Don't Sit Around Talking About It, Just Do It!

Southern Baptists formed a new task force. They are tasked with figuring out what's going with SBs and the Great Commission.

I have a piece of advice for SBs. Don't sit around talking about the Great Commission. Just do it! Don't talk about all your churches that baptized no one. Go out yourself and win more, if you can. Don't talk about the efficiency of your state conventions (which are not technically "yours," but partner groups), just go out and win some more to Jesus.

When your task force meets in Atlanta and in Arkansas in the coming months, forego the meetings; go out into the highways and hedges and compel more to come in to the great banquet.

Do what Dr. Paige did in Texas earlier this year: find a group of struggling churches and hold a weekend meeting with those good folks. Modeling a little bit of the Great Commission might be shot in the arm for some of them.

Too simplistic? Maybe. Maybe not. I am not convinced that our collective personal evangelism amounts to much. We have, albeit unwillingly so, yielded to the cultures that surround our cities and communities. If you listen carefully, many will tell you in so many words that you cannot effectively share your faith on a personal level anymore.

Evangelists; oh, professional evangelists, I call you to spend your days out with pastors (or alone, if they are too "busy" to go win the lost), doing what you can to preach; don't just wait for night to fall, and for the lights to come on so you can stand center stage and preach your polished messages.

Why are SBs having such a time with the Great Commission? Could it just be that we are so busy looking at form that we have forgotten that the very gospel itself is the power of God unto salvation?

Southern Baptists: JUST DO IT!

Transference in Church Growth

I am in the process of preparing my notes for tonight's Church Growth class. Many thanks to my prof, Dr. Steve Wilkes, of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. His notes from that doctoral seminar have been priceless for me.

One thing that must be emphasized in any church growth class is the danger of transference. I know that many will recognize "transference" as a pyschological term. In fact, Wikipedia defines transference in a number of ways. Here is one affirmation: "One definition of transference is 'the inappropriate repetition in the present of a relationship that was important in a person's childhood.'"

Notice the words, "inappropriate repetition." Those words are key for the intents and purposes of this blog.

We often admire the "successes" of some of the mega and meta-churches around the world. To read and hear--better yet, to attend a service--of a church that thousands may attend is something that often makes us yearn for something more in our ministry. To read anecdotes of successful church planting in other parts of the world does much the same for a missionary. Yes, we rejoice in both cases. But often we also hope and strive to see something akin to it where we are.

And it is there that we are tempted to go down a road that is unhealthy for us. We begin to study the church or field in question, and we see what we can pull from it to use in our ministries. But we must be careful. This is where Dr. Wilkes' sage warning comes in. Dr. Wilkes told us early on [probably not his precise wording, but these are from his notes], "Church growth is a complex issue. Do not fall into the trap of oversimplification. Do not attribute church growth to a single cause. Do not assume you can transfer methods from one situation to another."

In a world where responsiveness to the Gospel varies from location to location, we need to heed Dr. Wilkes' advice. We do not need to be guilty of missiological or ecclesiological transference. God's plan and methods for India may not be God's plan for Guatemala. While our message remains constant, our plans and methods must reflect at least three things:

• Prayer - the foundational principle of our work within the kingdom of God
• Local responsiveness
• Local socio-political and other similar factors

I fear we are so intent on not reinventing the wheel that we too often take unwise, poorly thought-out, and untested shortcuts, seeking the most pragmatic solution to immediate results. We need to be more concerned that we have spent enough time before God to have gotten his plan and methodology, concentrating more on the long-term results, than we do on short-term, immediate results.

Take a close look at your ministry, or your church's or mission's ministry; see if transference--the unhealthy repetition of someone else's ministry ideas characterizes yours. If it does, perhaps it is time to call a prayer meeting to begin the changes you need in your field.

Jesus is Lord!

Those Weakening Hands

Here is a piece of news that Southern Baptists did not want to hear: membership and baptisms have declined. While IMB missionaries are reporting increases in overseas membership and baptisms, the churches holding the proverbial ropes are weakening. So what's happening?

Why is this taking place now? One site quotes expert Ed Stetzer, also providing a link to Stetzer's own site. Stetzer gives three issues that must be discussed to address this historic and unprecedented decline for Southern Baptists:

• The absence of young leaders and ethnic leaders in denominational life.
• Denominational infighting.
• (most importantly) We’ve lost our focus on the gospel.

Add to Stetzer's opinion other important factors such as:

• Our love affair with American culture
• Undisciplined churches
• (most importantly for me) a growing indication of prayerlessness

When you work in a group with so many members (over 16 million) it becomes very easy to rest on those historic laurels. We have gotten large and lethargic. Large is good; lethargy is deadly.

Why is this significant to someone working in South America? Consider the following:

1. Our future international missionaries come from this declining pool.
2. Lethargy eventually reveals itself in lethargic missions support; this is not just financial in nature. We are currently blessed with a surge in personal participation on the part of SBC churches. But this will not continue if those churches are losing the battle "back home."
3. Denominational infighting creates such a lack of focus that important things as winning lost America and reaching a lost world fall in the cracks.

Pray for the SBC. Pray, pray, pray for revival.