Review For First Baptist Church of Brooksville

James C.
First-time Visitor
Nice people, poor teaching
1
Average: 1 (1 vote)
1/5
I live in Cincinnati. Last year I visited my family in central Florida. Unfortunately, my family, not Christians, did not have a church they attended. So I found a Baptist Church in the town of Brooksville, Florida. The First Baptist Church of Brooksville is a Southern Baptist Church. I was excited to visit. I expected some old fashion fire and brimstone preaching.
The church building has a granite maker in front with a date in the mid-1800s. But the building housing the sanctuary looks no more than 50-60 years old. The church is beautiful, with a traditional church steeple. The sanctuary is flanked inside by stained glass windows, which I rarely see in Baptist churches. There is even a stained-glass panel of Jesus, apparently in the Garden of Gethsemane. I was very shocked to see this, especially considering the Second Commandment. I attend a Reformed church, and most traditional Reformed churches teach this is a violation of the command in Exodus 20:4-5 regarding the making of images or likenesses of God.
The service started with worship music. At first, I thought we were being punked. The team leader strummed a banjo (I thought that was a southern stereotype) and sang in a very nasal voice (think, Man of Constant Sorrow.) They did some old-time songs. Mercifully the music ended after 3 or 4 songs. I know music is not that important when choosing a church, but I appreciate good worship music.
The Pastor, named Harris, was a perfectly amiable guy. He was very friendly and apparently lighthearted. He started the service with about 15 minutes of announcements and other Church business. Apparently, fried chicken and banana pudding (a southern thing?) is essential to this Southern Baptist Church. The Pastor was teaching on a passage in the Bible very well known to me. Even though I had a tough time following Pastor Harris. He seemed to wander around the issues presented in the text. He jumped around in the Bible from verse to verse, none of which, in my opinion, had anything to do with what he was speaking on. However, he did get into a humorous story. I kept waiting for him to get started, but he never did. His rambling sermon finally ended around 12:15 without reaching any conclusion.
I only attend this Church one time. The building is beautiful. The Church members were charming people. However, in my opinion, the teaching was non-existent. I am unsure where the Pastor was trained; I guess he never received any formal pastoral training. Therefore, I cannot recommend that you attend this church. If this is your only choice, you may be better off staying home and watching some other service online (that is, unless you have an abiding hankering for fried chicken and banana pudding.)
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