Mark Terry

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?

The Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting will soon be upon us. One item of particular interest will be the probable effort to defund the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Al Mohler (surprisingly) and Jack Graham (unsurprisingly) have publicly supported defunding, while ten former SBC presidents have advocated keeping the ERLC. Richard Land published an impassioned plea to Southern Baptists to preserve it. As for me, I support maintaining the ERLC. The letter from the former presidents mentions improving the Commission rather than abolishing it. That makes sense to me. If it needs … [Read more...] about Varied and Vacuous Observations and Opinions, Part FIVE

One stated purpose for SBC Voices is to give Southern Baptists a forum for sharing their opinions. A friend once quipped. “If you gather four Southern Baptists into a room, they’ll express five opinions.” Well, this post provides you with an opportunity to share YOUR opinion. You’ll find below five matters that I’ve been contemplating, and I would like to know what you think. For several years I served as the Teaching Pastor at Central Baptist Church in Crandall, Texas. Our beloved senior pastor, Charlie Wilson, often said, “Now, in my humble but accurate opinion.” So, let’s hear your humble, … [Read more...] about Your Opinion, Please

My wife and I were appointed as missionaries by the Foreign Mission Board (now IMB) in April of 1975. If you do the math, you’ll see we’ve been associated with the IMB for 50 years. When we married in 1971, we wrote the FMB to tell them we were called to missionary service. The Personnel Department wrote back and said, “Wonderful, go to seminary.” So, off to Southwestern Baptist Seminary we went. In those years, 55 percent of the FMB’s appointees had studied at SWBTS. We were appointed by the FMB in April of 1975, and I graduated from seminary in May. (I’ve often wondered what the FMB would … [Read more...] about My 50 Years with the International Mission Board

Recently, I’ve been thinking about our Southern Baptist seminaries. The SBC owns six: Southern in Louisville, Southeastern in Wake Forest, NC, New Orleans, Southwestern in Fort Worth, Midwestern in Kansas City, and Gateway (formerly Golden Gate) in Ontario, California. There is a seventh Southern Baptist seminary, Mid-America, in Memphis. Mid-America is thoroughly Southern Baptist, but it is not owned by the SBC, nor does it receive any money from the Cooperative Program. The six seminaries together receive 21 percent of the Cooperative Program budget. That money is divided among the six … [Read more...] about Thoughts on SBC Seminaries (Mark Terry)