaches biblical truth.
Liberal, non-Bible believing, woke churches will diminish and eventually die. Death is the inevitable outcome for any church who wears liberalism and wokeness as a badge of honor. Don’t mourn when those types of churches close their doors and the building is razed.
