According to the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination is losing members. I read an article yesterday, which I can't find online, arguing that the numbers SBC officials have put out about their church's size are unreliable, and that the SBC is actually a lot smaller than they make themselves out to be. Anybody heard that? Feddie, a former Southern Baptist who is now Roman Catholic, talks about that here and here. Excerpt:
I believe many Christians have a deep hunger to worship the Triune God in a more traditional manner. I am not suggesting that the mega-church or modern style of praise worship is wrong. I am simply saying that many Christians my age and younger are starting to rethink what it means to worship; and I personally think that is a good thing. ...[N]one of this is to say that one cannot be a Christian without tradition. I do think, however, that many Christians ought to seriously consider the degree to which the history/tradition of the Christian faith impacts or should impact their personal beliefs. Unfortunately, for many Christians, the formation of their faith is often limited to the teachings of their pastors (which may or may not be helpful) and their own personal musings about the meaning of various and sundry Bible passages. And while I do not mean to denigrate either, I think this style of Christianity can be dangerous if it leads the heart to curve inward as opposed to outward (toward God). It certainly was for me. I was so confident in my own personal understanding of scripture during my time as a protestant that I became arrogant in my faith. Who needs Augustine? Why is he any more qualified than me to interpret the Bible? Needless to say, I now look back at that attitude and just shake my head in bewilderment.
I'm not sure what's going on here. I would like to believe that the losses in Southern Baptist ranks come from younger people wanting a more stable Christian tradition, and thus lighting out for the PCA Presbyterians, the Catholics, the Orthodox and so forth. I've known and do know former Southern Baptists who have made or are in the process of making that leap. But I also know Southern Baptists who long ago left the Baptist church, though not formally, to start attending nondenominational "Bible churches." As far as I can tell, these Bible churches are not theologically or culturally more liberal than the SBC churches they left behind; rather, the Bible churches appealed more to these particular believers based on the quality of the preaching and the programs offered by specific churches. In other words, the SBC lost these members not for reasons traditionalist Christians would find comforting, but rather the opposite.
Surely we have Southern Baptists in this blog's readership, as well as former Southern Baptists. What's going on inside your church? What explains this trend, from your point of view? And how can it be arrested?
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i cant wait too see the extinction of the baptists and the orthodox christian take over!
but i do admit it would be sad for some people to see the churches of thier heritage go extinct.
orthodox church since A.D. 33
I've visited several Southern Baptist churches in my lifetime. I've had the same experience in that I didn't find them very friendly or accepting of visitors. I now attend a Methodist church and within several years was appointed as the Education chairman. It has also been my experience that evangelical churches tend to be very cliquey which to me is a great oxymoron.
souKPN hi! http://msn.com my site
I believe the problem stems from compromising with the world. This isn't just happening in the SBC, but also the independants. Most SBC's and some Independents thought it'd be a great idea to bring in rock bands, coffee shops, and discussion times to attract the world to the church. This, however, does not work.
I find it ironic that since churches began doing this, and especially started promoting some 50 translations of the Bible (for ease of use), church attendance is down. I thought the new bibles were supposed to make it easier to desciple christians and easier for the unsaved to understand...I thought compromising and looking more like the world instead of taking a stand was supposed to increase numbers and salvation...Instead, we have record lows in savation and church membership, but since the 70's US population has increased by 46%.
The fact is, people don't need all these compromises to come to God. Unsaved people won't hear without a preacher--someone to share and "rightly divide" the truth. They don't need a perverted translation. The scripture is "spirituall discerned". Just as the ethiopian did not understand what he was reading in Isaiah, unsaved don't know what they are reading. Not because an occasional word in the KJV is obsolete, but because scripture is spiritually discerned.
James 4 says "a friend of the world is an enemy of God." We don't bring worldly activities into our churches to attract the unsaved, we preach the truth, and act as beacons of the truth, and share the truth with the world. It has worked like that for 6,000 years, so why do we suddenly need a revelutionary way??
Preach the truth and don't stray from it.
I went to an Independent Baptist Church for a few months but they were racist. God forbid if a white person marries a non-white. They was KJV only too.
So I starting going to a Southern Baptist Church on and off again for almost a year. The Preacher is also a bigot and slams other religions a lot, places way too much emphasis on Hell and Satan and other things.
I consider myself more moderate than that. I think I will switch over to Methodism if I ever start going back to church. At least then I can be on middle ground and not on one extreme or the other.
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