[BBC List] sbc

[Mike Abendroth]

Southern Baptists, an Unregenerate Denomination
by Jim Elliff
"How are you doing?" 
"Pretty well, under the circumstances." 
"What are the circumstances?" 
"Well, I have a very effective arm. It moves with quite a bit of animation.
But then I have my bad leg." 
"What's wrong with it?" 
"I guess it's paralyzed. At least it doesn't do much except twitch once a
week or so. But that's nothing compared with the rest of me." 
"What's the problem? 
"From all appearances, the rest is dead. At least it stinks and bits of
flesh are always falling off. I keep it well covered. About all that's left
beyond that is my mouth, which fortunately works just fine. How about you?" 
Like the unfortunate person above, the Southern Baptist Convention has a
name that it is alive, but is in fact, mostly dead (Rev. 3:1). Regardless of
the wonderful advances in our commitment to the Bible, the recovery of our
seminaries, etc., a closer look reveals a denomination that is more like a
corpse than a fit athlete. In an unusual way, our understanding of this
awful reality provides the most exciting prospects for the future—if we will
act decisively. 
The Facts
Out of the Southern Baptist's 16,287,494 members, only 6,024,289, or 37%, on
average, show up for their church's primary worship meeting (usually Sunday
morning). This is according to the Strategic Information and Planning
department of the Sunday School Board (2004 statistics). If your church is
anything like normal, and is not brand new, your statistics are probably
similar. In other words, if you have 200 in attendance on Sunday morning,
you likely have 500-600 or even more on your roll. Many churches have an
even worse record.
Discerning who among us is regenerate is not an exact science, but a closer
look at these numbers will at least alert us to the fact that most Southern
Baptists must certainly be dead spiritually. That is so, unless, of course,
you claim that there is no difference between a believer and a non-believer.
In the average church you can cut the 37% Sunday morning attendance by about
two-thirds or more when counting those interested in a Sunday evening
service, or other gatherings held in addition to the principal meeting of
the church. In 1996, the last time the SBC kept these statistics, the number
of Sunday evening attenders was equal to only 12.3% of the membership (in
churches that had an evening meeting). One might ask what makes us claim
that the rest are Christians, if they involve themselves with God's people
only on such a minimal, surface level? How are they any different from the
people who attend the liberal church down the street—the "church" where the
gospel is not even preached? 
And remember that the numbers of those attending include many non-member
children and guests, often making up a third of the congregation's main
meeting attendance. When all factors are considered, these figures suggest
that nearly 90% of Southern Baptist church members appear to be little
different from the "cultural Christians" who populate other mainline
denominations. 
To make matters worse, we tell a lot more people that they are true
Christians (because they prayed a prayer sincerely) than we can convince to
be baptized. Our largest pizza supper may bring in a hundred new "converts,"
but we will likely get only a few of those on the roll. After that, the
percentages that I have been mentioning kick in. In other words, if you
compare all who we say have become Christians through our evangelistic
efforts, to those who actually show signs of being regenerate, we should be
red-faced. In the Assembly of God's 1990s "Decade of Harvest," out of the
3.5 million supposedly converted, they showed a net gain of only 5 new
attenders for every 100 recorded professions. When one considers all of our
supposed converts, including those who refuse to follow Christ in baptism
and who never join our churches, our numbers are much the same. Doesn't
anybody see that there is a serious problem here?
Let me illustrate in rounded figures by looking at some of the churches
where I have preached as a guest speaker. Each could be any Baptist church
in any city. In one church, with 7,000 on the active roll, there were only
2000 in attendance on Sunday morning, and a mere 600-700 on Sunday evening.
When you account for those attenders who are not members of this flagship
church (i.e. guests and non-member children), you have about 1500 actual
members coming in the morning and 500 or so in the evening. Where are the
5,500 members who are missing on Sunday mornings? Where are the 6,500 who
are missing in the evening? 
Another church had 2,100 on the roll, with 725 coming on Sunday morning.
Remove guests and non-member children and the figure drops to 600 or less.
Only about a third of that number came out on Sunday evening, representing
less than 10% of the membership. Yet another church had 310 on the roll with
only 100 who attended on Sunday morning. Only 30-35, or approximately 10%,
came to the evening worship service. 
These are all considered fine churches. All have an extremely competent
level of leadership and vision. Some shut-ins and those who are sick, out of
town, or in the military, certainly affect the figures a little. But those
who are justifiably absent are not enough to alter the bleakness of the
picture, especially when we remember that these numbers represent people who
have been baptized and have publicly declared their allegiance to God and
the Body of Christ. Even if you generously grant that the 37% are all true
believers (an estimation that most pastors would say is way off the mark),
one still has a church membership that is more dead than alive. If we are
honest, we might have to ask ourselves, "Do Southern Baptists believe in a
regenerate membership?"
Missing Christians are No Christians
What do these facts and figures, as general as they are, suggest? First,
they reveal that most of the people on our rolls give little evidence that
they love the brethren—a clear sign of being unregenerate (1 Jn. 3:14). It
is impossible to believe that anything like real familial affection exists
in the hearts of people who do not come at all, or who only nominally check
in on Sunday morning as a cultural exercise. Love is the greatest mark of a
genuine believer (1 Jn.3:14-19). Attendance alone does not guarantee that
anyone is an authentic believer, but "forsaking the assembling," is a
serious sign of the unregenerate heart. The phrase: "They went out from us,
because they were never of us" (1 Jn. 2:19) may have doctrinal overtones,
but it nonetheless represents many on our membership rolls.
Second, these numbers suggest that most of those who do not attend (or who
only come when it is convenient), are more interested in themselves than
God. To put it in Paul's words, they are "fleshly-minded" and not
"spiritually-minded" (Rom. 8: 5-9). The atmosphere that most pleases them is
that of the world and not God. They can stand as much of God as makes them
feel better about themselves, and they find a certain carnal security in
"belonging" to a local church. But beyond that, they will politely resist
getting involved. They use the church, but are not really a part of it. For
some, the extent of what they can take is an Easter service now and then;
for others it is an occasional sterile (and somewhat Pharisaical) trip to
church on appropriate Sunday mornings as fits into their schedule. But their
apathy towards regular and faithful church attendance betrays their true
affections. The fact is, you do what you love to do.
Third, the numbers indicate that some people have joined other denominations
and our churches have not kept up with their movements—a sign of inadequate
pastoral oversight and the built-in deficiencies of the "inactive
membership" concept. I'm quite certain Paul never dreamed of "inactive
membership." Embarrassingly, some left on the rolls are dead—physically! It
goes without saying that a dead person is about as inactive as one could be!
But others, though presumably alive physically, have disappeared without a
trace. I believe it was our beloved Dr. Roy Fish of SWBTS who said, "Even
the FBI could not find some of them." Yet, if we want to claim them as
members, we are responsible to keep up with them. 
All of these people have "prayed the prayer" and "walked the aisle." All
have been told that they are Christians. But for most, old things have not
really passed away, and new things have not come. Most are not new creatures
in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). In too many cases, obvious signs of an unregenerate
heart can be found, such as bitterness, long-term adultery, fornication,
greed, divisiveness, covetousness, etc. These are "professing believers"
that the Bible says are deceived. "Do not be deceived" the Bible warns us
concerning such people (see 1 Cor.6:9-11; Gal. 5:19-21; 6: 7-8; Eph. 5:5-6;
Titus 1:16; 1 Jn. 3:4-10; etc.). 
Jesus indicated that there is a good soil that is receptive to the gospel
seed so as to produce a fruit-bearing plant, but that the "rocky ground"
believer only appears to be saved. The latter shows immediate joy, but soon
withers away (Mt. 13:6, 21). This temporary kind of faith (which is not
saving faith, see 1 Cor.15:1-2) is rampant among Southern Baptists. In The
Baptist Faith and Message we say we believe that saving faith is persistent
to the end. We say we believe in the preservation and perseverance of the
saints (once saved, always persevering). In other words, if a person's faith
does not persevere, then what he possessed was something other than saving
faith. 
In John 2:23-25 Jesus was the center-piece for what turned out to be a mass
evangelism experience in which a large number of people "believed" in Him.
Yet He did not entrust Himself to even one of them because "he knew their
hearts." Is it possible that we have taken in millions of such "unrepenting
believers" whose hearts have not been changed? I say that we have. Our
denomination, as much as we may love it, is on the main, unregenerate. Even
if you double, triple, or quadruple my assessment of how many are true
believers, we still have a gigantic problem. It is naive to believe
otherwise.
There are those who would say that such people are "carnal Christians" and
don't deserve to be thought of as unregenerate. It is true that the
Corinthian believers (about whom this phrase was used; see 1 Cor. 3:1-3)
acted "like mere men" in their party spirit. Christians can commit any sin
short of that which is unpardonable. 
Undoubtedly, however, Paul did suspect that some of the Corinthians were
unbelievers, for he later warns them about such a possibility in 2
Cor.12:20-13:5. A long-term and unrepentant state of carnality, is, after
all, the very description of the unregenerate (Rom. 8:5-14, 1 Jn. 3:4-10,
etc.). In calling some people "carnal" Paul did not mean to imply that he
was accepting as Christian a lifestyle that he clearly describes elsewhere
as unbelieving. He wrote, in the same letter: "Do you not know that the
unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived" (1 Cor.
6:9-11, etc.). Apparently there were some, even then, who were deceived into
thinking that an unrighteous man or woman who professes faith in Christ
could really be a Christian! 
Is Follow-up the Problem?
A great mistake is made by blaming the problem on poor follow-up. In many
churches there is every intention and effort given to follow-up, yet still
the poor numbers persist. One church followed up "by the book," seeking to
disciple people who had been told they were new converts during the crusade
of an internationally-known evangelist. The report of the pastor in charge
was that none of them wanted to talk about how to grow as a Christian. He
said, "In fact, they ran from us!" I have known some churches to go to
extreme efforts to disciple new believers. We must do this. Yet, like the
others, they generally have marginal success. They have learned to accept
the fact that people who profess to have become Christians often have to be
talked into going further, and that many, if not most, simply will not
bother. Authentic new believers can always be followed up, however, because
they have the Spirit by which they cry, "Abba Father" (Rom. 8:15). They have
been given love for the brethren, and essential love for the beauty and
authority of the Word of God. But you cannot follow-up on a spiritually dead
person. Being dead, he has no interest in growth.
It was the preaching of regeneration, with an explanation of its discernible
marks, that was the heart of the Great Awakening. J. C. Ryle, in writing of
the eighteenth century revival preachers, said that they never for a moment
believed that there was any true conversion if it was not accompanied by
increasing personal holiness. Such content was the staple of the greatest of
awakening preaching throughout the history of revival. Only such a powerful
cannon blast of truth could rock the bed of those asleep in Zion. 
Facing the Dilemma
What must be done? I suggest five responses:
1. We must preach and teach on the subject of the unregenerate church
member. Every author in the New Testament writes of the nature of deception.
Some books give major consideration to the subject. Jesus Himself spoke
profusely about true and false conversion, giving significant attention to
the fruit found in true believers (Jn. 10:26-27; Mt. 7:21-23; Mt. 25:1-13,
etc.). If this sort of teaching creates doubt in people, you should not be
alarmed, nor should you back away from it. Given the unregenerate state of
so many professing Christians, their doubts may be fully warranted. In any
case, as one friend told me, "Doubts never sent anyone to hell, but
deception always does." Most will work through their doubts, if they are
regenerate and if we continue to preach the whole truth. Contrary to popular
opinion, all doubts are not of the devil. Speak truthfully the whole counsel
of God. You cannot "unsave" true believers. 
It is true that there may be some who are overly scrupulous and overwhelmed
by such examination. But most who will be affected are those who are too
self-confident, having based their assurance on such shaky platforms as
their response to an invitation, praying a perfectly worded "sinner's
prayer," or getting baptized. If they are unregenerate, they may take
offense and leave. But if they are truly regenerate, patient teaching and
care will help them to overcome their doubts and gain biblical assurance.
Such preaching may even result in true conversion for some who are deceived.
And don't forget that the overconfident ones are not the only ones at risk.
Quiet, sensitive, insecure people can be deceived also.
2. We must address the issue of persistent sin among our members, including
their sinful failure to attend the stated meetings of the church. This must
be done by reestablishing the forgotten practice of church discipline. Each
church should adopt guidelines that state just what will happen when a
member falls into sin, including the sin of non-attendance or very nominal
attendance. Such discipline for non-attendance is clearly found in the
history of Baptists—but more importantly, in the Bible. 
Everyone in the church, including new members, should be made familiar with
the biblical steps of church discipline. Jesus said that a person who was
lovingly, but firmly, disciplined by the church, and yet failed to repent,
should be thought of as "a heathen and a tax collector" (see Mt. 18:15-17).
Though David committed atrocious sins, he was a repenter at heart (see 2
Sam.12:13; Psalm 51). Every Christian is a life-long repenter and church
discipline brings this out. (See "Restoring Those Who Fall," in  HYPERLINK
"http://ccwonline.orgbookorder.html" Our Church on Solid Ground: Documents
That Preserve the Integrity and Unity of the Church, www.CCWonline.org) 
Leaders must get into the homes of all our erring church members, seeking
either to bring them to Christ, or to reluctantly release them to the world
which they love more than Christ. Nowhere in the Bible are we taught to keep
non-believers on the rolls. As a side benefit from church discipline for the
SBC, remember that when we reduce our membership to what it actually is, we
will be amazed at the statistical improvements in the ratio of members per
baptism and members to attenders. Of course, statistics are not worth dying
for, but obedience to God's Word is.
We are never to aggressively pluck the supposed tares from the wheat as if
we had absolute knowledge (Mt. 13:24-30; 36-43). We might be mistaken.
However, loving church discipline is a careful process by which the obvious
sinner in essence removes himself by his resistance to correction. The
church is made up of repenting saints, not rebelling sinners (see 1 Cor. 5).
The slight improvement in the disparity between membership and attendance in
the last couple of years is likely due, in major part, to some churches
beginning to practice church discipline—a matter of obedience that
thankfully is regaining credence among us. Some have removed hundreds from
their rolls in this process, and regained some also.
3. We should be more careful on the front end of church membership. In my
estimation, the public altar call (a modern invention) often reaps people
prematurely. Others will disagree or can perhaps make significant
improvements on the traditional "invitation system." We have used this
method in our evangelism because of our genuine zeal to see the lost
converted. But in our zeal, we have often overlooked the fact that many who
do what our method calls for (i.e. respond to our invitation) may not be
converted. 
Though sacrosanct to Baptists, careful study should be done related to the
historical use of the invitation system evangelistically. For eighteen
hundred years the church did not use such a method. It was not until its
principle originator, Charles Finney, a true pelagian in his theology,
promoted his "new measures." Earlier preachers were content to let true
conviction play a greater part in conversion. They needed no props for the
gospel—no persuasive techniques to prompt people to make a "decision."
Instead of relying on a method, their confidence was in the preached Word
and the Holy Spirit. Baptist giant, C. H. Spurgeon, for instance, saw
thousands converted without the use of an "altar call." His message was his
invitation. We should always offer a verbal invitation in our gospel
preaching, meaning we must invite people to repent and believe. But there is
no real benefit, while there is much potential harm, in our inviting them to
the front of the church and then assuring them that their short walk or
tearful response proves their conversion. 
We don't need better methods to get people down to the front. What we need
is more biblical content and more unction in our preaching. You cannot beat
sinners away from Christ when God is bringing them in (see Jn. 6:37, 44-45).
When as many as 70-90% of "converts" are giving little, if any, evidence of
being saved after their first weeks or months of emotional excitement,
questions should be asked, both about our understanding of the gospel and
about our methods. Forget the fact, if you must, that there is no clear
biblical precedent for the altar call. Even considering the matter
pragmatically ought to make us quit. Though prevalent in our churches for
decades, it has not helped us. (See "Closing with Christ,"  HYPERLINK
"http://ccwonline.org/closing.html" www.CCWonline.org/closing.html) 
The dangerous practice of receiving new members immediately after they walk
the aisle must finally be abandoned. Also, more careful counsel should be
taken with those entering in as members from other churches. And add to this
a need for much deeper thinking concerning childhood conversion. An alarming
percentage of childhood professions wash out later in the teen and college
years. For unconverted yet baptized church kids, the more independence they
are granted, the more they live out their true nature. (See "Childhood
Conversion," HYPERLINK "http://ccwonline.org/cconv.html"
www.CCWonline.org/cconv.html) 
4. We must stop giving immediate verbal assurance to people who make
professions of faith or who respond to our invitations. It is the Holy
Spirit's job to give assurance. We are to give thebasis upon which assurance
can be had, not the assurance itself. Study 1 John in this respect. What
things were written so that they might know they have eternal life? (1 Jn.
5:13). Answer: The tests given in the book. The Bible says that the Holy
Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16).
5. We must restore sound doctrine. Revival, I am finding as I study its
history, is largely about the recovery of the true gospel. The three great
doctrines which have so often shown up in true revival are: 1) God's
sovereignty in salvation, 2) justification by grace through faith alone, and
3) regeneration with discernible fruit. Revival is God showing up, but the
blessing of the presence of God is directly affected by our beliefs. God
most often comes in the context of these and other great doctrines, preached
penetratingly and faithfully, and with the unction of the Holy Spirit. 
As an illustration of our doctrinal reductionism, repentance is often
forgotten completely in gospel presentations, or else it is minimized to
mean nothing more than "admitting that you are a sinner." Also, "Inviting
Christ into your heart," a phrase never found in the Bible (study the
context of Jn.1:12 and Rev. 3:20, the verses used for this), has taken the
place of the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone. The doctrine
of God's judgment is rarely preached with any carefulness. And comprehensive
studies of the meaning of the cross are seldom heard. Merely looking over
the titles of the sermons which awakening preachers preached in the past
would surprise most modern pastors.
Be Healthy or Be Ashamed 
Which army would you rather have? Gideon's first army or his last? No
church, and no denomination, should call itself healthy unless more people
attend than are on the roll. This is a standard kept by most of the world,
and was kept by our great-grandparents in Baptist churches as well. We would
be closer to the revival we desire if we would admit our failure, humbly
hang our heads, and seek to rectify this awful hindrance to God's blessing.
When we boast of how big we are, we are bragging about our shame. 
In the Philadelphia Baptist Association Minutes, our first association, our
initial American statistical record shows that five times as many people
attended the association's churches as were on their rolls. Greg Wills in
Democratic Religion in the South (Oxford University Press, 1997, p.14)
reports that three times the number on the rolls attended Baptist churches,
then located mostly along the eastern seaboard when surveyed in 1791 by John
Ashlund. In 1835, the Christian Index of Georgia recorded that "not less
than twice the number" of members were in attendance. 
Today, in rough numbers, it takes 300 people on our rolls to have 100
attenders. In the 1790s, it took only 33. Or, to put it in larger figures,
it now takes nearly 3000 people, supposedly won to Christ and baptized, to
result in a church attendance of 1000. Then, it took only 333. Our potency
has diminished to such an extent that we must "win" and "baptize" over 2,000
more people to get to the same 1000 to attend. 
Apparently, being orthodox in terms of inerrancy and infallibility is not
enough, though without these doctrines we have no foundation for true
evangelism. A lot has to be done, and a lot undone. And, sadly, we have been
actively transporting this mainly American problem overseas for many years. 
To conclude, I suggest two remedial steps for the convention as a whole, in
addition to what was suggested for the churches: 
1. We might reverse some of our proclivity to continue as normal if we
introduced our preachers more accurately in our evangelism meetings and
convention settings. Try using this introduction: "Here is Brother ______,
pastor of a church of 10,000 members, 6400 of whom do not bother to come on
a given Sunday morning, and 8600 of whom do not come on Sunday evening. He
is here to tell us about how to have a healthy, evangelistic church." 
It might be better to ask a man to speak who shepherds 100 members, all of
whom attend with regularity and all of whom show signs of regeneration—a man
who, in the last year, has baptized 5 people who stick—rather than a pastor
of 10,000 members, 7000 of whom do not come—a man who has baptized 1000 in
the past year, 700 of whom cannot be found. The smaller, but more consistent
numbers of the first pastor reveal a far more effective ministry and thus a
far better example for other churches. (Please understand that I don't like
this talk about "numbers," but this is the main way we evaluate people and
churches as Baptists. I am sure God is not really impressed with any of our
statistics.)
2. We should establish a study group to explore our presently deplorable
situation and to track its history. This group should also seek to
re-examine the biblical mandate to have a regenerate church. Then this study
group should report back with a strategy to help us out of the dilemma. They
should be painfully honest. I am hopeful that individual churches will act
without this prompting, but this would be an added stimulus to getting us to
our fighting weight as a denomination. Some church leaders will not act
without this sort of backing since independent action would be a departure
from the status quo. 
Our only alternative is to carry on in the old way—the way that produces
70-90% fallout. By continuing on as we are, we will gradually blur, and
eventually obscure altogether, any distinction between the professing and
the authentic Christian. In the end, we will look like every other mainline,
liberal denomination. We are only one-third to one-tenth alive now. If we
want to avoid complete deadness, we must take dramatic measures immediately.
Like cotton candy, our apparent size does not add up to much. 
Our forebears, especially those who died for the biblical concept of a
regenerate church, would hardly recognize our compromised condition. It will
admittedly take us down a notch or two, in the estimation of the rest of
professing Christianity, when millions are removed from our rolls. But
humility and a new reality might be the starting place for God's greatest
blessings on us yet!
The next time someone asks how your church and your denomination are doing,
tell the truth. Tell them that we have a new confidence in the inerrant
Bible. Tell them that we have seminaries that promote orthodoxy, and new
evangelistic fervor among the true believers. Tell them we have a lot to be
excited about. But also tell them that when considered as a whole, most
Southern Baptists need raising from the dead.


Jim Elliff is the president of Christian Communicators Worldwide and the
former resident consultant for the Midwestern Center for Biblical Revival at
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He speaks to conferences in the
states and overseas, and often leads churches and pastors in the subject
addressed above. For additional free booklets on this subject, write
HYPERLINK "http://www.ccwonline.org" Christian Communicators Worldwide, 201
Main Suite #3, Parkville, MO 64052, or phone (816)584-8601. 
 
Revised edition, Copyright © 2005 Christian Communicators Worldwide
201 Main, Parkville, MO 64152 USA
Permission granted for not-for-sale repr

Charis,
 
Mike Abendroth
 
"Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to
be contented with half truth when whole truth can be won.   Endow us with
courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns
to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when right and truth
are in jeopardy."
  - West Point Military Academy Cadet Prayer
 
HYPERLINK "http://www.bbcchurch.org"www.bbcchurch.org
 


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