First Baptist Church Van Buren — Church Directory

Quick Facts

Pastor — the shepherd God holds accountable Chris Johnson

Founded Unknown

Denomination SBC

Service Times Sunday mornings

Men's Ministry No

Kids Ministry Yes

Website vbfirst.org

Pastor Credentials SBC pastor

10-Point Theological Scorecard

Christology

Is Jesus the only way? (John 14:6)

BFM2000 orthodox

Strong

Scripture

Inerrancy affirmed? Final authority?

Inerrancy affirmed

Strong

Men's Discipleship

Intentional formation for men?

Men's Bible Study confirmed — Monday 6:30 p.m.

Strong

Soteriology

Faith alone? How is salvation presented?

Grace through faith

Strong

Gender / Biblical Design

Biblical manhood and womanhood by God's design — patriarchal, complementarian, egalitarian, or affirming gender ideology?

Complementarian (CBMW halfway position; MOOP holds patriarchal headship as the biblical standard)

Caution

Leadership Structure

Male elders/pastors? Accountability?

Pastor-led with deacons

Strong

Preaching Style

Expository or topical/therapeutic?

Preaching methodology not stated on site. Yellow retained.

Caution

Mission Clarity

Great Commission central?

SBC missions

Strong

Cultural Alignment

DEI/CRT language? Social justice crowding out gospel?

Mission emphasizes 'authentic love of Christ' and welcoming 'everyone' — no DEI/egalitarian language. Green retained. | GREEN signal: Pastor Chris Johnson is a public signatory of "The Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel" (the 2018 "Dallas Statement," statementonsocialjustice.com), the post-2018 Big Eva line in the sand against CRT, woke evangelicalism, and feminized social justice. Verified via Wayback Machine snapshots. Per the "people is policy" principle, this is a strong positive marker of orthodox conservative-Reformed conviction.

Strong

Accountability Structure

Denominational home, elder plurality, or external network — is the pastor answerable to anyone?

Verified 2026-04-23. Navigation explicitly links to 'Baptist Faith and Message (2000)' — SBC/BFM2000 alignment confirmed.

Strong

Assessment

SBC church in Van Buren, AR. Cooperative program participant.

#van-buren#arkansas#national#sbc#dallas-statement-signer#reviewed-2026-04-27

Pastor Signatures & Affiliations [Orthodox-aligned signatures]

Public statement signatures and organizational affiliations of this church's named pastors. "People is policy" — these are evidence-weighted signals about doctrinal trajectory, not the sole determinant of any rating.

Dallas Statement (Social Justice & Gospel)

Chris Johnson

Source: statementonsocialjustice.com — hover for details

Nashville Statement

Chris Johnson

Source: cbmw.org — hover for details

Sources & Evidence

Enrichment Notes

BFM2000 affirmation is a positive confessional signal — confirms SBC-aligned theology.

These are the URLs consulted to arrive at this church's scoring. Score-note claims are synthesized from homepage content, denominational directories, and public statements of faith at the time of review. Church websites change frequently; we're progressively adding Internet Archive snapshots to prevent link rot.

[1] Archived snapshot web.archive.org/web/20251214173659/https://vbfirst.org/
↳ Snapshot of vbfirst.org (live link)

Transparency note: MOOP ratings are researcher judgments about publicly available theological and ecclesial evidence. They are not infallible. If a church's public posture has changed since our review, or if we've mis-read evidence, tell us — we publish corrections.