Baptist Decline

Recent research shows that the SBC is in decline. My first response to that data was “duh”.  It didn’t surprise me at all. All you gotta do is look around and see that many of our churches are slowly dying away. It breaks my heart to see what is happening to our churches. It must sadden the heart of the Savior even more so.

The blame game will kick up on some blogs and news stories as to why this decline has hit the once grand Southern Baptist Convention.  In my mind some of it could be arrogance. I know that sounds harsh but let me explain. I am a product of the SBC. I went to an SBC affiliated college and seminary. I grew up in an SBC  church. 

While in seminary there seemed to be the mindset that if you want to know about true evangelism and missions or about good “quality” educational materials etc. then the SBC was the way to go.  Remember the book from the 80’s that implied from it’s title (can’t remember the full title), something to the effect that if not for the SBC that mankind had no hope. (Maybe someone can help me with the title). It smacked of ecclesiastical arrogance. That the SBC were the only ones who knew how to do things right.

It bothered me greatly and I think it has finally come home to smack the SBC in the face. Many of our churches are waiting for the SBC to bail us out. It is almost like they are waiting for a new program from the SBC to lead us to the promised land. Reality is that many churches are moving on and aren’t waiting around for the SBC to lead. They are sending thier own missionaries and ministers out into the fields.

Maybe the SBC has become for many, irrelevant.  Many are doing God’s work without the need or assistance at the association, state or national level. I know for myself I wonder why we go through the effort to take up special offerings for Aunt Annie and Aunt Lottie, when many within a few miles of our church don’t know the Lord.  We have many here who need to be reached. We send some $2000.00 or more a year to pay someone else to do our evangelism when that money could be used to reach many here.  Don’t get me wrong, yes, we should support our missionaries. But doesn’t that come from our regular cooperative program giving?

I am hearing more and more stories of churches who are deciding to take the mission offering money and use it in their area to reach the lost. They are doing outreach projects that reach the lost and are effective at it.  America is a wonderful and vast mission field. The local church is the best and most effective tool to help us reach the lost. We who are on the “field” know what is best for reaching our area.

Maybe the SBC is in decline because the SBC has become unneccesary. Like many other denominations, the SBC has become too big and out of touch.  Could be that the distrust of a top down type of mechanism is seen as too much for many.

For many of the young adults they don’t care about denominational labels, they just wanna be a part of a church that is effective at reaching the lost.  Could we be hanging onto a “Titanic” ship? Is it time to bail out? 

So much for the “conservative resurgence” leading the SBC back to the promised land. I think David Lowrie is right, the infighting has left us with a very damaged image. We are known for what we are against and for our beating each other up. My sincere prayer is that the typical Baptist church will be known for loving people as Christ did and meeting needs.  That the image will be a much more positive one. Baptist in many peoples minds is synonymous with judgementalism, isolationalism, churchianity the list could go on and on.

My prayer is that Baptist churches will become true lighthouses of hope for a lost and dying world. Those who don’t know the Savior need us to be true followers, sinners leading sinners to lifesaving water. May His tribe increase.

Montoya Tell All

Well, well, well, I see that Montoya is starting a ”tell all” diary of how he personally was involved in the “reporting” of the events down in the valley. That is fine and dandy. But for what purpose is he doing that? Could it be he needs to shore up his side of the story? Or he needs to pad his ego a little bit?

Rick Davis did a tell all, and now Montoya feels the need to do the same. Dang, do we need all of the “sordid” details told to us like a day-time soap opera of sorts? I personally don’t think telling his side of the story is necessary. It will not build up and lift up but will instead tear down and destroy more lives.

The Bible tells us that “any man looking back is not fit for the kingdom of God”. I am not saying that Montoya is not fit for the kingdom of God. But the verse relates to a farmer who must look forward and not behind or he will lose focus. If I am “plowing” God’s fields, I must look forward to keep my eyes on His goals and plans or my “lines” will turn out crooked and messed up.  I can’t be as effective for God’s kingdom if I am constantly looking back on my past and my mistakes. Oh, the consequences of my sins will stay with me my entire life. But I don’t have to let it own me.

Looking back at the Valley stuff will only pull us back into the past and not moving forward. I am for going forward, remembering our past mistakes and striving to not repeat said mistakes. I go forward knowing God has forgiven me of my mistakes and I leave them at the foot of the cross, desiring never to deal with it again. God has chosen not to remember it any more and so too should I.

Yes, some mistakes were made, but dwelling on them doesn’t do any good. Corrections have been made and let’s go forward, not backwards. If Montoya wants to relive it all over again, then he has not let go of the past. I have some past ugliness from previous churches I have served, the longer I dwelt on it, the less effective I became for Him. I have since forgiven, not justified the ugliness, and moved on. For me to go back to those past ugly experiences, just brings the hurt right back into the forefront of my mind and it stifles me. I choose to go forward.

We got a new ED, with a new vision and a new focus. And I choose to look forward into the future of what God is and will do through our churches as we partner up with Dr. Everett and the BGCT.  If I was a drinking man I would say with a glass of wine, “Here’s to the future!!”.

It’s just my opinion.

 

Revival Results

Our “revival” was held last week. The preaching by Jack Ridlehoover was awesome and the music was tremendous. It was the best attended revival we have had since I have been here. People from area churches came too. The biggest difference was the preaching of Jack Ridlehoover. He is a well known figure in this area. He was pastor of the same church for more almost 30 years and he ia a much liked man.

The remarkable thing is that only one young couple attended the revival (under 60). And that was only because they work with our youth on Wednesday night and so they had to be there. I even called several young couples to remind them of the revival and even though they said they would be there and we provided nursery for them, they didn’t come. I was disappointed.

I am sure in the older adult minds the young poeple are just not very “spiritual”. “They don’t love God like we do” is the mindset. The older adults have attended revivals since they were young adults and those lasted two weeks as they remind me each year. Ours was from Sunday to Wednesday. Still none came.

Could be that the typical revival just doesn’t meet the needs of young people today. We can lament the lack of attendance and participation from them or do something. I prefer to do something. I haven’t the answers yet, but will do some research.

 

 

Revivals, Are they Effective?

Our little church is hosting a revival this coming week. When I arrived here it was expected that we “do” a revival. It has been a tradition for many years to “have” a revival. It is probably true of many small Texas churches. It goes back many, many years.

A lot of time and energy is put into them. A preacher is sought and musicians are lined up. Food is gathered and nursery is provided. We pray about and for them with much vigor and concern. We ask God to visit us during this time and make Himself known.  We push the event as much as we can from the pulpit and in our local association.

I know I sound cynical, but it is a lot of energy mostly making the old folks feel good. We have revivals so the older folks can fellowship with one another and maybe get inspired by the messages and music. And more than likely some will complain about the music no matter who we bring in. But the point is the older folks really do love them. It takes them back to the “good old days” when the church was full. After each revival they complain that no body comes. On average about half of our church will not come. They will just not be interested. They would prefer to set at home than come to a revival.

Over the years we have shortened them up to run from Sunday to Wednesday and still not many come. The older folks will remind me that in the old days we went for two weeks and it was packed each night.

I say all this to say, the revivals are fine and dandy. Just wonder how effective they are in really impacting? Just wondering why we continue to spend much time and energy on something that is not really working very well? Why do we keep beating the dead horse?

A friend of mine who does evangelism and revival events, says it is getting harder and harder to stay in full-time evangelism. He gets less and less invitations each year. He is barely hanging on supporting his family. One evangelist told me that if you are really doing evangelism and God is in it, then you will have more than enough dates to preach. My friend does a great job and is gifted, but still has difficulty maintaining the ship.

I guess my wonder is if the revivals as we know them are a thing of the past. The way we have always done them seems to not be as effective as they once were. The old style of revivals may be breathing it’s last. Does that mean we can’t and shouldn’t do “revivals”? No, we just gotta come up with a better way of doing them.

Maybe the word ”revival” has over the years carried a negative image. Some see it as an opportunity for some guy to yell at us and do a smack down on us with God’s Word. Like it or not ”revival” does not conjur up a positive image in most peoples minds.

Could be Franklin Graham is onto something when he changed the name of his “crusades” to “festivals”. Festivals sounds nicer and not as angry or not negative as crusade.  He has had much positive results from his festivals.

Maybe we need to change how we are doing “revivals”, call it a different name. Do it at a different time frame or in a different setting. Don’t know just asking questions.

The whole point is we need to reach people with the Gospel and we gotta think differently than we have done in the past. Our lost and lonely world deserves a fighting chance to hear the Gospel. Just because the way we did it in the past may not be the best way today. I can still remember how cool 8-track tapes were. But now if I were still stuck with 8-track tapes today, people would laugh at me.

And the reality is many churches are still using the “8-track” model when most have moved to cd’s or mp3 players. Same message, just gotta send it in a different way.

Please know that I am not saying God can’t still use revivals, just that for the most part, keeping it as it was in the past, they just aren’t as effective.

Here at my church we will probably still do them, just may tweek them and try something new to see if we can be more effective. I am open to suggestions.

 

 

Building up the Kingdom or not.

I see that David Montoya is on his kick again. I wonder if his blog counts have been slipping lately and now he is throwing dirt like there was no tomorrow. He must have gotten some “chastising” from others and so he “defends” his dirt throwing.

Responding to him is a dangerous proposition. He will come after you with all the weapons he has at his disposal. He will trash and demean your character and make you feel like a piece of discarded trash. He is hurtful that way. He may even claim his mission is a “holy” one. He feels it is his job and duty to dish out the dirt on people he deems to be sinful.

To some small degree I agree with some of his writings. But the longer I read his blog the less and less that I can agree with. For me it is his tone. Blogs don’t have facial expressions,but they emit an attitude of sorts. And it is that attitude that I find distasteful. I don’t walk away from his blogs wanting to thank God. I walk away feeling like, well how should I say it, dirty I guess.

Maybe I’m an eternal optimist. I like to see the good in people. I like to think they are truly serving God and desiring the best for His Kingdom. Could be in an almost pietistic way, I like to see people as Jesus sees people. Jesus sees us sorry sinners and chooses to love us as we are, but refuses to let us stay as we are. We are but frail servants of our Lord.

Granted some mistakes in the BGCT have been made. We are all human and make dumb mistakes, but God sees us and forgives. We humans are not as prone to forgive and move on. Some will not let go and so they hammer on about it, to the point that it becomes nauseating. Maybe that is my problem with Montoya, he is vomiting all over us with this stuff, day in and day out. Oh, I and others say “Move on”, but for him “them is fighting words”, as they say.

I truly desire the best for the BGCT and God’s Kingdom. When there is corruption, yeah, it should be exposed. But to complain about Joy Fenner and her time spent choosing the Scriptures for the BGCT annual convention, is nuts. Come on, get real!

David, I love you as a brother in Christ, but I can’t cotton to your rants and hurtful comments on your blog. It is not furthering the Kingdom of God.

Well anyway, it’s just my opinion.