6,000 SBC Churches Baptize NO ONE in 2003

Southern Baptists have a reputation of easy baptism, so maybe they are finally learning that no everyone who says yea, yea is indeed a candidate for baptism.

Cheers,

Jim

 

That statistic makes my stomach hurt.

So tragic...

 

Agreed Diane. I have yet to see this 'easy believism' What I have seen is pastors counseling and questioning to see if the person truely has an understanding of what they have done(been saved) or are about to do. Having them make sure they are repenting, willing to turn from sin.I ahve been apart of several minisries and training that were SBC or a part of other ABC churches, and still have seen no sign of it.
But I have never seen 'easy believism' in an SBC church or training material and I get pretty tired of having people accuse us of it, spreading lies.

 

Donna-(most will tell a person to make the prayer personal, from their own heart that this is just a guide kind of thing, all in all it looks like it lacks one thing. 'Easy believism". Not a discussion of whether or not your Calinist or Armenian)

http://www.sbc.net/knowjesus/theplan.asp

 

Makes you realize there are churches that aren't doing what they are supposed to do.

 

Why would a
malquoted stat make your stomach hurt?
Did you know if "6,000 SBC churches
don't have any baptisms" that means
that 34,000 SBC churches did have
baptisms? 85% of the SBC churches
had baptisms.

How many of the 81 each Seventh Day
Baptist General Conference churchs had no baptisms? (12 would equal the SBC
percentage-wise)
How many of the 275 each Sovereighn
Grace Baptists had no batisms?
(41 would equal the SBC percentage-wise).

 

Amen, Sister DonnaA -- Preach it!

I've been an SBC councelor/trainer for
in excess of 25 years. No easy Believe-ism,
lots of prayers for the lost.

 

I have been a SBC Pastor for 24 years. During that time I have pastored five Churches. I always was glad I wasn't the pastor of a church that had no Baptisms because I knew they were looked down upon by our Denominational Leadership and categorized as substandard and suspect.

In fact one year I was called up to the stage and presented a certificate at the State Evangelism Conference because of our Church's number of Baptisms. Yeah,I had arrived! I was in the "Leaders in Baptisms" group!

Then 2002 came followed by 2003....

I have never pastored anywhere where there were no (ZERO - 0) Baptisms. And yet here I am, struggling to keep my positive outlook, confident that if I keep on keeping on, God will eventually break through the walls of opposition and bless.

I never worried about this statistic until it became me and then I realized that the statistics and those who prepare and evaluate them and yes even those who comment on them can never know the whole story behind the statistics.
...............

Eliphaz, if You or Bildad or Zophar read this - be sure to respond!

 

Hardsheller:

Sometimes when you stand back, you can see the forest because of the trees. That is exactly what some of us see from outside the organization. Numbers become everything. The very thing that Billy Graham is criticized for becomes the norm.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Well, sometimes things come in spurts. The first church I pastored on the first day of the pastorate, had three joined up. Thought I was big stuff. Then no more for three years then 15 within two months, then four more years, then five came.

As for statistics, some SBC congregations are very small, pastorless, etc., etc. so those factors should be considered in the equation.

I am not a Southern Baptist and have no intention of becoming one, but I wouldn't fret much over the statistics. I have seen a good number of people talked into joining the church, who weren't spritually ready to make that commitment for what ever reason, and then only to fall out in a few weeks/months. When God moves on a heart to make that commitment, it will stick. When persuaded by men that it is what they should do, because of family, business, it looks good, etc., it won't stick.

I'll take 20 faithful over 200 on the books anyday of the week.

 

Being SBC, I can say this....

The bad thing about Southern Baptists, is that so many times we are in it for the competition between churches.

Well, guess what, folks. It ain't about your church or my church having the most converts or the most members move from another conregation. It is about winning the lost and discipling the for the sake of Christ. if we get more than your church, or vice versa, Praise God.

 

Tina, thats exactly how we feel about it, as long as someone gets them, it doesn't have to be us. God knows what He is doing, He uses churches in different ways to reach different people. Salvations are up to Him, not us. Everyone you witness to does not get saved.

 

Those numbers do not tell the whole story. William Carey went eleven years before he won his first convert to Christ.

A DOM once told me that there was a year where not one person was baptized in a church he pastored. He planted two churches in the area. He was one of the top DOM's in Texas.

I pastored a small church where in one year every week I was baptizing people and then the next year there were very few in the entire year.

Take the percentage of the large chruches and you will find that their percentages are much less than most smaller churches. The average large church grows at about three peercent. The average new church plant grows at 50 percent. Who has the most resources?

 

Hmmm... when churches baptize a a hundred members, and have congregations of 2000, we say they must not be preaching the Gospel to get so many people in, or we call them megachurches, as if that's supposed to be some kind of insult.

Then, when churches don't baptize anyone, we STILL accuse them of not preaching the Gospel, because they didn't get anyone in.

Maybe the problem is not with the numbers, but those who count them. I'm not saying that no baptisms shoudn't be a concern, but it should not necessarily be the largest concern. As for me, I'm more concerned about the hearts of those who make snap judgements about churches based on size, or the lack thereof.

If God blesses you with a congregation of 10, thank Him. If He blesses you with a congregation of 10,000 thank Him. There's probably nothing wrong with either scenario. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

 

Another concern besides the 6,000 SBC Churches who Baptized NNE in 2003 should be the Churches who baptized large numbers but who within a year cannot account for over half those who made a profession. This may be the more dangerous in that it shows a failure to disciple the "converts" and probably is a symptom of easy believism.

 

I was once aware of a small Apostolic church that had come to the realisation that not even one person had "accepted Jesus" in the past two years, much less go and get Baptisted. This was a Pentecostal Church in a growing area.

Yet this church had relied on recruiting disgruntled members from other churches in order to boost its numbers.

My question is how many churches get by doing that? Getting people from other churches without getting people saved themselves? It seems to me that irrespective of the denominational title all can fall into that trap if we are not focused enough.

What I have found interesting in internet discussions is that there are people out there that are very much anti the idea of having an altar call in church. Interestingly these groups are not seeing the growth that the Charamatics or the Evangelicals are having. Thinking about that I wonder if Evangelical Baptists can be lulled by a sense of failure over time into not having their meetings set up to encourage evangalism but to go for teaching the flock or for some other focus which may well be good, but maybe evangalism is getting pushed just a little to far on the backburner?

 

A few years ago they did a survey in one of the assocaiations in Texas and found that some of the pastors had baptized some people in their congregations up to five times. I guess those pastors would never be couinted among the 6000.

Some pastors baptize anyone who was not Baptized in a Baptist and some SBC if they want to become a member. I have had some come forward to become members telling me they have been baptized three times to become a member in various churches where they lived and then moved and attended another. Some pastors will not rebaptize a person who was a believer and was immersed.

In the SBC a person has got to have good statistics and some even lie about them. I have seen it first hand and put a stop to it very quickly. On one occasion I put my foot down and told one of the deacons that it would not happen as long as I was the pastor there.