Still There said:
Christ Way Baptist Church is growing every Sunday. We have visitors (not FBC) every week. We had our first Lord's Supper yesterday and what a wonderful spirit was in the service yesterday (Sunday, January 4, 2015). Bob preached a wonderful message and many people were down at the alter praying. I believe we had 87 in attendance. The building we are in has been given by God and is meeting our needs. It is not the Bob Marshall church, but Christ Way Baptist Church. We have a junior church which is lead by Matt & Amy Sheehy and Master's Club in the afternoon lead by Nate & Rebecca Cavendar. If you want to come and see how the church is doing, come on down!
Still There, I wish you well; please don't take this as a personal attack. It is merely that this post is such a perfect example of why, though Hyles is dead, the problems he created are still with us. The Hyles (numbers=success=God's blessing) is evident everywhere:
growing every Sunday ("we are a success"). It is God that adds to the church - praise Him in the added member times, praise Him when the numbers and steady, and people growing in the Lord, and praise Him in the declining times.
87 in attendance ("we are a success" - God doesn't like it when people number how well they are doing; how about "good" attendance, and not be so obsessed with numbers?)
Bob preached a wonderful message (I'm glad you thought so, but I've seen far too many messages called "wonderful" and "great" when the messages were not Biblically based and did not lift up the Savior. I trust that Bob's message both exalted Christ and was based on the Bible)
many people were down at the altar praying ("we are a success"). Hyles' teaching that people go down front just to exalt the pastor has really turned me off to this practice. The REAL measure is when God uses a message to actually have a person determine to change his life).
I'm happy that you are growing; I trust that it is healthy growth and pray that CWBC will exist for many years, exalting the Savior.
To repeat what I said earlier, I've nothing against "Still There" or CWBC - this post was just a perfect example of the pragmatism "success orientation" that is so hard to separate from.