Decline

In the 1st chapter of the book of Joshua, we see that God spoke to the new leader of Israel, and said:
7 Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.
8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

It was absolutely vital that Joshua made good decisions in his leadership of the children of Israel. And, in our decision-making process, we have to place Scripture in the forefront of our minds. That means we have to avoid those things that will get us off-track in our spiritual walk, avoiding distractions and being clear-headed and sober-minded. Individuals and groups become less effective as their focus drifts toward other things. 

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Hebrews 12 encourages us to focus on Jesus, and Psalm 119, which is a Psalm that is devoted to our love for and adherence to Scripture, states this:
15 I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways.
16 I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.
17 Deal bountifully with Your servant, That I may live and keep Your word.

The numbers tell a story - and do not reflect positively on the current state of the Southern Baptist Convention, which released its annual data recently.  Statistician Ryan Burge related this statement:

They just released their membership data from 2022. There’s no other way to say this: the decline the SBC is experiencing is at a scope and scale that has not been seen in any other Protestant denomination in American history.

He states, "The current membership stands at 13,223,122. That’s basically the same number as 1978." And, believers' baptism are down; Burge says:

Obviously COVID had a deleterious impact on baptisms—they dropped to just 123,000 in 2020, and they have rebounded a bit. Yet in 2022 they were just 180,000—about half the rate that was reported in 2009.

In 2012, there were 3 baptisms for every member lost.

In 2022, there were 2.5 members lost for every baptism.

That math just ain’t mathing.

No denomination can sustain losses like the SBC is experiencing and not be fundamentally changed. If the 2020-2023 numbers hold throughout the rest of the decade the SBC will be closer to 10 million by 2030.

I’ve noted that I think the biggest threat to denominations like the SBC are the nones and the nons. It looks like the Southern Baptist has not developed a strategy to overcome either.

The nones: that would be those who do not identify with an organized religious group. The nons: those who gravitate toward non-denominational churches. 

Religion News does point out some silver lining, though, stating:

Even as membership dropped, attendance at worship services continues to recover from pandemic lows. Attendance was up 5% to 3.8 million in 2022, after falling from 4.4 million in 2020 to 3.6 million in 2021, due largely to COVID-19 disruptions.

Churches reported 180,177 baptisms for 2022, up 16% from 2021.

The number of churches in the denomination declined by just over 400. 

The head of Lifeway Research thinks the decline is due to a purging of inactive members who are still of churches' rolls. Executive Director Scott McConnell says, "Much of the downward movement we are seeing in membership reflects people who stopped participating in an individual congregation years ago and the record keeping is finally catching up..."

Responding to another piece of SBC data released by the North American Mission Board regarding the number of church plants, Chuck Kelley, President Emeritus of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary tweeted out:

Underneath the Headline: "10,000 church plants since 2010." NAMB's announced goal for the decade was 15,000 new church plants. SBC 5,000 short of goal. 

SBC churches in 2011: 1 per 6,169 people. 

2021 ratio: 1 per 7,077. SBC keeps losing ground to lostness. Adjust the strategy!

There is no shortage of analysis regarding the decline - and this large denomination to which local, autonomous church bodies belong is showing the signs of distraction, something that we should be paying attention to in our own individual life. 

These days, Southern Baptist churches, many of which are doing an excellent job in bringing about accountability in the face of reports of abuse, are being painted with a broad brush, reinforced by a report by an organization that released a tome that essentially consisted of cut-and-pasted material from previously reported instances of sexual misconduct.  Southern Baptists had approved a task force to address "sexual abuse," which subcontracted it out to Guidepost Solutions; now it has authorized another task force to begin to implement the recommendations.

But, wait, according to an article on the Baptist Press website:

Abuse Reform and Implementation Task Force chair Marshall Blalock announced Tuesday (April 4) the task force will no longer recommend Guidepost Solutions to establish and maintain a database for those credibly accused of sexual abuse. Messengers approved the creation of a “ministry check” website at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

The move comes after continued concerns were expressed by Southern Baptists to the ARITF in connection to a Guidepost tweet last June during gay pride month in which the group stated it was “proud to be an ally” to the LGBTQ+ community.

And, there has been comments made about who would go on this "ministry check" website and concerns expressed about lack of due process for those who are accused of sexual abuse. 

Quite frankly, the abuse "controversy," which has become a stain on the denomination, has led to distrust and division among fellow Southern Baptists.  Certainly, we should be concern about legitimate acts of abuse within congregations, and local bodies should be empowered to deal with those unfortunate incidents.

That is one of the distractions, as I see it, upon the mission of the Southern Baptist Convention. And, we have to make sure we are watching for distractions in our own lives. 

And, there was recently another cause for concern with the so-called Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, allegedly the public policy arm of the Convention. This entity has been a source of controversy for years, and churches had actually decided to withdraw funding it, a point raised in a piece by Kylee Griswold at The Federalist, who commented on the ERLC's support for a gun control bill in Tennessee that would authorize the state to deny gun ownership to certain individuals that it deems unsuitable to own a firearm, ostensibly due to psychological concerns, such as the shooter in Nashville who killed six at the Covenant School.  The piece said:

The biggest problem with the ERLC’s diligent lobbying for gun control isn’t actually the specifics of the bill, however. It’s that the ERLC, which purportedly exists to “engag[e] the culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ and speak[] to issues in the public square for the protection of religious liberty and human flourishing,” is doing precisely none of those things by pushing for Lee’s gun-grab. His bill is not compelled by the gospel, does nothing to protect religious liberty in the short term and might even threaten it in the long term, and stunts human flourishing by condemning Americans for the non-crime of owning firearms before they’ve done anything unlawful and depriving them of a means to defend their lives.

Now, Christians can certainly disagree on this issue, and as the article points out, the SBC has passed resolutions in the past calling for solutions for gun violence.  But, this is certainly problematic for this position to be represented as the Biblical one. In fact, The Federalist goes on to say:

Believers have watched as the nation’s premier law enforcement agency sought to covertly investigate faithful Catholics. There’s no reason to believe that just because a proposal vests power in law enforcement alone, it won’t be used to deny due process, skirt justice, or even undermine religious liberty. That a tithe-financed “religious liberty” entity would abuse its own funders in this way is shameful.

Yet, the agency has been criticized for its lack of defense for religious liberty when churches were being locked down during the COVID pandemic and for its silence on matters such as the mutilation of children with the false premise of changing their gender. 

I love the Church, and I was raised in a Southern Baptist church.  Churches and denominations face a tipping point these days, and the adherence to Biblical standards is a key issue.  That should be a key issue in our lives, as well: are we going to follow the Scriptures or are we going to be distracted by what culture says is right and engaged in virtue-signaling at the expense of Biblical truth?

We have to intensify our efforts as servants of the Most High God to be Biblically faithful and to keep our focus squarely on the Lord; otherwise, we run the risk of being pushed off-course in our desire to serve the Lord.  We must avoid distractions in our walk with Him.