I love the Southern Baptist Convention. I have been endorsed to serve as a missionary/chaplain to the U.S. Army and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. I have been blessed by the Cooperative Program in my Southern Baptist education endeavors. Cooperative Programs funds have helped keep costs down for my graduate and doctoral work at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. I have been nothing other than a member of a SBC church. I have pastored SBC churches.It appears, based upon recently released statistics, the SBC is becoming a less relevant force in America. My college friend, Dr. Chris Bonts, attributes this to a reshaping of our culture. It is his belief that "cultural Christianity" is dying in America. In other words, the culture doesn't expect one to attend church. Therefore, not only are our churches shrinking, but they are becoming less carnal because those that simply claim Christianity due to the previous cultural landscape are evaporating. I would never say the gospel is becoming less relevant. The gospel message will never become less relevant.
What must be done to reshape the Southern Baptist Convention?
My suggestions aren't new, but I think they should be considered in their holistic approach.
First, we as a denomination must focus on equipping bivo pastors. When I served in Alabama I was informed through the Alabama Board of Missions that Alabama's SBC churches were about 53% bivo. This did not take into account the pastors that were able to serve because they were retired, on disability or had a spouse that worked. I understand that NAMB is making bivo pastors a priority. I have for years sensed that in the future we will have more bivo pastors. In fact, I sense we will have a denomination that has large churches at one end of the spectrum and bivo churches at the other end. I fear there might not be much in the middle. If this occurs it may be necessary for our seminaries to prepare future pastors to toil in bivo settings. Our bivo pastors are the backbone of the SBC. I pray there is a renewed emphasis on recognizing and appreciating the work these men accomplish for the Lord.
Second, we must not stall our church planting efforts. Planting new churches must be an emphasis. This is an important and biblical ministry. It appears that in the future we will lose thousands of SBC churches. This can be contributed to the migration of the American population to urban areas. It may be that rural churches may need to merge into a new church that is more effective and efficient at advancing the gospel in their communities. It seems that many of the churches that are shuttering their doors are in these rural settings. I think we are consumed with retaining our current number of churches. I ask you: what would happen if we had fewer churches that were stronger? Would that be a success? What would happen if those fewer, but stronger churches, collectively baptized more than in past years?
Third, our convention must make church revitalization a priority. We have over 45,000 baptist churches. However, I see more conferences on church planting and issues involving Calvinism than on how to revitalize the local church. I will note that Alabama recently had a conference on that subject with Johnny Hunt as the speaker. We have thousands of churches with millions if not billions of dollars worth of land and facilities. I remember in college I took several classes on church growth. I have since determined that those books were useless because most were focused upon pragmatic concepts to "grow" a church. However, it is time to focus on revitalizing what we have to ensure our churches are healthy enough to accomplish the mission. Additionally, I understand that NAMB is working in this area as well. I desire that this initiative take root and becomes a priority within our convention. I pray that our pastors and church members catch a vision about revitalization.
Fourth...evaluation. Besides my theological and ministry education I completed a Master of Public Administration degree in nonprofit management. The key words in public administration are effective and efficient. One determines if you are accomplishing these words through measuring goals and outcomes. I fear that far too many churches aren't evaluating themselves and their programs. Typically we as pastors and churches are hyper-sensitive to evaluation. Therefore, we usually avoid evaluation at all costs. It is time to evaluate what we do and how we do it. A closer look might determine that far too many of our churches are simply bloated "country clubs with crosses" reproducing programs that haven't been effective at "making and maturing" believers in years.
