Mark Terry

Recently, I posted on Voices about the number of SBC churches that die/close their doors. That research piqued my curiosity, and I decided to research why churches leave the SBC. It is important to understand that the Southern Baptist Convention consists of churches that have voluntarily joined themselves together. The SBC is often described as a voluntary association of churches. A church can decide to apply for membership in the SBC, and a member church can vote to leave (disaffiliate in the terminology of researchers). How many churches do leave? I learned that many more churches close … [Read more...] about Why Do Churches Leave the SBC?

Recently, I posted about the reasons to plant new churches. I wrote that one reason we need to plant new churches is to replace those that die (close their doors). That prompted me to do some research on dying churches in the SBC, and I’m sharing it with you in this post. Church Closure Statistics A number of SBC churches close each year. Here are some statistics from recent years. 2020—845 2021—780 2022—984 2023—292 2024—183 (Source: Lifeway Research, years 2020-2023, and Baptist Press for 2024) I attribute the higher numbers from 2020-2022 to the impact of the COVID … [Read more...] about Why Are Southern Baptist Churches Dying?

SBC Voices has published several posts recently on church planting. I thought it might be helpful to our readers to explain why church planting is important. In the following post, I’ll list a number of reasons. After the first reason (It is biblical), the reasons are not listed in order of importance. So, why should we emphasize church planting? Church planting is biblical. I could just stop with this reason. If church planting is biblical, then believers and churches should do it. In His Great Commission, Jesus commanded His followers to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19). The … [Read more...] about Why Should We Plant New Churches?

By tithing I mean giving 10 percent of your income to your church. I believe Christians should tithe, and I believe churches should preach it and teach it. I believe one reason the SBC is struggling financially is because our churches do not teach tithing as they once did.  I realize that not all pastors and Bible teachers agree with me about tithing. Still, before you begin throwing verbal bricks at me and calling me a dinosaur, legalist, and pharisee, let me make an appeal. Let’s debate this on the basis of hermeneutics (principles of Bible interpretation). Read my rationale for supporting … [Read more...] about I (Still) Believe in Tithing

I saw a Tweet on X (formerly Twitter) about the SBC by Dr. Ryan Burge. Dr. Burge (long at Eastern Illinois University, now at St. Louis University) is recognized as the leading authority on denominational growth and decline in the USA. In the Tweet he mentioned that the Southern Baptist Convention has lost 3.6 million members in the last twenty years. He posted a graph that showed our membership peaked in 2006, when we reported 16.2 members. This piqued my curiosity, and I decided to research and analyze the SBC’s decline. Just so you know, I was trained in church growth analysis, and I’ve … [Read more...] about Why is the Southern Baptist Convention Declining?

Recently, Joe Radosevich wrote a post for Voices in which he told of his trials and tribulations as a church planter in the USA. Another church planter commented and reported that his experience was similar. Most of my experience in church planting is foreign, not domestic. My wife and I served with the International Mission Board in Southeast Asia for 25 years. My missionary assignment was to teach in a seminary, but all missionaries engage in church planning. We had the opportunity to plant several churches during our careers.  Church planting overseas is somewhat different from that in … [Read more...] about Do Southern Baptists Really Desire to Plant Churches in North America?

In Part 1, I explained the historical background of the Nicene Creed and published the creed for our readers’ information. You should read Part 1 before you read Part 2. In this post, I am sharing Dr. Yarnell’s responses to several questions that I posed to him. So, the questions are mine, the answers are his. Let me share a disclaimer. Dr. Yarnell is a respected professor of theology, Research Professor of Theology at Southwestern Baptist Seminary. I am not a theologian, but rather a missiologist. I’m sure some readers will ask questions. It may be that Dr. Yarnell will respond. I don’t know. … [Read more...] about Should We Adopt the Nicene Creed? (Part 2 – Answers from Dr. Yarnell)

At the 2025 Annual Meeting of the SBC, Dr. Malcolm Yarnell, Research Professor of Theology at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, made a motion, asking the SBC to formally adopt the Nicene Creed. His motion failed to garner enough votes to pass, but Dr. Yarnell intends to make the same motion at this year’s meeting. When I read about his motion, a question came to mind. I thought—Our SBC Statement of Faith and Message rests on the ancient creeds of the church and several historic Baptist statements of faith. Why does the SBC need to do this? My inquiring mind prompted me to write Dr. Yarnell to … [Read more...] about Should We Adopt the Nicene Creed?

For the third year, I’m teaching evangelism and missions at Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth. I was surprised when they invited me to teach, given my age (old), but I’ve enjoyed teaching. I was a Master of Divinity student at SWBTS fifty years ago. Those were the years of the Jesus Movement, and students inundated the seminary. The hallways were crowded, the restrooms were crowded, the parking lots were full, and so were the classrooms. It is much different today. The campus seems almost deserted to me, compared to the old days. Now, more than 50% of the students study online. Last … [Read more...] about Varied and Vacuous Opinions and Observations, Number 6

Various researchers in church growth estimate that 80-90% of the Protestant churches in North America are plateaued or declining. A plateaued church is just maintaining the status quo. One essential factor in growing a church is attracting and welcoming visitors to your church. It is hard enough to persuade folks to visit; if they do visit, you want them to have a positive experience. One aspect of welcoming is greeting the visitors in a warm, friendly way.  Personally, I’ve had varied experiences with welcomes. When my wife and I moved back to Texas in 2015, we began looking for a church … [Read more...] about Is Your Church a Friendly Church?