Posted on 06/03/2007 11:59:59 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
For the last two years, the annual meetings of Southern Baptists have emphasized baptisms and evangelism, with local pastors immersing new converts in pools prominently placed in the arenas where they gathered.
This year, when Southern Baptists meet June 12-13 in San Antonio, the focus will be on prayer for revival. But officials continue to hope for the same result: a new energy that will reverse declining baptism rates and barely lukewarm increases in church membership.
"I think we've been trying to raise baptisms in nonrevived churches among nonrevived people," said Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) President Frank Page, a pastor in Taylors, S.C. "The only key to turning baptisms around is a revitalization of God's Holy Spirit."
This push for spiritual renewal comes as statistics from the nation's largest Protestant body paint a picture of evangelism in decline. Baptisms in 2006 dropped 1.89 percent, to 364,826, from 2005, according to a church study. Those figures contrast sharply with the goal of 1 million baptisms that was set by the denomination's immediate past president, Bobby Welch.
Welch, who crisscrossed the country in a large bus touting his "Everyone Can!" baptism campaign, said he never expected to meet the goal by its October 2006 deadline. Nonetheless, he said some churches were energized - with several baptizing 100 or more in one service.
"I was surprised that we still fell 7,000 or more short," he said. "Once this thing gets into a nosedive, it's hard to pull it up. That's what we're fighting right now."
Experts inside and outside the church point to all kinds of reasons for the seeming malaise, from apathy within to lack of interest without. Some question whether older approaches to evangelism still fit modern-day needs. Others wonder if the conservative leadership's views on doctrine and values have chased people away.
When Southern Baptists meet in San Antonio, one item on the agenda will be a new national evangelism strategy to try to turn things around.
Welch, now the SBC strategist for global evangelical relations, believes too many churches still think evangelism happens when people come to the church door rather than when congregants go out into the community.
"We have a lot of churches that ... even with their best effort have not been able to move off of their decline," he said. "It takes a big effort to stem a tide that has already gained some momentum, but we're on our way."
Gerald Harris, the editor of The Christian Index, the newspaper for Georgia's Southern Baptists, has used his column to decry what he calls a lack of "passion" for evangelism.
"There's just a lukewarmness, I think, that permeates our society right now in terms of religion that keeps us from having the fervor that we really need to reach out to people in evangelism," he said in an interview.
In a column last March, he was more blunt.
"Most Southern Baptists are as far from revival," he wrote, "as Rosie O'Donnell is from getting her own talk show on the Trinity Broadcasting Network."
More than 25 years after a conservative resurgence that Southern Baptist leaders hoped would fuel evangelism, the denomination is struggling to bring more people into its fold. "I think it's very poignant that they missed the goal so terribly because again that's an illustration that the leaders of the convention are not able to engage or energize the grass roots because the whole system is coming apart," said Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem.
Leonard, a former Southern Baptist who is now affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA, thinks the focus on orthodoxy and conservative social values has made the denomination less attractive.
"They have to continue to keep that base loyal (and) committed but by virtue of playing to that base, they alienate the people they want to evangelize," he said.
Thom S. Rainer, president of the denomination's LifeWay Christian Resources, acknowledges that the resurgence has not produced all the results Southern Baptist leaders would have liked.
"We had higher expectations for the conservative resurgence and the impact that it would have on our churches evangelistically," said Rainer, who leads the publishing and research arm of the denomination. "It would appear had there not been a conservative resurgence, that it could be worse."
In LifeWay's most recent Facts & Trends bimonthly magazine, Rainer complained about the ineffectiveness in evangelism. "Basically we were charged with a job and we are not getting the job done," he wrote.
The magazine highlighted some of the few "standout" churches - 22 out of more than 43,000 that meet these criteria: baptized at least one person every other week over a 10-year period; saw worship attendance growth in that same period; and baptized one person for every 20 members each year.
Some younger pastors think evangelistic techniques need to change.
"We've slapped a Jesus sticker on everybody who will raise their hand and say `I do' in a church without questioning whether their faith is legitimate, whether they're making a real conscious decision, whether they're just emotionally responding," said Micah Fries, a 28-year-old pastor of a St. Joseph, Mo., church.
"I can whip a crowd into a frenzy and I can get response. ... I don't want response. I want changed lives."
Southern Baptists - Are they Predestinarians or Born Again in their overall theological outlook. I know the Baptist movement emerged out of the Reformed tradition, so was as a result, Predestination focused, but now it appears they are more focused on the Born Again Statement of Faith in Jesus. Just wondering, that is all.
Perhaps preaching the gospel would work?
Why on earth would a man set a goal like that? Does he think that by simply setting the goal that this will be a challenge to God? Who is he challenging by making such a goal?
Actually I am surprised that after setting such a goal that they even acheived 1/3 of it. Perhaps they should have set this as their goal:
(Acts 2:47 KJV) Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
Tell them that nagging sense of meaninglessness and guilt is their hint that life w/o Jesus is, uh, meaningless and sinful.
Tell them that Jesus knows them better than they know themselves and understands the evil they've done and the good they long for better than they do.
Tell them that He has washed their evil away and longs to share His good with them.
And that He'll do it if they invite him into their hearts.
Of COURSE, I'd rather seem 'em all become good devout Catholics, but I'd rather see them hear the gospel and be saved than not.
If you preach it, they will come, is what I think.
And as for a zillion Baptisms by a date certain? Pfah! Let one sow, and let another water, and God will take care of the increase.
Jeepers, gang, there's a world out there looking for love in all the wrong places. WE need to work together to evangelize them.
/rant off and I KNOW it's none of my business.
Ping
What a novel concept.
Baptist ping
Amen! Turn to the Holy Spirit, and He will guide their steps!
As a Southern Baptist...couldn’t agree more!
I must be careful. I urge each of you to search this post very carefully. This same Baptist association also posted the following:
http://www.biblicalrecorder.org/content/news/2007/05_30_2007/ne300507large.shtml
This article says nothing about salvation, only about baptism. Since when did that become a priority? I am very concerned about the ravening wolves in our world today. This certainly doesn't sound like The Southern Baptist Convention that I know. I just consider the sources.
Wiley
I Concur.
In addition, I found that the group who wrote the article that this story was taken from is associated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship who is heavily associated with Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Offering for Religious Liberty and Human Rights
http://www.thefellowship.info/involved/events/GA2007/070508Offering.icm
That sums it up for me.
Wiley
I really don’t know what to think about this article.
I know our little bitty church while part of the SBC is very conservative - and more into bringing folks to salvation and feeding our flock - then ever worrying about numbers.
I guess it shows that Baptists - whether Southern or not can be swayed like anyone into believing that “counting the seekers” is more important than developing the believers.
About 10 years ago I visited the church he was patoring. He's a good man as far as I could tell. Alot of people are uncomfortable with evangelism when it seems to be defined as "selling " Jesus.
It's my understanding that the SBC does not believe in predestination atleast as it is defined by your typical Calvinist.
There is actually a theological split in the Southern Baptist Convention between Calvinists and Arminians. (’Born Again’ has nothing to do with that split.)
Arminians certainly are the most numerous at this point, although historically the Calvinists were probably stronger. (Google the Baptist Confession of Faith, or look at the writings of Spurgeon).
Today, much of the strength of the Baptist Calvinists is centered on Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, with its president, Albert Mohler, being the most prominent in the movement.
Everyone with Calvinistic beliefs is (or should be) of the view the we need to tell everyone about Jesus Christ and that He died for our sins. Why? Because He commanded it!
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