About Our Cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention

Oakview has always been a body of believers that is proud to be biblical by conviction and Baptist by cooperation. We have been a cooperating member of the Southern Baptist Convention since our church was founded, and have no plans to change this.

As part of the SBC, we use the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 as our statement of faith, which you can read in detail on the “What We Believe” page of our website. We have and will continue to give to the Cooperative Program and other SBC offerings to fund international missions, pastoral education, and more impactful ministries.

About Our New Branding Strategy

Part of our church’s DNA since the beginning is that we’ll do whatever it takes to reach our community with the hope of Christ. While we will never compromise on the truth of God’s Word or the message of the Gospel, we believe it's important to contextualize and reimagine everything we do to best reach the community around us. This will influence the style of music in our services, the shape and scope of our buildings, and even what ministries and outreach strategies we develop.

One change we made this year is to simplify our logo as part of a refresh to our branding. The adjustment we made is to simplify our spoken name to “Oakview” (like church members have done casually for more than a decade), and to simplify our printed name and logo to “Oakview Church” on places like the website, road signs, and social media.

Our legal name remains Oakview Baptist Church, even though we now shorten our name in our branding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did we remove the term “Baptist” from our branding?

We made this change for two reasons. First, we wanted to brand our church in line with what people actually call us; members and visitors rarely use our full name, and a cleaner logo is easier to recognize and remember.

Secondly, and more importantly, the word “baptist” (and denominational titles in general) can act as an unnecessary stumbling stone for many in our community who are searching for truth. 

Does this mean that we are no longer Baptist?

Not at all. Oakview is still a Southern Baptist Church by doctrinal conviction, cooperation, and practice.

Also, with the release of our new website, one of our goals was to make our “What We Believe” section more discoverable and easier to read than ever before. We want our members and community to know our core beliefs and have the ability to explore the scriptures that inform them.

Are we ashamed to be Baptist?

To be clear, we are not ashamed of our Baptist convictions; instead, our goal with this change is that people would first encounter Jesus (and not a denominational road block) when they consider attending Oakview.

While “baptist” to us means a commitment to evangelism and biblical doctrine, to someone who is searching it might imply a stuffy atmosphere, a certain type of worship service, or other baggage that could influence their decision not to come. Fair or not, a bad experience with a previous church can be an obstacle to attending the same type of church in the future.

These issues are not unique to the Baptist denomination, but we want to do everything we can to make sure the Gospel is the first thing visitors think about when they attend a service.

What does it mean to be Southern Baptist?

The SBC is a collection of like-minded churches working in cooperation with one another to impact the whole world with the Good News of Jesus Christ. We are a cooperating partner church of the SBC, which means we align with the Southern Baptist Convention around a common purpose and set of beliefs, but operate independently as a local body of believers.

You can read through an extensive list of our doctrinal beliefs here, and learn more about the Southern Baptist Convention on their website.