New Wineskins
Over the past few weeks the Annual Church Profile of the Southern Baptist Convention has come out, and the numbers are discouraging. Southern Baptists showed a decline in membership and baptisms for the 7th year in a row. Seven years! That’s not an anomaly. That’s a frightening trend. For years Southern Baptists have smugly looked on as mainline denominations have fallen by the wayside. In our eyes, it was their abandonment to the inerrancy of Scripture that led to their downfall. But what about when we begin the inexorable downward trend that seems to envelope all established denominations?
Asked to comment on the continued declined, two of our conventions leaders gave the same response: it’s a spiritual matter. “I am grieved we are clearly losing our evangelistic effectiveness,” said Thom S. Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, in a statement. “I continue to pray for revival and a renewed passion for the Great Commission in our churches. May God renew all of us, including me, with a greater heart for the lost.”
Frank Page, president of the Executive Committee, quoted Amos 6:1 and said, “That warning in the book of Amos is a clear call to the people of God who have lowered their guard, relaxed their vigilance and reduced their commitment and passion for the things of God.” From their comments, the problem with Southern Baptists is a spiritual issue. We’re not passionate enough. We need more evangelism.
Here’s where I respectfully disagree. Being in the trenches for the past twelve and a half years serving in Baptist churches, here’s what I’ve discovered: people are hungry for spirituality. Everywhere. Churched people. Unchurched people. The amount of guests and visitors we have walking through our doors is staggering. And I know the typical pastor in the typical Baptist church. He loves God. He genuinely wants to reach people. His heart is in the right place. The solution being given to us is keep doing the same things, but try harder this time. What if the model and culture of the typical Southern Baptist church doesn’t work anymore in 21st century America? We can get angry and yell at the wind for changing, or we can adjust our sails and follow the Spirit (and the rest of the country) into a new millennium.
The problem isn’t getting people into our Baptist churches. They’re coming on their own. The problem is a church culture that makes it toxic for newcomers to stick around. Case in point is the church I serve at. We have no multi-layered evangelism strategy. No one has been “trained” in evangelism for years. And yet our church is growing robustly. Lives are being changed and people are being baptized. Why? Because we’ve created a church culture that is welcoming and safe for the newcomers that come to every church. We’ve created a church people actually want to come to. The Holy Spirit is always drawing people, we just need to stop pushing them away through our inward-focused allegiance to traditions and personal preferences.
So, the downward trend isn’t as bad as they say because it’s easily fixable. It’s not a mysterious, unstoppable force causing our decline. It’s inward focused, toxic church cultures that can’t or won’t make the changes necessary to minister effectively in the 21st century.
But the downward trend is worse than they say because the main word we’re getting from our denominational leaders is that we need to pray more. Prayer is the starting point, but it should always lead to action. As unspiritual as it sounds, the call to “pray more” can become a crutch. It’s an escape clause. If manipulated, it absolves you of all responsibility and places all impetus on God. You don’t need to pray anymore when you already know what the answer is. You just need to do it. Building a thriving church culture isn’t as difficult as they make it out to be. You just need to be willing to make the changes necessary to see it happen.
QUESTION: What do you think has contributed to the Southern Baptist Convention’s decline?
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