By Editor Bob Terry
Baptisms are important to Baptists. In fact one researcher said baptisms are so important to Baptists that we named our denomination after them.
But the recent trends in baptisms are not good. As reported in the June 16 issue of The Alabama Baptist, baptisms are down for both Alabama Baptists and Southern Baptists in general.
In the last five years baptisms by Alabama Baptist churches have fallen 16 percent, from a high of 19,318 to the recently reported total of 16,342. For the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) the story is worse. There the drop is 19 percent in five years; from a high of 362,892 in 2011 to 295,212 in 2015.
Ten years ago cooperating Alabama Baptist churches baptized 23,439. That is 30.28 percent more than were baptized in 2015, so the 10-year trend is taking a steep dive.
The 10-year number for SBC is almost the same as the five-year number because 2011 was the second highest number of baptisms in the 10-year period. However, that trend line also is downward, showing a decline in baptisms for 8 of the last 10 years.
Before we wring our hands in despair, let’s remember there are 295,212 more new believers in SBC churches (including Alabama) as a result of the work of God’s Holy Spirit through Baptists. That is something for which to give thanks.
And while weekly attendance declined by 1.7 percent, still about 5.6 million people gathered each week in SBC churches to worship and glorify God. That number (about 37 percent of total membership) may not be what we want but it is a powerfully large group of involved believers.
Commissioned followers
But there is no escaping the cold hard fact that the trend lines in baptisms are downward. That is troubling to Southern Baptists. More importantly, it is troubling to God for “God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
Jesus commissioned His followers (including Baptists) to share with all people everywhere that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
A starting place to reverse the downward trends in baptisms may be to ask ourselves if we really believe the gospel. Do we believe people who do not know Jesus Christ are doomed to an eternity separated from God? Do we believe “the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life” (Rom. 6:23)?
Do we believe in the sufficiency of the gospel to reconcile man to God and to change the eternal destiny of anyone who calls on the name of the Lord?
Most Baptists I know are committed to these biblical truths. After all, they have staked their eternal destiny on their faith in God through Jesus Christ.
If we believe these truths then we should be sharing them. That is the implication of the Great Commission. The grammatical structure of Matthew 28:19–20 is not a command to “go.” Rather it says, “As you are going make disciples … baptizing them … teaching them.” The command is to make disciples, teach and baptize “as you are going.”
We are often told the number of people groups who have never heard the gospel. Our hearts go out to them as we pray and give so that the good news of Jesus might be shared with them. But Southern Baptist churches in Alabama and across America are not dealing with unreached people groups primarily.
Our missions field includes family members who have never made a profession of faith, co-workers who don’t have time for God and neighbors caught up in everything but the Church. These are people whose paths we cross regularly “as we are going.” They are just as lost as those living in distant lands and these are the ones with whom we should be sharing the gospel.
Unfortunately most of us do not know our neighbors. Some of us do not even know the names of people living a few houses from us. Often our knowledge of co-workers is superficial. We may know their names but seldom do we know their dreams or their hurts. And in unbelieving families, the follower of Christ is often made to feel uncomfortable so he/she withdraws.
Perhaps that is why many Christians have trouble naming 10 people who they know are spiritually lost. The usual pattern is that the longer one is in the church, the more one lives with church people and the fewer lost friends one has.
Cultivating relationships
What would happen if Christians learned the names of their neighbors and began to cultivate relationships? Studies show that 9 out of 10 people visit a church because they were invited by a friend. Could neighbors become friends? Is it possible to intentionally cultivate a relationship with at least one neighbor and then be that friend who invites them to church?
Is it possible to take time to get to know co-workers and over time develop a relationship that allows you to share what Jesus means to you?
Is it possible to be involved with unbelieving family members so they know you love them even though they are not followers of Jesus Christ? If so, might that lead to a time to talk honestly about the importance of your faith in Jesus and your desire for them to know the Lord?
Baptists learned a long time ago that relationships are the key to evangelism. People may be outwardly polite but inwardly most people do not listen to someone unless there is a connection through some kind of relationship.
Perhaps part of the reason for the downward trends in baptism is Baptist Christians and others have increasingly withdrawn from the world into cloistered communities called the Church. Perhaps it is time we share the gospel with our families, our co-workers, our neighbors and our recreational buddies who are not in the Church.
“As we go” we can share, we can witness, we can teach, we can make disciples. “As we go” we can change the downward trends in baptism.
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