Let’s take a moment to review a very important report card. The report card will tell us how Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) churches are doing in their efforts to fulfill the Great Commission in our nation.
To understand the grades on the report card, one must begin with the text of the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18–20. Based on His authority as the Risen Lord, Jesus gives a very clear command. It is not a recommendation, a request or a suggestion. It is a command to go outside the huddle of believers and make disciples among all nations, noting that He will always be present with us as we go about the task.
Making disciples
I want to particularly call your attention to how Jesus explained making disciples. His explanation gives us a way to measure our progress in fulfilling the Great Commission, or our “grade.” The mark of progress for the Great Commission is not how many hear the gospel, nor is it simply making the gospel known to a growing number of people. According to the text, we measure progress by making disciples who are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; who know and obey the commandments of Jesus; and who are themselves going to make yet more disciples as this text directs His disciples to do.
I call your attention now to a stunning chart on the Great Commission progress of SBC churches. The chart begins on the left in 1880 and concludes on the right with the most recent church year for which data is available, 2014. Note the “Churches” line, which indicates the total number of SBC churches. It is generally positive with a sustained, clearly upward trend over a long period of time. The decade of the 1920s, which included the Great Depression and the embezzlement of about $1 million from the then-Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board) is the only time that upward trend line was interrupted. The “Baptisms” line indicates total SBC baptisms. You will note the explosive growth in baptisms, outstripping the growth in number of churches that began around 1930. And then you see when the two lines crossed about the year 2000, creating an ever-widening gap between the number of churches and the number of baptisms. We are about 15 years into the longest decline in baptisms in SBC history. We have more churches but they are reaching fewer and fewer people. Do I have your attention? Let me suggest some conclusions.
- Lostness in North America is having a bigger impact on Southern Baptists than Southern Baptists are having on lostness. Put another way: The world is having a bigger impact on the behavior of Southern Baptists than we are having on the behavior of the world. In addition to the decline in baptisms, for several consecutive years we are down in membership, down in worship attendance and down in Bible study attendance. We have fewer people and the people we have left are less engaged.
- What does this mean in terms of our influence on the nation? Southern Baptists are becoming a shrinking presence with a diminishing voice in our nation.
- What are the implications of this for the fulfillment of the Great Commission in North America? Southern Baptists are closer to losing the South than we are to reaching North America. If we lose the South, then we eventually lose nearly everything. Consider the graph of our baptisms per 10,000 people in the population.
Reaching Millennials
Clearly we are losing ground relative to the population. Millennials are the largest generation in the history of the United States. Can you see them in this graph?
- Consider the economic implications for financial support for Great Commission activities. Time will take away the disciples now forming our congregations. If we stop adding new disciples from our communities to our congregations now, then we will stop adding new dollars to Great Commission budgets in the future. To have enough dollars to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, SBC churches have to make disciples of the lost in their communities.
- The steadily growing gulf between the number of our churches and the number of our baptisms reveals a true life-or-death question for our future: What can we do to improve the Great Commission health of our churches?
Live distinctively in the culture
I offer some brief suggestions on the way forward from our present situation. We must own the problem and acknowledge the need for our churches to reach their communities for Christ. Second we must live distinctively in the culture. The foundation for every fruitful evangelism strategy is the living illustration of a life transformed by the gospel. If we fail in discipleship we will inevitably fail in evangelism. Third we must provide and promote strategies (note the plural), resources (note the plural) and training. A building site needs more than tools. It needs blueprints. A work site needs more than blueprints. It needs tools. A work site needs more than blueprints and tools, it needs trained people who know how to read the blueprints and use the tools. You cannot build a house without all three. But all of this is a moot point and useless if God does not move. We must seek a spiritual awakening, a great movement of the Spirit of God in our churches and across our land. Whether we know it or not we are at the point of desperation for God to move.
Do not be naïve
William Carey is father of the modern missionary movement and was a great British Baptist leader of the 18th century. While on a sabbatical years ago, my wife and I visited a number of William Carey sites where he lived and ministered. One Saturday we visited a church where he preached before going overseas. We found an elderly couple there that Saturday afternoon. They showed us around, letting me stand behind his pulpit and telling us about his ministry there. When I asked why they happened to be there on a Saturday afternoon, they explained they had come to make all things ready for a big Sunday. When I asked what the big day was all about, they told us they were having a baptism, one baptism. I asked how long it had been since their last baptism in that church, and they said 30 years. Thirty years, a generation between baptisms in the church of the founder of the modern missionary movement. If you think Southern Baptist churches or your church could never become like that British Baptist church, you are naïve.
The Wailing Wall
The Western Wall in Jerusalem is often called the Wailing Wall because it is all that remains of the glorious temple that stood there during the time of Jesus. Seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, Jews and others gather at that wall to weep and remember the glory that once was as they pray for the day when that glory that will be restored. If we do not improve the Great Commission health of our churches, only one question remains: To what wall will our grandchildren go to weep and remember who Southern Baptists once were and what Southern Baptists once did to fulfill the Great Commission?
EDITOR’S NOTE — Chuck Kelley is president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of numerous articles, training materials and books including “How Did They Do It? The Story of Southern Baptist Evangelism” and “The Roman Road” tract, teacher’s guide, learner’s guide and training video.
Share with others: