Ironic Meeting Stupidity
A couple of weeks ago then SBC president Frank Page said “The Southern Baptist Convention is dying rapidly, and resistance to change could kill more than half the denomination’s churches by 2030.” Page added “Unless something is done to reverse the downward trend, Southern Baptist churches could number only 20,000—down from the current total of more than 44,000—in fewer than 22 years.” [HERE]
He was soon followed by another former president of the SBC Jimmy Draper who observed, “We have reached a place that our spiritual forefathers feared.” “We need to admit that the problem with America today is not the government or the politicians,” Draper said. “It is not Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or John McCain. It’s not the senators or representatives. The problem is not the educational system or the economy. It’s not the liberals or the abortionists. The problem lies with us.” “We conservatives claim to have the truth and we think we are rich in spiritual position and power, but yet we are cold, complacent, impotent and unattractive, and irrelevant to the world,” Draper said. “I hate to say it, but we are not plateaued. We’re not even just declining. We’re in a free fall.” “You know why we don’t win the lost?” Draper asked. “Because we don’t like them. They are different from us. We don’t care for them. We have no real love for them.” “People just don’t touch eternity when they are around us,” Draper said. “We’re too self-absorbed.” [HT: Zwinglian]
Newly elected Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt said “radical change” is needed to stop the decline in membership of the 16 million-member denomination. “We’ve been declining as a denomination, and you can’t turn something around until you stop the tide and direction it is going.” [HERE]
In light of these statements one would think that some revolutionary motions would be brought forward at this years annual SBC meeting. Let’s see:
– A motion by Harold M. Phillips of Pleasant View Baptist Church in Port Deposit, Md., that all Southern Baptist colleges and seminaries teach creation science.
– A motion by Jeff Purvis of First Baptist Church in Pevely, Mo., that SBC bylaws be amended to require that people who serve on boards and commission “agree to abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages and using any other recreational drugs,” agree with the BF&M and be a member of a CP-giving church.
– A motion by Eric Williams of Long Prairie Baptist Church in Belle Rive, Ill., asking that messengers not allow the HCSB [Holman Christian Standard Bible] “or any translation that questions the validity of any Scripture passage or verse” to be used in any SBC publication or at the podium of any SBC meeting.
Wow.
Yes… I clearly see the “radical change” that Hunt calls for that will turn around the predicted direction of the SBC that Draper and Page foresee. If we just teach creation science; abstain from alcohol; and only read the “inerrant” KJV then we, with our “radical new program,” will change the direction of the SBC, because really, that hasn’t been tried before.
Seeing that these motions pretty well cover most of the really core important issues of what it means to be a Christ follower I’m just shocked and offended there wasn’t any motions about whether Adam and Eve had a belly button or not, because until that issue is settled we will never reach the world today.
SBC Dictionary
rad·i·cal [rad-i-kuhl]
I’m not part of any denomination so I’m not too familiar with the ins and outs of the SBC, but I don’t think their observation of needing to reach the lost more effectively is unique to baptists. I love the balance Mark Driscoll has found here and his book Radical Reformission I think takes this topic head on. We have to be close fisted and unwavering in our theology, but open handed in our application, witness and show wisdom in contextualization. We can’t honor tradition above truth and that seems to be where a lot of denominations sit. Glad to see some critical self-assessment in the church, that’s always a good sign, even if the change takes a while, it’s a good first step.
Not part of a Denomination???? Kyle must be a Unitarian. Or worse, an Episcopalian!!!!!
I’m part of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. We publish our membership and baptism graphs every year. It’s an excellent teaching aid for young children learning statistics.
Teacher: Ok li’l ones. Here’s the graph. If decline continues at this rate, what’s the death-by date of the PCI?
The radical proposals I heard at this year’s General Assembly included an innovative proposal for us all to believe in “global cooling”, a motion to remove ourselves from any ecumenical bodies, a long debate about when ministers should retire and most importantly, nothing that would ever possibly be considered radical.
At least we avoided the temptation to talk about “the gheys…” for days on end this time round…
Zoom,
That made me laugh hard! Well said.