A Letter to the Unchurched:
To Whom It May Concern,
My name is Tim, and I serve as the Pastor of Fraser Coast Baptist Church. If you are reading this, there is a good chance you would describe yourself as unchurched. By that, I simply mean one of two things. You may believe in Jesus but only attend church once or twice a year at most. Or maybe you trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour early on in your life and it’s been a while since you’ve attended a local church. Alternatively, you may not yet believe in Jesus at all and are still trying to work out who He is and whether He can truly be trusted.
Either way, I am really glad you are here and reading this letter.
I want you to know that this church is not made up of people who have it all together. We are people who are learning, growing, and trying to live out what the Bible teaches in real and honest ways. I believe the Bible speaks clearly to life’s biggest questions, and I am committed to teaching it carefully and faithfully.
One thing that may surprise you is that questions are always welcome here. I encourage people to ask questions, even during a message. If something you hear sparks curiosity, uncertainty, or even disagreement, I see that as an opportunity for meaningful conversation rather than something to be avoided. Faith grows best when we are free to explore truth openly.
My hope is that you would come to see the local church not simply as a place you attend once a week, but as a family where you are known, valued, and where you truly belong.
You do not need to arrive with answers or certainty. Just come as you are. Listen. Ask. Take your time. And see what God might be doing in your life.
Warm regards,
A Letter to the Churched: (this one is a little longer)
To Whom It May Concern,
My name is Tim, and I serve as the Pastor of Fraser Coast Baptist Church. If you are reading this, there is a good chance you would describe yourself as churched and by that, I simply mean that you are a strong believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You understand the importance of regularly attending a local church as it’s the primary vehicle that God uses through His children to fulfil His purposes here on earth.
The reason you may be reading this is either because you’re new to Hervey Bay and you’re looking for a home church. Or you maybe someone, who unfortunately had to leave their other local congregation (due to whatever reason that may be) and am still on the lookout to find somewhere you feel you belong.
The reason I’ve written to someone like you is because there are many Christians, who come to a local church to see if they would find themselves calling it home one day, but they come in with preconceived ideas and they could range from doctrine to worship style to governance.
It’s also understandable, particularly if you’ve just moved to the area, that you’re looking for a church similar to the one you’ve just come from. I have found the best thing to do in that situation is to leave those expectations at the door. The reason is because even though a local church is in the same denomination, which you may have been involved in for many years, there’ll always be a certain degree of differing expressions of worship between each local church. That is of course dependent on the leadership.
I acknowledge that sometimes, expectations cannot be left at the door. Therefore, I’d like to express some thoughts that relate to various aspects of the church, as to why we do things the way we do at Fraser Coast Baptist Church. Consequently, by reading this letter, you may already figure out whether you could see yourself at home here with our local congregation, without even entering through the doors.
Style of Worship
When it comes to style of worship, we are a congregation that naturally have various preferred expressions on how we corporately worship our Saviour, Jesus Christ, particularly when it comes to music. At Fraser Coast Baptist Church, you would experience an abundance of different types of praise & worship music during a typical Sunday service. As a Pastor, recognising the array of different genres and even having preferences myself, I allow the congregation to submit requests of songs that they’d like sung in worship services. Furthermore, we have the songs dispersed throughout the service, rather than in one segment and the reason we do that is because I like to include songs from different eras in the same service. That means you’d hear at least one hymn sung (dated pre-1950), a chorus, a “new but old” song that used to be a hit, let’s say, a decade or two ago or even a song that people used to love to sing back in the 70s or 80s. We also strive to sing one that is in the Top 100 CCLi list.
At the moment we have an acoustic worship band, which I myself lead, and we’re always on the lookout for other instrumentalists to complement the members we already have so maybe that’s something that God is looking to do through you. However, whatever the case is, when it comes to preferred style of worship, I suggest listening to the livestream a few times on a Sunday and see if you could find yourself being able to worship freely in-person. Please just know that the sound you hear online will never truly match the quality you hear in the room.
Doctrine
When it comes to doctrine, I classify the teachings of the Bible into two categories – essential (not-negotiated) and secondary (open to interpretation). To review our essential doctrine that we as Baptists hold strongly to, please visit the ‘Our Beliefs’ page under the About tab.
Usually though when it comes to preferred doctrine that you would like taught in a local church, it usually, if not – always, falls under the secondary classification. At Fraser Coast Baptist Church, when it comes to secondary doctrine, we like to live out the old-age adage in Christian circles that says, “In essentials, unity; in differences, liberty; in all things, charity.” We believe when it comes to differences that can be classes as secondary doctrine or non-essential, liberty is significant. That involves the liberty to disagree, the liberty to discuss without judgement and pressure to change, the liberty to ask questions.
In my experience, the sad reality is that there are a minority of Christians that treat certain secondary doctrine as essential and they don’t provide the liberty for others to question their “pet doctrines” or even to discuss alternative views. And to save time with these kinds of Christians waiting to see what I, as the Pastor, believe with “controversial” secondary doctrines, I thought I’d express my current beliefs with the most contentious doctrines in the church.
Before I do, please know that since becoming a Pastor, I’ve changed my doctrine in certain aspects of theology more than before being a Pastor. Maybe it’s because I’ve now had the time to really search the Scriptures, study and honestly investigate the other side’s arguments rather than rely on what I’ve been brought up to believe. As a theologian, I ask a lot of questions and through my enquiry-reasoning, I come to conclusions with certain doctrines. Scholars know that because of all the unknown variables, nobody can be 100% sure with any of these secondary issues. However, what helps me is that I pose questions to myself as I look at particular sides of the argument and I justify a conclusion by the ability to answer those questions or not. Consequently, my doctrines change as I come across answers to questions I’d never thought of before.
Please know that with all the doctrines that I list below, I’m a Pastor that is open to being challenged with. Feel free to reach out through the contact page if you have a question of why I believe one over the other.
That said, when it comes to soteriology, I’m neither a Calvinist or an Arminian. I’m what you would call a Provisionist. I encourage you to look up that term if you’ve never heard of it before. When it comes to eschatology, I’m a Pre-tribulationist and consequently, a Pre-millennialist, which does make me a dispensationalist. When it comes to gifts of the Holy Spirit, I’m a Continuationist, who doesn’t speak in tongues. As a result, I could never be a Pentecostal as it means I’ve never been baptised in the Spirit. Speaking of, I believe I’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessings there is (Ephesians 1:3) which means I believe being baptised in the Spirit comes at the time of justification – the moment someone trusts in Jesus’ finished work on the Cross. That brings up another contentious issue of what it means being filled with the Spirit. It’s something that we’re instructed to do ourselves (Ephesians 5:18) which would say a lot of how I define what it means to be filled.
Church Governance
When it comes to governance, particularly regarding gender roles in the church, I’ve converted from being a Complementarian over to an Egalitarian and mainly it’s because there’s one big question I find in 1 Timothy 2 that I haven’t discovered a satisfactory answer to. It means that no role in our local church, whether it be in leadership or not, is only assigned to males.
If reading this letter has been a blessing to you but there’s something more you’re curious about with Fraser Coast Baptist Church, and you’d like that curiosity to be siphoned before you enter through our doors on a Sunday morning, feel free to click the button below to send me a message, and I’ll do my best to get back to you as soon as I’m able to do so.
Warm regards,