THE FINAL DAY OF NATIONAL PRIMTIVE BAPTIST CONVENTION; ELDER JEFFREY RAINEY CHALLENGES CHANGE OF DOCTRINE

From Wednesday to Friday of the convention Elder Jeffrey Rainey, the Bible Expositor of the Convention, the pastor of the Christian Union Primitive Baptist Church Mobile Alabama and Vice Moderator of the West Alabama Primitive Baptist Association, stood to proclaim the word of God and expound on the theme of the year's convention. The theme for this session was, CELEBRATING THE CHURCH; TAKING THE GOSPEL TO THE NATIONS.

In his final exposition of the theme, delivered on Friday morning, Rainey declared to the convention that the churches must be prepared for those who will leave. Rainey called this, "The Leaving Possibility."

"When you teach and tell people the requirements, and the restrictions of membership, many will leave...This is important because when people unite with the Church, they do not bring anything. This is true for members. When a person unites with the Church, he or she is asked, "Are you willing to be governed by the rules and the regulations of the Church?" They don't not bring rules with them. They are not to come in and condemn what exists already in order to change the Church to do what they want. The fact is they did not unite with Pentecostals, Full Gospel Baptist, Non-denominational, Christian Center. They united with Primitive Baptist.

"This is true for ministers. When a minister is called to a Church, he does not bring anything with him. He does not bring his doctrine. He is to understand, undergird and uphold the doctrine of the Primitive Baptist Church.

"A minister is not to come in our Church and try to change what the Church is. He is not to bring with him where he comes from and what he is used to doing and try to impose that belief or that practice on our Church.

"When a member of minister chooses to not be governed by the teachings of the Primitive Baptist Church, they should depart of be dismissed."

The election for others officers were held in the final business session. Elder Kenneth Duke of Miami Florida was reelected as Vice President and the entire slate of officers will remain in office for another year. The final prayer was offered by Elder Kenneth Duke, pastor of the St John Primitive Baptist Church of Delray Florida and the son of the Vice President.
 
The National Primitive Baptist Convention was greatly tested this week in their 107th annual session. The question remains what foundation will they remain standing on? What decisions will continue to impact their destiny? Where will they go from here?