- Altar call / Invitation
- A moment at the end of a service when attendees are pressed to come to the front publicly, usually to "get saved," rededicate their life, or confess sin. Repetition and social pressure (extra verses of a hymn, a pastor waiting in silence) are common.
- Bible college
- An unaccredited or narrowly-accredited college run by an IFB church or network (examples include Hyles-Anderson College, Pensacola Christian College, and West Coast Baptist College) that trains pastors, missionaries, and teachers inside a closed pipeline, often with strict dress, dating, and conduct rules governing students' daily lives.
- Blanket training
- A controversial early-childhood discipline method associated with the parenting teachings of Michael and Debi Pearl, popular in some IFB circles. It has been widely condemned by child welfare advocates and pediatric organizations, and has been linked in court records to child deaths. This site does not describe the method's mechanics; if you're processing this from childhood, you're not alone.
- Chain of command / Umbrella of authority
- A teaching that places God over the pastor, the pastor over the husband, the husband over the wife, and the wife over the children, with each layer expected to submit to the one above without question. Used to justify unquestioned obedience to pastoral authority.
- Church discipline
- A formal process where a member is confronted, and sometimes named publicly from the pulpit, for a perceived sin. It can end in removal from membership. See also Shunning.
- Convictions vs. legalism
- An internal argument within fundamentalism over whether a specific rule (hair length, music style, movie standards) is a personal "conviction" someone freely holds, or externally-imposed "legalism." In practice, both often function the same way: a rule enforced with social and spiritual consequences for breaking it.
- Cult fog
- A term used in exit and recovery communities (not exclusive to IFB) for the disorientation, dissociation, and difficulty trusting your own judgment that often follows leaving a high-control group. It tends to lift gradually, not all at once.
- Deputation
- The process by which a missionary or pastor travels from church to church raising personal financial support before being "sent out." It can take months or years and often depends on the deputizing person's ability to perform confidence and spiritual credibility in each new church.
- Gaslighting
- A general term (not specific to IFB) for a pattern where someone in authority repeatedly denies or reframes your experience so that you doubt your own perception, memory, or judgment. Survivors of high-control religious environments frequently describe this dynamic with pastors, elders, or parents.
- KJV-onlyism
- The belief that the King James Version is the only legitimate English Bible translation, and that modern translations are corrupted or theologically suspect. Often used to control what scholarship and cross-references members are allowed to trust.
- Love bombing
- A pattern of intense, sudden warmth, attention, and inclusion directed at a new or wavering member, which can make the group feel like the most welcoming place a person has ever been, before conditional belonging sets in.
- Modesty standards
- Specific, often detailed rules about clothing, hair, and appearance (skirt length, no pants on women, no facial hair on men, hair length for boys, etc.), enforced with varying degrees of formality and often applied more strictly to girls and women.
- One-preacher rule / Pastoral authority
- A norm in many IFB churches that the senior pastor's interpretation of scripture and direction for the church is not to be publicly questioned or challenged by members, sometimes framed as "touching God's anointed."
- Preacher boys
- Young men, sometimes identified in childhood, who are groomed and tracked toward pastoral ministry, often attending an affiliated Bible college and modeling their preaching style directly on a mentor pastor.
- Shunning
- The practice of cutting off contact with a former member, sometimes including family members, after they leave the church or are placed under church discipline. Can range from social coldness to a formal instruction from the pulpit that members not associate with the person.
- Soul-winning
- Door-to-door or public evangelism, often tracked with numeric quotas or leaderboards for a church or Bible college. Refusal to participate, or a low count, could carry social consequences within the church culture.
- Sound doctrine / Standards
- Shorthand for the specific set of theological positions and behavioral rules a given church considers non-negotiable. "Standards" often extends well beyond doctrine into dress, media consumption, and courtship.
- Spiritual abuse
- A general term for using religious authority, scripture, or the threat of divine punishment to control, shame, or intimidate someone, distinct from ordinary disagreement about belief or practice.
- Us vs. them / Worldliness
- A framing that divides the world into the faithful in-group and a corrupting outside world, where secular music, mainstream media, other denominations, and sometimes even other IFB churches are treated as spiritually dangerous influences to be avoided.