Editor’s Note — This is part 4 of 5 in a series of stories related to Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee President Ronnie Floyd’s Vision 2025 proposal that will be voted on at the SBC annual meeting in June. To follow the series, visit tabonline.org/vision2025.
Bottom line for how to achieve Action Step 4, according to SBC/NAMB leaders: Intentionally focus on reaching teens with the gospel and equipping them to share the gospel with their peers.
According to an unscientific social media poll of 2,700 people conducted in fall 2020, an astounding 77% of professing Christians state they made their professions of faith before the age of 18. That percentage jumps to an overwhelming 95% of Christians who made their professions of faith under the age of 30, the poll indicates.
Southern Baptists’ “harvest is in the next generation,” believes Shane Pruitt, who conducted the poll and who has served as executive director of next gen evangelism for the North American Mission Board since November 2019.
If Southern Baptists don’t focus evangelistic energy on people under 30 years of age, “it’s like we’re fishing in 5% of the lake,” he said.
“God can save whom He wants, whenever He wants. But practically speaking, if we don’t reach somebody by the time they’re 18 [years old], then the chance of reaching them with the gospel goes way down, especially if we don’t reach them in their young adult years,” Pruitt said. “Then [the chance of reaching them with the gospel] goes even further down. Now is the time.”
Endangered generation
From 2000 to 2018, teenage baptisms declined by 35,548 people (38%), according to Ronnie Floyd, president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, in a February 2020 address to the EC.
A Pew Research study in spring 2019 indicated that 45% of 13- to 17-year-olds believe many religions may be true, while only 31% believe only one religion is true. Another 15% believe there is little to no truth in any religion, and 8% believe no religion is true.
A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that among Americans ages 18–38, only 30% listed religion or belief in God as “very important” compared with 50% overall, and two-thirds of those age 55 and older.
In addition to those statistics, “This generation of teenagers is experiencing things at a much earlier age than we had experienced,” Pruitt said. Many are struggling with mental health issues, such as depression or thoughts of suicide.
They have been exposed to cultural acceptance of non-Christian teachings regarding sexuality and gender issues.
The pandemic exacerbated these pressures as teens were isolated, with “many looking at things on the internet that are addictive.”
Many of these teens “did not grow up in church and do not know Jesus,” he said.
“It’s almost an endangered generation. It’s a generation that desperately needs the gospel.”
With about 80% of young people placing a high value on self-fulfillment, Pruitt said, “The only way toward that is setting aside self and living for something bigger. To me that is a door wide open for the gospel.”
Such trends are one rationale for the Vision 2025 Action Step 4 that calls on Southern Baptists to “turn around our ongoing decline in reaching, baptizing and discipling 12- to 17-year olds.”
Resources leveraged
In February NAMB and the Executive Committee announced that NAMB will support student-focused evangelism outreach through an additional $5 million in new and expanded efforts over the next four years.
NAMB will use some of these funds in national efforts to reach the next generation for Christ, and a portion of those funds will be sent to state conventions to use in more localized student evangelism events, strategies and resources. The $5 million is in addition to monies already allocated to state conventions.
NAMB, Pruitt said, “will partner with state conventions because they know how to reach their state with the gospel.”
Strategic focus
What’s the bottom line in turning around downward trends in baptisms of teens? In presenting his Vision 2025 in February, Floyd put it simply: “You cannot baptize those you do not reach. You cannot disciple those you do not reach. The order is clear: We must reach, baptize and disciple teenagers.”
Pruitt believes there is no “secret” in reaching teenagers for Christ. “What worked for 2,000 years works today.
“We need to understand the culture so we can speak into the culture, but we need to stick to the Bible, stick to the gospel, because that’s what has saved for 2,000 years and that’s what saves today,” he said. “The most effective person to reach a teenager with the gospel is another teenager that has a heart that beats with passion for Jesus but that same heart is broken for their lost peers.”
To that end, NAMB has started a youth pastor coaching network, and Pruitt is personally coaching more than 60 youth pastors.
“The way to move the needle on this is to pour into leaders and youth pastors. … If a youth pastor is spiritually healthy and lives evangelistically, they are more likely to lead student ministries that are healthy and evangelistic. Students are never going to do what they don’t see their leaders doing,” he said.
Another way is to mobilize teenagers, Pruitt said.
“We want to reach teenagers with the gospel. We want to equip teenagers with the gospel to go reach their peers. We want to see those baptism numbers grow.
‘Urgent time’
“If we don’t reach this age group, the one after them will be even more difficult to reach,” he said. “We are in an urgent time, and we could lose a generation.”
‘Big picture’ measurables can help stop the decline
Reaching teens with the gospel is about more than numbers. Still, “measurables” are important to ensure that the decline in youth baptisms has been turned around.
“We want to stop the decline. Before you can grow, you’ve got to stop the decline,” said Shane Pruitt, executive director of next gen evangelism for the North American Mission Board.
Some “big picture” measurables to stop the decline include:
- How many students can be trained to share the gospel? “We want to equip teenagers with the gospel to go reach their peers.”
- How many gospel conversations are students and their leaders initiating? “It’s up to God to save. We can’t save people, but it’s our job to point people to the One Who can save — Jesus. Our job is to have the gospel conversation.”
- What are your baptism goals? “Every church, every state convention, every association [should] have baptism goals.”
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