The Southern Baptist Convention is rapidly dying, and resistance to change could kill over half of the denomination’s churches by 2030, the outgoing SBC president said May 1.
Unless something is done to reverse the downward trend, Southern Baptist churches could number only 20,000 -- down from the current total of more than 44,000 -- in fewer than 22 years, South Carolina pastor Frank Page said. His comments came in a conference call with pastors, hosted by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
Page is no expert to be sure. But if we continue to veer away from preaching the unapologetic gospel from the inerrant word of God he could be correct.
Maybe, but like he said it isn't due to the demonination not doing it's job but the local churches refusing to do theirs!
Can't argue with that.
If your dead in the pulpit, they're dead in pews.
or
The same work that is put into the pulpits, is both given and recieved from the pews.
Absolutely true. There is salvation in nobody else.
What I find interesting is that anytime people take their focus off of Christ and onto the organization then God sees fit to destroy the organization.
I believe that should the church receive persecution then it will begin to focus on what really matters. When it humbles itself under God then it will flourish and become stronger.
I'd say the same is likely with other denominations. My perception is that denominationalism in general is on the decline. The younger generation of leaders is less interested in denominational affiliation. However, I do think exciting things are happening with church planting, and the new generation leading it.
Maybe not so positive things within denominations....but God is still good, and he is still saving His bride.
Les Puryear is an SBC pastor in North Carolina.
He blogs quite often on small-church issues and recently hosted a conference on the small church.
I think that he writes a lot worth examining on this point.
We have over-emphasized big churches as successful and little churches as dying.
Google him and I think you will find some useful things to read.
Individual churches come and go, but Christ builds His Church.
Are any of the individual congregations Paul visited or established still in existence?
What a great point. Our foundation in our convention is the small church, the lifeblood of our convention is the small church...but the leadership in our convention is always big church.
Ministry in the 21st century will definitely look different. The death of denominations is a slow one but is happening. Networks and affliations are more in step. The reality is that we are going to begin entering an era where we shall see more bi-vocational ministers and simpler churches (in their programming) and that isn't a bad thing. :)
The most important thing to remember is that the church isn't a building or denomination..the Church is you and me. :)
Churches that cannot support themselves die if they are not part of a denomination. There are many very good churches being planted that are not a part of any denimination and doing very well.