The Fall of a Convention?

For those who are not familiar with the process, yearly every church in the Southern Baptist Convention will complete the Annual Church Profile. This ACP tracks for the convention the health of Baptist churches around the country.

The ACP report for 2008 was recently released. The report shows a decline in the number of baptisms and in total church membership. This is the second year the convention has declined in both of these categories.

There are two men who are sounding the trumpet for change in the convention. One is Ed Stetzer, who works for Lifeway Research. Ed has an interesting blog about this continuing decline.

The other is by my friend Dr. Chuck Kelley, President of New Orleans Baptist Seminary. Chuck recently preached in chapel about how the SBC has become the "new Methodists." The article about his message is very interesting. He explains that the decline of the Methodist convention occurred when they failed to continue to evangelize and disciple people. Chuck says the "SBC are the new Methodists" because we are in danger of following the decline of the Methodist denomination.

I will close by quoting Ed Stetzer again: "Are we hurting enough to make the changes we need?"