I saw this news story today:
NASHVILLE, Tenn., 4/23/08 — The number of people baptized in Southern Baptist churches fell for the third straight year in 2007 to the denomination’s lowest level since 1987. Although the SBC added 473 new churches and gave more than $1.3 billion to support mission activities around the world, there’s no escaping the disappointing fact that Southern Baptists are not reaching as many people for Christ as they once did, according to Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, which gathered the information on the denomination’s behalf…Read the rest of this press release here.
I don’t know if I have anything interesting to say on this subject and I’m sure I have nothing new to say. But I do want to get some thoughts out there. And thank you for reading.
I love the Southern Baptist Convention. I love my church. And when I see news like this I want to cry.
I know that the SBC is not equal to the church. And I know that Jesus didn’t say, “Upon this rock I will build my denomination.” I also know that there are many good churches of other stripes, but this feels like a kick in the teeth. I’ll restate it. The churches of the SBC baptized fewer people for the third straight year.
Without getting into why I am a Southern Baptist or analyzing lots of potential problems (others will do a great job of that), here is what I see. The tragedy is that we are officially now losing the war for souls. More church members are reaching less people. Which means, simply put, more people will die and spend forever in hell.
I also know that the problem cannot be fixed on a national level or with better leaders. Nobody could do a better job calling for revival in evangelism than Frank Page or Bobby Welch. It must be fixed by individual Christians. Take this test.
- Do I know somebody who doesn’t know Jesus?
- Do I know somebody who doesn’t know Jesus that I haven’t witnessed to?
- Do I love this person?
If you answered yes to these questions, you are officially part of the reason for this news story. I have been deeply convicted lately that I don’t witness enough. And I wanted to share.
BTW: If you are reading this and don’t know Jesus please read here or here
Feel free to comment.
I read this information earlier today too, and it made me sad. It is time for us to begin to teach people to start being the church and to stop just doing church. When we start being the church we will help those in need, and share our faith with them. Then, we will see God do amazing things in our churches and cities.
Very well stated…both of you.
It is sad.
I THINK this is a Friedrich Nietzsche quote (who was an obviously, hard core atheist). He explained that one of the reason he didn’t believe in Christianity was because of Christians’ lack of evangelism. He said, “If I believed that [hell], I would willingly crawl for days on broken glass to tell men it was true.”
people get saved almost every sunday at my church…which is amazing. but i came to the realization a few weeks ago that i must not TRULY believe in hell. if i did, i too would crawl across “Murray” on broken glass to tell one person.
my prayer has been that God would open my eyes to the reality of hell and to people who will face that reality when they die.
Well, when those who say they are Christians and attend church to some extent don’t show any signs of a transformed life. Your not going to get very much evangelism there. And the sad part is, that covers many of those who are in our Southern Baptist churches. Not to mention those in ministry that fall into the same category. We have got to be living transformed lives!!!