Mark Clifton said Linwood Baptist Church was down to only three members when he became their pastor in May 2020.
“Two of them voted for me, and the third abstained,” he told those gathered for lunch following the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions’ 2023 state evangelism conference held Jan. 29–30 at Lakeside Baptist Church in Birmingham.
The church has grown, Clifton said, and is now a “normative-sized church” with 29 members and 40 or more in attendance on Sundays.
Clifton, senior director of replanting for the North American Mission Board, said the number of Southern Baptist pastors who had more than 2,000 members in attendance last Sunday is just over 500. But the average Southern Baptist church has 67 attendees on Sunday morning, and the majority have 150 or fewer.
A generation ago, strategists thought having megachurches in every American city was the way to evangelize, he said.
“Now we have those megachurches in every city,” he said. “Today there are more megachurches in Nashville than [there were] in all of North America in 1978. Yet the nation is far more lost.”
Clifton said he’s grateful for the large churches, but he’s also convinced God can do “amazing things in small places.”
Clifton noted the past three years have been challenging to the work of Christ.
“We believe 30% of our former attendees won’t return,” he said. “Perhaps they were getting ready to leave before COVID, and the pandemic made it easier to leave. Six months of no public worship prompted this, as well as the ‘politics’ of masking or not masking and social distancing, and people may have grown tired of the arguments. However, I think the real reason is we’ve failed in teaching discipleship.”
Between 800 and 900 Southern Baptist churches cease to exist each year, and 75% of these are in population areas of 100,000 or more — exactly where they are needed, Clifton said.
“Your church address is no accident,” he added, quoting Sam Rainer, pastor, author and president of Church Answers, a church health ministry.
Reason for decline
Clifton proposed five reasons churches decline.
- Reliance on programs and personalities rather than on repentance and the work of the Holy Spirit.
“We have a tendency to maintain something because we’ve always done it, whether it’s working or not,” he said. “The church and its programs can become a sacred idol.”
- Churches can grow to resent their communities for their nonresponse.
“It’s like in high school where you ask someone out and they keep turning you down,” he said. “Then you start finding fault with them. It’s our job to meet needs and bless our communities. If people aren’t responding, something’s wrong with us.”
- Churches may “anesthetize the pain of death” by staying busy.
“We keep doing what we’ve always done because we think if we’re busy, we’re not dying,” he said.
- Declining churches focus on the process of decision rather than the decisions.
“Henry Blackaby said the ‘unprayed-over opinion’ is the last thing we need,” Clifton said. “We have to trust Jesus to guide His church, and not listen to every unspiritual voice.”
- Declining churches are unwilling to pass leadership to another generation.
“If we say we want younger people, we must trust them to bring their gifts and their leadership into our congregations,” he said. “Every spiritual awakening has not involved men of my age — in fact, we could be a detriment — but it has involved young men. They should be our focus.”
Strategies for growth
Clifton exhorted pastors to employ five strategies for growth.
“We’re involved in spiritual warfare, and our adversary discourages us,” he said. “Thus, we must pray without ceasing.”
“Second, we must love our remaining members and warm their hearts to the gospel,” he said.
“Preach the gospel and instill an overwhelming understanding of the cross. Spurgeon said he never got over being saved, and he shared his testimony about every six months in his pulpit. This is what we must talk about in our pulpits.”
Clifton further exhorted pastors to simplify their strategies.
“It doesn’t have to be complicated,” he said. “We love people, practice generosity and seek Jesus’ direction in every endeavor.”
Clifton repeated his vision for young men as the fourth exhortation.
“Every pastor can try to bring a young man to Christ and disciple him every year,” he said. “What an impact this would have on our churches.”
Finally, Clifton said declining churches must change their view of growth.
“It’s not the size of the church that matters most, but the size of our ministry footprint,” he said.
“If we practice biblical discipleship, the community will be enriched. We’re called to be a blessing to others.”
“It’s been difficult, and it’s been harsh these past years,” Clifton concluded. “But don’t grow weary in well-doing. Southern Baptists have more churches in North America than franchises for Starbucks or McDonald’s. Every community, every crossroads needs the consistent witness of local churches —whatever their size.”
Clifton has training videos available at namb.net/church-replanting.
Linwood Baptist Church’s website is linwoodsbc.org and features Clifton’s Sunday messages.
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