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The New Methodists Reflections on the SBC Today. Dr. Chuck Kelley. WOW!. In 1945 SBC Baptized 257,000 In 1955 SBC Baptized 417,000. Farmers need land. (church planting). Climate. (decisional preaching). Farmers plant Seed. (Personal Evangelism). Farmers cultivate after planting. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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The New MethodistsReflections on the SBC Today
Dr. Chuck Kelley
In 1945 SBC Baptized 257,000In 1955 SBC Baptized 417,000
WOW!
Farmers need land
(church planting)
Climate
(decisional preaching)
Farmers plant Seed
(Personal Evangelism)
Farmers cultivate after planting
(Biblelationships)
Farmers harvest
(Revival Meetings)
The Key:Not Methods
SBC Genius the InTeGraTeD
Process
Had a GREAT Process!
Land = Church PlantingClimate = Decisional PreachingPlant = Personal EvangelismCultivate = Sunday SchoolHarvest = Revival Meetings
Old McBaptist, with
The SBC Way of Doing ChurchUnconsciously
Embodied the Biblical Process of Sowing and Reaping
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase
(1 Corinthians 3:6)
In 1945, SBC Baptized 257,000In 1955, SBC Baptized 417,000
Since 1955, SBC has never
baptized 450,000
What Happened to the Farm?
Southern Baptists are a Harvest-Oriented Denomination
Living In the Midst of an Unseeded Generation
But Now I Say:
We are more like Gardeners working the Window Boxes
than Farmers working the Fields
We are the Grandchildren of Farmers
Keeping Harvest Stories Alive Over Coffee & Dessert
at Family Reunions
Methods Not Crucial Issue
Bible speaks little of methods
Fire, Oven, MicrowaveAccomplish Same Purpose
Tasks always Outlive Methods(Even Yours!)
Money Not Crucial Issue
1906 – Created Evangelism Department with NO Budget
1936 – Relaunched Evangelism Department with ONE Person
1945-55 – THREE People in Evangelism Department
Gospel’s Power Not Crucial Issue
Angola Prison–Worst Setting–Worst Prospects–Awesome Results
Discipleship the Crucial Issue
The farmer, not the harvest, is the root of problems in SBC Evangelism
1. We are not Anointed• Conversion – Work of the Spirit• Revival – Work of the Spirit
Neither Conversions Nor Revival
Typical SBC Churches
We are Distracted • By a quest for Methods• By Theological Identity• By Fiscal Restructuring • By Uncertainty
Today we are more like a driver in unfamiliar territory than a racer roaring down
the track.
3. More ImportantlySouthern Baptists are Becoming the
New Methodists
I Love Methodists!Key Role in Two Awakenings
Evangelized American FrontierHoly Living a Core Value
Taught SBC about Harvesting
Today’s MethodistsEvangelism and Missions
Greatly Diminished
Behavior Blending with Culture
Greatest Theological Fight Over Normalcy of Homosexuality
Setting Records for Decline
SBC as the New Methodists• Universalism Settling into our Pews• Tolerance Overtaking Conviction• Behavior Blending with Culture• Plateau Becoming Decline
Since 1983 I have been saying
70% of SBC Churches are plateaued or declining
If Traditional Measurement of Growth Used in 2007
Number of Growing Churches Same
Number of Plateaued Churches Smaller
Number of Declining Churches Larger
8,765 (28.0%)
8,765 (28.0%)
13,323 (42.6%)
13,323 (42.6%)
8,765 (28.0%)
9,174 (29.3%)
Our Great Commission momentum as a Convention
has vanished.
SBC Discipleship Process1. Sunday Night Program2. January Bible Study3. Periodic Study Courses4. R.A.s/G.A.s/Youth Camp
ETC.
In era of our greatest growth typical SBC churches had more
discipleship activitiesthan evangelistic activities
We were discipl-istic
The Biblical Worldview that unconsciously inspired Church as Farm in SBC Life is like the baton for the USA Men’s Relay in the Beijing Olympics
That Biblical Worldview Inspiring Evangelistic Discipleship
DroppedBetween SBC Generations
We neither maintained nor reinvented discipleship
process. While others run the race, we need a fresh
grip on the baton of a dicipl-istic worldview
Put Another Way:We put so much emphasis
on how our way of Doing Church
affected the LOST, we failed to notice how it was
affecting the SAVED
Changes made for church to be more welcoming to the unchurched, but little done to make evangelistic discipleship more desirable to believers
The most significant and influential death in the
modern history of the SBC was the death our
Discipleship Process
The defining characteristic of Southern Baptists at our best
is a passionate evangelistic discipleship
We refused to let go of one in order to pursue the other
When we loosened our grip on one to strengthen our grip on the other, we ultimately weakened our
grip on bothDRAMATICALLY
We do not knowWho We Are
The World does not knowWho We Are
Lost friends, neighbors do not knowWho We Are
Our problem is not that more of us don’t witness to our
neighbors. Our problem is that more of us do not
look like and live like Jesus.
If we do not produce children, youth, and adults
who live out a biblical worldview, no strategy for doing church will make us salt and light in the world
Southern Baptists are not losing our voice
We are losing the Distinctiveness of our voice in the
music of today’s culture
The Lesson
Aggressive Evangelismwithout
Aggressive Discipleshipwill eventually
undo itself
The Most Crucial Issue inSBC Evangelism Today isReinventing a Process for
Spiritual Maturity involving
children, youth, and adults
We need discipl-isticchurches!
Is there more to SBC problems than this?
YES!But there is at least this!
We are BecomingThe New Methodists
2 Chronicles 7:14-15 ESV
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:19-20 ESV
“But if you turn aside...Then I will pluck you up from my land… and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight...”
In times past God has worked through our SBC Churches in a mighty way
In times present God is not working in a
mighty way through our churches
If we do not repent now, only one question remains:
To what wall will our children return to weep and remember
the glory of what the SBC was?