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Welcome to Olivet Baptist Church’s web site. We have been serving the Ocala, Florida area for over 130 years. We hope that the following description will help you to better understand the nature, structure, function and purpose of our church.

We are a Reformed Baptist Church.

Being reformed means that we make every effort to guide our church by the principles and teachings of the Word of God. We have a firm conviction that these teachings and principles are best expressed in the theology of the great reformers, men such as John Calvin, Martin Luther, Charles Zwingli and John Knox. Besides being reformed we are also a Baptist church. This means that we have some firm biblical convictions concerning the nature of scriptural baptism, evangelism, and world missions. We share most of the convictions expressed in the current Baptist Faith and Message, but since there are a few things in this document we consider unbiblical, we have decided to follow the theology, principles, and practices of the Second London Baptist Convention of 1689.

Church Order

Here at Olivet we employ the New Testament model of church government called Biblical Eldership. This means the daily operation of the church resides in the hands of a plurality of leaders, with equal authority. The Bible calls these men elders.

We believe that the single pastor and pure democratic forms of church order, which are so common among Baptist today are not only unbiblical and ineffective, they also violate God’s clearly stated purpose for His church to function as a body with Christ being the head. (Eph.1:22-23) Our leaders (elders) seek to guide our church through the Scriptures, prayer, fasting, and unanimous consent.

We believe very strongly that work of the elders is to equip and prepare the rest of the church to do the work of the church. (Eph.4:11-16)

Worship

We follow the regulative principle of worship. We are convinced that God knows how he wants to be worshipped and has set down in the Scriptures the ways he wants us to Worship Him! In other words, we only do those things in worship which He has prescribed, and He has declared in His Word that the preaching of the word, prayer, singing, and giving are the main acts of Worship He desires.

Preaching

We believe that the scriptures present expository preaching as the central act of worship. Our entire worship service is being designed to highlight the clear exposition and explanation of the Word. This is why we also highlight expository teaching in our Sunday School.

Singing

The Bible teaches us to sing: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. (Col.3:17) All of these phrases are synonyms for music based on scripture. Music is a powerful teaching device. The most important aspect of music a church uses is not tempo, tune, or melody; it is the doctrinal truth that it proclaims. Jesus declared that God seeks those who will worship him in spirit and truth. (Joh.4:23) If a song does not present the truth, then it does not please God no matter how bright and cheerful the melody or how much we may like the tune.

Prayer

We try to weave prayer into the very fabric of our worship service and church life. We open and close worship with prayer. We have a weekly prayer meeting on Wednesday nights. We understand that God’s house and household must be committed to prayer.

Giving

We believe that the giving of one’s tithes and offerings is the Christian’s joyful privilege. We also believe that giving is a personal experience between you and God. It is a private act of worship. We have placed offering boxes at the back of the church for this private act of worship. You can also give online.