The past few years have been challenging for many Baptist churches. Across the Southern Baptist Convention as a whole, the number of baptisms we’ve seen has been steadily declining. And while there are some notable exceptions within the Convention, I think we have to ask some tough questions. But we do so with the faith that Jesus has appointed us to “great fruitfulness” (John 15:8), and promised that if we follow him he will make us effective fishers of men—enough so that we’ll feel like the “nets” of our boats are breaking (Matt 4:19)!
First things first: Our primary problems are spiritual. Quite simply, many of us no longer feel the urgency of the gospel message. We have grown complacent in our success, and don’t burn with the same evangelistic zeal that we once did. A recent Lifeway study revealed that nearly 90% of active, church-going evangelicals have never even shared their faith with someone outside of their family. Only 20% of churches in the US are growing, and only 1% are growing by reaching lost people.
Our goal should be that we make it as hard as possible to go to hell from our community! Has everyone in your community heard a compelling presentation of the gospel, and been given a chance to respond? I think often of the words of Charles Spurgeon, who said,
“If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
Second, we are no longer known as a people of prayer. Prayerlessness is a sign that either we believe we no longer really need God’s help, or that we are unaware of how willing he is to give it. Jonathan Edwards, one of the leaders in the Great Awakening, said, “Prayer doesn’t bring the revival; prayer is the revival.”
Third, we are increasingly becoming “clergy-focused” rather than “lay-empowered.” Most Southern Baptists look to the man in the pulpit, or their paid staff, as the primary leaders in ministry. But the greatest works of the Spirit happen not by those who work in the church, but those who carry the gospel outside of it. Of the 40 miracles in the book of Acts, 39 happen outside the church! At its core, that is a deep discipleship issue in the SBC. We have failed to raise up evangelistic leaders for our communities from within our congregation.
Finally, many churches are too tied to their cultural preferences and ways of doing things to do what it takes to reach a new generation. For some churches, it has been simply an unawareness of how to accomplish that: they’ve lacked the leadership to lead them in those changes. These are sweet, gospel-loving people who really want to see whatever changes happen that will better enable them to reach their communities who have simply not had the leadership to take them there. Others, however, have willfully chosen to stay entrenched in familiar forms and routines, at the expense of reaching their communities. Tragically, some seem to care more about preserving their traditions than converting their grandchildren! How tragic that is, when you think about all that God did in those same churches in previous generations. I’ve heard it said, sadly, that the biggest enemies of what God wants to do next are sometimes those with a front row seat for what he did last.
It is important, I think, to recognize that those who are failing to contextualize their ministries to the current cultural milieu will not fix the problem by simply bemoaning our declining baptisms more loudly or by calling more earnestly for “revival.” Just as you can’t fix spiritual problems with practical solutions, so you can’t fix practical problems with spiritualized solutions. When God brings revival, it will likely not be “despite” our failure to bridge to the gap to our culture. Rather, the sign that revival is happening is that we will find ourselves willing to do whatever it takes to reach the lost.
“Anthony” was the first African-American man we had ever baptized at the Summit, and his story was incredible. He had endured a difficult past, to put it mildly— he had grown up in a rough part of downtown, surrounded by gang activity, violence, and crime. But after several months of Bible study and friendship, the light of grace finally broke through, and Anthony broke down in tears, got on his knees, and poured out his heart to Christ. Immediately he began bringing other friends to church with him.
As Anthony stood before our church the Sunday morning of his baptism, he looked out at our congregation and said, “Some of my friends ask me why I go over to ‘that white church.’ [At this point, we were still an almost all-white congregation.] But I tell them, ‘It’s not a white church. The bricks are red and the interior is gray, in fact. This church is where I met Jesus, and he’s the Savior of all colors.’” Then I baptized him.
After the service, an older gentleman in our church came up to me and said, “Son, you know I don’t like a lot of these changes that you are making in our church.…” Then he got choked up and said, “But if that right there is what we’re getting [referring to Anthony’s baptism], you can count me in for every single one.”
I praise God for those who are earnestly leading for revitalization in plateaued churches in the SBC. Our own church was in that category: we were a plateaued, declining Baptist church with fewer than 10 people baptized a year. By God’s grace, our hope this year is to baptize 1,000.
Having said that, I think that just as dangerous are some on the other side of this issue—“newer” churches that have abandoned the power of the simple gospel for modern fads and church growth gimmicks. What grows the church in any age does not change: deep belief in the gospel, commitment to the authority of Scripture, deep commitment to prayer, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win the lost. Some newer churches seem to have lost their focus on evangelism, settling instead for new church plants, missional communities, or charity ministry to their cities. Those are all important, but the central component of the Great Commission is to make new disciples and to baptize them. To make a disciple you must win them first. Jesus summarized his ministry as “seeking and saving the lost.” We should summarize ours the same.
One of my favorite memories from seminary was when my theology professor, Dr. Paige Patterson, came to that verse (Luke 19:10) and looked out at all of us and said, “Do you know why we pursued the conservative resurgence? Do you know why we fought for the inerrancy of Scripture and against the mission creep of our seminaries? It was about seeking and saving the lost. Nothing else is worth your energies. Everything you do in ministry should be evaluated through the lens of, ‘Does this help us better seek and save the lost?’”
I truly believe that the best days for the SBC are yet ahead of us. When we think about it through the lens of the promises of Scripture, we realize that they have to be! There are still over 6,000 unreached people groups in the world, and history cannot end until they have been given a gospel witness. As I often say at the Summit, “past graces” are evidences that God wants to bestow future graces. God has been incredibly gracious to our Convention. Why would the Holy Spirit have done that if it were not to give us an unprecedented effectiveness among our neighbors, in our nation, and around the world? God does what he does not to preserve institutions, but for the sake of the Great Commission. It’s all about the mission of seeking and saving the lost. I look forward to how the Holy Spirit leads us in that in the days to come. I know that if we cling to Christ, we can look forward to the future with hope, knowing that the best is yet to come.