by Manya Brachear, Chicago Tribune, 11 June 2008
As a number of conservative Protestant denominations now face decline, leaders have chosen to batten down the hatches, endorse orthodoxy and herald the importance of sharing their faith with others.
But if these denominations narrow their theology at the same time they widen their outreach, is anybody going to listen?
Case in point: the Southern Baptists, who are meeting this week in Indianapolis. This year, for the first time in decades, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination reported an unprecedented loss of about 40,000 people from 2006 to 2007. At that rate, leaders say half the Southern Baptist churches in America could disappear by 2030.
That’s why this week the denomination launched a 10-year evangelism initiative that targets college students and families with young children. The initiative also urges Southern Baptists to share their beliefs with non-Baptist friends and colleagues.
At the same meeting, the 9,500 delegates, known as messengers, are debating the reversal of two policies barring missionaries who are not baptized in a Southern Baptist church and barring other missionaries who speak in tongues. Many view the discussion topics as a sign of the denomination’s narrowing fundamentalism. They also elected as their next president Rev. Johnny Hunt, a theologically conservative mega-church pastor who many trust will revive the denomination.
In many ways, the battle for the soul of the Southern Baptist Convention has mirrored the tug of war in American society since the Nixon era. Polarizing debates over biblical inerrancy, temperance, homosexuality, abortion and the role of women in the church have divided the denomination and yielded more liberal breakaway Baptist denominations such as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Again echoing a current theme in American politics, the Southern Baptist Convention this week shifted its focus to unity by unveiling a plan that everyone could agree on. Through an evangelism initiative called God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS), leaders hope to unify the fractured denomination and save more souls in the process.
"God positions us every day with opportunities for sharing our faith," Geoff Hammond, president of the North American Mission Board, said in a statement. "If you think of a GPS device, it helps get us to our destination. And our destination is every believer sharing, every person hearing by 2020."
Have Southern Baptists lost their way by narrowing their theology or has something else contributed to the decline of America’s mainline? Or, are Southern Baptists still on track despite the fall in numbers?
From http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/religion_theseeker/2008/06/have-southern-b.html, where you can post and read comments.
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6 comments:
The difficulty with this story is that it fails to deal with another burning issue in SBC circles which has only just been voted on in the last few days: the fact that the denomination has massively inflated membership statistics. 'Conservatives' in the denomination have been campaigning for a number of years on this issue because the SBC has not encouraged its churches to engage in roll revision and accurate reporting of actual attending membership. The fact is official SBC membership statistics might be inflated by almost 200%.
For more info:
http://www.founders.org/blog/
and see "Indiapolis #4: The Resolution Passes"
If this resolution were taken seriously official SBC statistics could fall by millions rather than a mere 40,000. 'Conservatives' are it seems more interested than others in the denomination in 'truth in reporting'.
I think that the issue of the "numbers of SBC members" where there are more members than attenders at SBC churches, has something to do with the strategy for growth that they successfully employed in the 1950's through 1990's that saw them become the largest non catholic denomination in the USA.
The strategy employed was the Flake method of Sunday School growth, where "enlistment" on to a Sunday School "roll" through door to door canvassing was viewed as giving the local church a "pool" from which to "fish" for winning people to Christ. Unfortunately sometimes this pool method made adherents who became memebrs without neccessarily becoming regenerate.
Still, lets not cast stones who have done the same thing; As NSW Baptists, we have sometimes been swift to baptise youth into membership of our churches upon profession of faith, and slow to remove their names from membership when they fall away for fear of cutting off opportunites to win them to Christ later.
This method of making "pools" from which we fish for people to come to know the Lord is something we practise in many ways, through youth groups, MOPS groups, Bible Clubs, craft groups, golf groups, etc. I remember sitting next to an ex serviceman at an RSL service one day waiting for the march to arrive, and chatting with him. He said, "I'm here to hear my pastor preach." (I was thinking, "I thought I was the preacher today? Maybe I am at the wrong place").
"Oh that's good. Which church do you attend?"
"Oh I've been involved at XXXXXX baptist Church for many years!", he said, mentioning the church I then pastored!
The folk from a Bible study group meeting next door to him had prayed for him during an illness 15 years before and, though he ahd never attended the church, he had owned our church as his ever since.
The "numbers" represent real people. Whatever the numbers look like for bragging rights, the truth is, we care for individual people and desire to win them to the Lord.
While I agree with regenerate church membership as an important Baptist distinctive, I have always found it encouraging that in every place I have been,long term church members have come to me and said "I think I have only truly been born again of recent years."
So, in short..
Regenerate church membership is the biblical goal.
Sometimes our evangelism methods make the goal hazy.
Its not about numbers its about people.
the one extremely important thing that comes out of the SBC Indianapolis Convention is a renewed emphasis upon revival through pastoral brokeness, repentance, prayer and evangelism.
May the Lord give us this.
Steve
The Flake method of Sunday School growth
http://sschool.com/Flake/index.htm
Bob Mayfield outlines it below as
The Affect of Small Groups on Church Growth
In his now classic book Building a Standard Sunday School, Arthur Flake proposed a five-step strategy for evangelism through the Sunday School. Now called "Flake's Formula", this strategy is still effective today because it is based on principles and not fads. Whether a church uses Sunday School or Home Groups, these principles still work today.
Principle #1 - Know your possibilities. Vision is a necessary part of growing a church. Flake proposes that the church needs to know its possibilities for growth. Flake proposes using community surveys to discover community needs and making contact. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Mission Viejo, California used a similar approach*. In essence, pastors, leaders, and Bible study leaders "canvas" their neighborhoods with the intention of discovering unchurched people and their needs.
Principle #2 - Enlarge the church's organization. In order to grow, the church must at some time enlarge its organization, which means literally that the church needs to start new Bible study classes or Home groups, new worship services, and new ministries. As an illustration, if you have a glass that will contain one cup of water, how much water can you put in the glass? Answer: one cup. You can pour a gallon of water into the cup, but it will still only hold one cup. Many churches shrink from beginning new classes because starting new classes is painful and people resist this effort. They try instead to "pour" more people into their already full structure. These churches should not be surprised that if their organization will support 50 people, they can not seem to go beyond an attendance of 50 people. To increase attendance, increase the number of groups that you offer.
Principle #3 - Enlist and train new leaders. Obviously if a church is going to start new groups and reach new people, the church will have to enlist and train new leaders for these new units. New leadership is the key to a dynamic and growing Bible study ministry. Unfortunately, many churches have the enlistment part down, but not the training part. As a result, they put willing but untrained people in the firing line. After a few weeks of frustration, these wonderful people quit, many vowing never to lead again. A few hours of training and some ongoing assistance would have changed many of these leaders from failures to fabulous workers.
Principle #4 - Provide space. New groups need a place to meet! The church needs to provide space for these new classes. Many churches have rooms that were designed for the teaching of the Holy Bible, but have been empty so long they are now custodial closets or storage rooms for props from the Easter pageant!. Many churches just need to reclaim lost rooms to provide space. Other options include houses, restaurants, schools, and businesses that are near the church. Another option is to add another hour for Bible study so that some space can be used twice.
NOTE: Flake said to provide space. That does not necessarily mean "build" space.
Principle #5 - Go after the people. The first word in Matthew 28:19 is "Go". Simply doing the previous four steps of the formula will only ensure empty new classes. By "going" after the people in the community, the church is putting the Great Commission into effect.
The Five-Step Formula for Sunday School Growth found at the Lifeway (SBC) site provides MANY great free resources to understand church growth through multiplying units.
http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0,1703,A%253D161976%2526M%253D200617,00.html
That Flake system has some sensible suggestions.
It's only at point 5 that this schema becomes a bit flakey. The first word in Matt 28:19 is not "Go!" but, "Going..." Remember New Testament Greek at College?
That is, the command is about making disciples while we go, rather than about going per se.
By emphasising the going rather than the discipling, we have
(1) discouraged people from evangelising wherever they happen to be at the time
(2) discouraged those who are unable to go (in whatever terms they define that) and
(3) encouraged people to make believers (the work of a moment) rather than to make disciples (which takes time.)
Our Go!-evangelism weakens churches and makes weak Christians.
Except.. my experience is sadly that, as churches our members neither go nor are going.
:)
If we put a strategic force in the field, may we not achieve something.
Mathematically, the amount of fish we catch is directly proportional to the number of times we go fishing.
Steve
While numbers are important in sharpening strategy and planning for growth, I think a preoccupation with numbers of evangelistic converts is essentially unhelpful. To extend the fishing metaphor, the push to increase the "number of times we go fishing" might well result in a whole lot of catfish, stingrays and sharks. The Great Commandment is not a call to convert the heathen, nor even a call to "go" but a call to make disciples, "teaching them to obey everything that [Jesus has] commanded them." That will deliver quality growth that multiplies. And that's where the late-20th-century church has crashed and burned.
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