 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
- What can I expect if I visit Judson?
- What should I wear?
- May I take communion?
- Do children attend the worship service?
- What does it take to become a member?
- Where did Judson Baptist Church get its name?
- Is Judson part of a denomination?
- How can I have peace with God?
- Don't all religions teach basically the same thing?
- What are the Law and the Gospel?
- Isn't it better to be spiritual, not religious?
- What can I expect if I visit Judson?
If you visit Judson Baptist Church on a Sunday morning, you can expect to take part in a worship service that is all about our holy God from beginning to end. We pray together, sing praises together, open His Word together, and take part in Holy Communion together. The pastor brings a message from Scripture that is rooted entirely in the cross of Christ and what it means for us today.
- What should I wear?
There is no dress code at Judson Baptist Church, other than to avoid wearing clothes that will be a stumbling block to other Christians (i.e. immodest or inappropriate clothing that may cause others to lose their focus on Christ). Many come to worship at Judson in their finest clothes. Others come in more casual attire. Just as God doesn’t look at the outward appearance, but sees the heart (I Samuel 16:7), we are not so much concerned with your choice of clothing as we are with your spiritual state and helping you to find peace with God and grow ever closer to Him.
- May I take communion?
At Judson Baptist Church, we practice open communion, which means that we do not limit the Lord’s Supper to members of our church or denomination. If you are a baptized Christian, worship the Triune God, and trust Christ as your Savior, you are invited to share in the sacrament of communion with us.
- Do children attend the worship service?
Most Sundays, children remain in the sanctuary for the first half of the worship service, come to the front for a special “children’s message,” and then go to a children’s class for the remainder of the service.
- What does it take to become a member?
Those who have been attending Judson Baptist Church for a while and have become involved in the life of the church may wish to explore the idea of church membership. If you are considering membership at Judson, you should make an appointment with Pastor Zach to discuss this. At Judson, we regularly offer an “Inquirers’s Class,” which meets over the course of three weeks and covers our history, our beliefs, and our Baptist identity. We do not require baptized believers to be re-baptized in our church, as we believe in “one Lord, one Faith, one baptism.“ (Ephesians 4:5)
- Where did Judson Baptist Church get its name?
Judson is named after Adoniram and Ann Judson, the first Baptist foreign missionaries from America. The Judsons spent their lives, and gave their lives, bringing the Gospel (as well as a written language) to the people of Burma. For more information about the Judsons, click here.
- Is Judson part of a denomination?
Yes, we are a member of the American Baptist Churches, USA. For more information about the ABC, click here
- How can I have peace with God?
This is the most important question that anyone can ask. The Scriptures answer this question with the simple response: “Repentanct and faith” (Mark 1:15). Rom 10:9 tells us, “If you confess with your lips that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” For more information about finding peace with God, see our collection of articles on salvation, or listen to some of Pastor Zach’s sermons.
 - Don’t all religions teach basically the same thing?
No, they do not. Critics of organized religion often make the assertion that all religions teach essentially the same thing, frequently citing the Ten Commandments or Our Lord Jesus’ command to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” as examples of shared content that render separate religions redundant and unnecessarily divisive. While it is true that many religions (though not all) overlap in the moral laws that they teach, a list of ethical rules is not at the center of Christianity—the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. The reason that most religions share a common ethic is that God has written his Law on the hearts of all people (Romans 2:15). Therefore, the Law is internal; we find it when we look within ourselves. The Gospel (which is what makes Christianity distinct from every other religion) is external—it happened outside of ourselves and must be proclaimed to us from without.
- What are the Law and the Gospel?
To put it succinctly, the Law is whatever God demands that we do for Him. The Gospel is the Good News of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Scripture makes it clear (Romans 3:20) that no one can be right in God’s sight by keeping the law (this would require us to keep it perfectly, never thinking an evil thought, saying an evil word, or failing to do the good that we should). But God uses the Law, which we have all broken, to break our pride and drive us to the cross, where we find Jesus Christ—God in the flesh come to save us—dying for the sins of the world. He did keep the Law perfectly and, in his death, he paid the penalty for your sins and mine.
- Isn’t it better to be spiritual, not religious?
In a recent survey, a majority of Americans in their twenties and thirties identified themselves as “spiritual, but not religious.” There are many different definitions of “religion,” but most people mean that they are disinterested in religious institutions and formal systems of belief, preferring to come up with their own personal religion as they go. Proponents of such a view often point out that all religions were new forms of spirituality at some point, before becoming “institutionalized.”
But what if God really did reveal himself to mankind? And what if the content of that revelation is found in His Holy Word, the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Scriptures? And what if, in those Scriptures, we read of Jesus Christ establishing a Church on earth? What if God did not intend us to go it alone with self-serve smorgasbord spirituality, but rather designed us to have relationship with Him in a community where his revealed Word is read and revered? This is exactly what we believe as Christians. St. James tells us that “religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27). As you can see, when properly embraced, religion is a good thing, but it is Law, not Gospel, which means that it cannot save us. If you are trusting in religion to save you, I’m afraid you will be very disappointed. Still, if you’re hoping to live a spiritually fulfilling life without the faith once for all handed down to the saints (Jude 1:3)—without the Church, the Scriptures, the sacraments, and revealed Truth—well, that is a disappointing road to travel as well. For more on this topic, click here.
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