FIRST-PERSON: Of grinches, goblins, gremlins and ghosts

(BP)--There are a good many things about which most of us maintain a healthy skepticism. Some of those are listed in the title of this essay. However skeptical you may be, there are two categories of humans for whom at least one of the above is very real -- the terrified and those who love to tell ghost stories to keep the fearful tied in a knot. While statistics and their interpretation are not unimportant (3,000 saved on the Day of Pentecost), they often function in Southern Baptist life to remind me of a search for goblins that have no reality.

LifeWay recently released statistics gathered from reports of the churches. Doomsayers and analysts immediately began to explain to readers what the numbers "meant" and why such catastrophic shrinkage had occurred in Southern Baptist churches. So, to paraphrase Luke, "since many have taken in hand" this assessment, maybe one more will do no harm. In fact, another perspective might even be helpful.

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