We’ve had several articles here about the happenings at the SBC Executive Committee Meeting last week. On Monday night, Ronnie Floyd presented his new plan called Vision 2025 to the Executive Committee. William published an article on the plan here at SBC Voices. But Vision 2025 was quickly overshadowed by the actions the Executive Committee took the following day. It’s one of my frustrations with the EC right now. We should be focusing on Vision 2025. Instead, it was almost forgotten just as quickly as it was presented.
But today in Baptist Press, Dr. Floyd published an article with further details about his plan. There are still not a lot of details about ways our entities will help our churches accomplish the vision, but this article does provide a better understanding of the rationale behind it. The plan is built on 5 strategic actions.
Strategic Action 1: Increase our total number of full-time, fully-funded missionaries by a net gain of 500, giving us 4,200 full-time, fully-funded missionaries through the International Mission Board.
Strategic Action 2: Add 6,000 new churches to our Southern Baptist family, giving us more than 50,000 churches.
Strategic Action 3: Increase our total number of workers in the field through a new emphasis on “calling out the called,” and then preparing those who are called out by the Lord.
Strategic Action 4: Turn around our ongoing decline in reaching, baptizing, and discipling 12- to 17-year-olds in the prime of their teenage years.
Strategic Action 5: Increase our annual giving in successive years to reach and surpass $500 million given through the Cooperative Program to achieve these Great Commission goals.
The goal is that each of these would be accomplished by 2025. But here’s the thing. Nashville is powerless to see this vision come to fruition. I applaud Dr. Floyd for laying it out there. As he says, it’s “specific, measurable, realistic, attainable and timely.” But if his vision is to become a reality for the SBC, it will take ordinary pastors like you and me taking hold of it and making it our own.
We are not a top-down denomination. No edict from Nashville will turn around the decline in the SBC. I’m thankful that Dr. Floyd plans to bring this to the messengers in Orlando. Not because he needs the messengers’ approval to say, “This is the vision for the SBC for the next 5 years.” But because without the buy-in of the Southern Baptists in the pews and pulpits of our churches, this vision will never become a reality.
So, what are your thoughts? Are you on board? How do you plan to do your part in seeing Dr. Floyd’s vision become a reality?
How about this
1. A clarion call for all SBC Pastors to commit to actually preaching text driven messages from the Word of God
2. A Clarion call for churches to commit to Biblical Worship and to abandon pragmatism and man centered worship
3. A Clarion call for churches to commit to Biblical Prayer
4. A Clarion call for pastors to lead their churches towards Biblical Church Membership
5. A Clarion Call to reassess as a Convention how we do Missions. The average SBCer has no idea how this happens and if we are doing it right. HINT- I am no convinced we are, but I can be persuaded
6. A Clarion Call to figure out where we are headed. Can women pastor? What about previous women missionaries especially Lottie Moon? There is a lot of confusion.
Is the new female professor at SEBTS truly a feminist? Does she support the LGBT movement?
7. A Clarion Call to plant x number of churches in the next 10 yrs w 80%? Being ethnic w churches and Associations taking the bull by horns.
Encouraging all churches to align with 3-5 other churches in order to plant other churches
If you want to motivate churches help them to catch a vision.
Sorry for the rant. I did mean well
By the way, it can be done
There are no feminist, LGBT affirming professors at SEBTS.
The truth about Karen Swallow Prior has been told repeatedly. The lies continue to spread at such a rate that we can only assume that people WANT the lies (that she is a feminist/pro-LBGTQ, etc) more than they want the truth. When SBC leaders continue to spread lies about a good woman like Karen, we need not continue to wonder where our problems lay.
Thank you. We love and respect Dr. Aiken!! He knows what he is doing.
Your last Q in #6 has been asked and answered numerous times in multiple forums. The is completely and thoroughly orthodox. Besides that, she was personally endorsed by Jerry Falwell, Jr. when she made the move from Liberty. Time to move on and leave her alone.
I am sick and tired of the relentless assault on my friend Karen Swallow Prior. She has answered these questions more times than she should have to and yet is continually abused and doubted.
This garbage has to stop. Lying about another person violates one of the 10 commandments.
I agree with Adam, Todd, Dave M. (And even Ryan on this issue, 😉 ) . KSP is not a secular feminist nor is she LGBTQ affirming.
I am of the belief that Akin/Ashford would have never hired her if she were either – much less both!
Thank you all. I was only aware of the allegations and asking for clarity
Thanks
This (minus the swipe at Karen Prior) is excellent. You are aiming that what Floyd’s plan misses. (His plan is excellent, btw, and should be a part of what we are doing. However, it falls short, mainly because it is about programs, strategies and money.) Yours is more biblically focused, but even so misses the real need: A vision and plan that focuses on exalting Jesus Christ. The SBC is great because we unequivocally affirm and loudly proclaim that “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” However, we have fallen, in recent years, to emphasizing the CP, baptisms, missions numbers of all kinds, church planting, etc. All of these are good–but exalting Jesus Himself is the goal, He is the reason we exist, He is the “author and finisher of our faith.” If we become an organization that is mostly about maintaining and enhancing the organization, because we believe in the organization and want the organization to prosper–we lose everything! We need a five year (or ten or twenty year) plan that focuses on Jesus Christ himself. How about this:
Strategic Action One: work to ensure that every missionary and especially every new missionary appointee has a heart for Christ, and a heart for lost people–a desire to lead them to the living Christ who is their only hope:
Strategic Action two: Make everything in our convention point to the grace, mercy, beauty, power and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Then churches will want to join our Convention.)
Strategic Action 3: Call every Southern Baptist to total commitment to Jesus Christ. HE will “call out the called.”
You can come up with the next two yourself–you see how this works. Many will say, “Oh now Fred! We all know that Jesus is Lord. We already exalt him in all that we do. We don’t need to deal with that! We need practical steps, not just spirtual talk.” To that, I say “balderdash!” If we get lost in the practical details and forget “the Lord of Glory”–as some denominations have done, and some individual churches–we become moribund, worthless, self focussed, salt that has lost its saltiness; a light hidden under the bushel of denominational machinery. Let’s put Jesus first–and not just assume he is first. He will take care of the rest!
I shared these 5 points during our prayer time on Sunday and encouraged our church to pray and do our part to join in this effort.
I like that. Thanks for sharing, Todd.
Todd,
Wait!
You encouraged your church to embrace the five points?!?!?!?
😉 🙂
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
I don’t know what the church planting priorities are, but I’d like to see an effort to strengthen existing churches before we add a bunch more new ones. I assume all these new churches will be in areas that don’t have an existing evangelical church within, let’s say, 20 miles?
I understand your point… Although the 20 mile threshold might be a little much depending on the area you’re talking about…
Just about every state convention – and many associations are working pretty hard in helping pastors revitalize churches and the seminaries are training pastors and consultants in this area of missiology. (I happen to believe that church revitalization is as much missionary work as church planting is.)
Church planting and church revitalization are both needed, and they are not mutually exclusive. From my experience I can say that church planting is easier than revitalization, usually.
One of the challenges with an attempt to “strengthen existing churches” is our view of local church autonomy…
What do you do when an association, state convention, NAMB, or horde of bloggers is absolutely convinced that they know the solution for your local church, but you as the pastor, your congregation as the Spirit-led, Spirit-assembled body of Christ in that space disagree?
There are many efforts and resources both free to the church (associations or many states and NAMB, paid for through CP) and paid for by the church (from Lifeway or other groups) for church health. But many churches decline to use them, for whatever reason.
That’s why you see church plants down the street from established churches: because someone (another church, association, etc…) sees that the church that is already there is making the choice to not reach portions of that community and therefore people are going to Hell. Could the existing, established church do it?
ABSOLUTELY.
Why aren’t they?
Bill, there is empirical research that shows church planting actually grows the sending church exponentially and increases the effectiveness of all the churches in the area.
I have seen this research repeated many times. I’m sure that there have been studies that have shown this, especially in the early 90s, but touting church planting as a growth strategy doesn’t seem to square with the current reality. Wouldn’t you think that since in the past few decades we have planted more churches than at any other time in our history, if the sending churches were growing exponentially, this should have been an era of unparalled growth in the SBC? Here’s what I’ve noticed about church plants. It doesn’t take long for that newly planted to church to become the plateaued church, especially in the Bible Belt. We do need more churches, but let’s plant churches in areas where there is a scarcity ot SBC work, and let’s support church planters in those areas to the utmost degree.
Hi Evelyn,
I am currently doing this type of research… Reality is we need more churches to reach the neighborhoods that we live in. Yes churches do have a life cycle that they follow, but not sure why that is an argument against church planting.
Church planting done well is not done in competition, but in concert with established churches. Where I live we could have 1000 new churches running 1000 people each and not reach the area. We need more churches.
And concurrently, a church plant that puts pressure on an plateaued church who is resistant to being missional, the fault lies with the established church, not the church plant.
Given the continuous plague of shenanigans that infect the convention year after year, the likelihood of achieving Vision 2025 seems problematic. The reason for this pessimistic view is that we have accommodated that segment of the pastorate composed of anti-intellectual men who are consumed by an age-old lust for power and authority. We should be shamed by that reality.
We shame ourselves when we fail to recognize the clear characteristic of gospel issues of primary importance such that among us there is no consistent definition of “primary”. We shame ourselves when we argue passionately over who, why, and where one may or may not be allowed to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ. We shame ourselves when we would silence our own voice at the precise points where secular philosophies would deny our ability to freely proclaim His gospel. We shame ourselves when petty arguments of secular politics shape our message instead of Christ crucified and risen. We shame ourselves when we celebrate our seminaries as collectives for political indoctrination, being pro this or anti that, rather than ensuring that they serve as beacons for training the next generation of leaders to reflect the bright light of His gospel. We shame ourselves when we promote the branding created by costly church consultants instead of His gospel. We shame ourselves when we exalt and protect the wolves who slaughter our own sheep at will.
Vision 2025 is a little like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Unless we make the fundamental changes that will align our walk with our talk, Vision 2025, in spite of its virtuous sentiments, will represent just one more failure in a painfully long line of failed initiatives.
Everyone seems to have the answers to the problems plaguing the SBC. I keep wondering when they will accept the fact that one specific problem is the root of all our troubles. Not a single suggestion by Ronnie Floyd or anyone else will reverse the problems as long as that one issue is ignored and uncorrected.
Sin?
I like these emphases because they are the reason for our work together.
Everything that goes on in Nashville and at our agencies should serve these aims.
I think Ronnie Floyd has some good ideas for a denomination leader with no real authority. Just like a DOM or state convention–they can have a vision, but ultimately, each church has to embrace that vision through the pastor’s leadership and get on board.
Much of his focus is on “adding” and “increasing”–very numerical in focus.
Strategic Action 1: Increase our total number of full-time, fully-funded missionaries by a net gain of 500, giving us 4,200 full-time, fully-funded missionaries through the International Mission Board.
This will only be achieved if CP increases to fund those new missionaries.
Strategic Action 2: Add 6,000 new churches to our Southern Baptist family, giving us more than 50,000 churches.
This is a noble goal, but what is the number of SBC churches that “close” each year—in other words, will adding 6000 churches be a net gain or will it break even. The other issue is church revitalization in addition to church planting. We can plant new churches just as quickly as other churches close their doors.
Strategic Action 3: Increase our total number of workers in the field through a new emphasis on “calling out the called,” and then preparing those who are called out by the Lord.
What is this new emphasis? Who initiates it? Will this be a top-down program for pastors to implement in their churches? What does this preparation look like? Is this not something that each pastor should be doing already? Where does the pragmatism of increasing this number correlate to God’s sovereign call on people’s lives to ministry?
Strategic Action 4: Turn around our ongoing decline in reaching, baptizing, and discipling 12- to 17-year-olds in the prime of their teenage years.
How will this be accomplished? Will there be a new focus on youth ministry? Again, will this be a top-down program? I agree that we need to turn around this decline, but how?
Strategic Action 5: Increase our annual giving in successive years to reach and surpass $500 million given through the Cooperative Program to achieve these Great Commission goals.
This is the most important goal that impacts all other goals. One of the main purposes of the Executive Committee is to promote CP to the churches.
These are good “goals”–I am not sure if they are “actions.” The huge question for me is how? Will this be a pragmatic, program-driven top-down initiative–which is what the SBC has been very good at over the years.
My main concern is that these are very pragmatic, number-oriented goals, which I am okay with, but I do not see the larger issue–revival, prayer, repentance, and humility being addressed. Until each church and pastor is willing to seek God’s face in revival and spiritual awakening, humble ourselves in prayer, and repent of sins, we can talk all we want about strategic actions.
These are my two cents worth…