“The churches are emptying, and the pastors have no idea what to do about it,” my friend told me. This was 20 years ago. I had asked my friend from the deep South what things were like. I spent my high school years in Georgia and had moved to the other parts of the South for college and seminary. I was curious what was happening in the churches. She was the first person that mentioned to me that there was a problem.
Dr. Terry started a discussion a few weeks ago about churches closing. Churches declining and closing is not a new problem. I’ve been thinking about four more possible reasons that I don’t hear anyone talk about.
Bad theology
As I understand the conservative resurgence, there were major movements of churches, pastors and professors that were compromising on major doctrine. Even though the conservative resurgence was successful, that doesn’t mean everyone agreed with it. Why would we be surprised that churches that compromised on core doctrine would eventually decline and close?
Loss of Spirituality
I don’t think there’s any shame in the church with solid doctrine closing its doors if while they closed their doors they prayed, fasted, loved the Lord, and loved their neighbors. A church that has spiritual fervor but closes its doors is not a tragedy, but how many of our churches have that passion? Dr. Terry did mention spiritual stagnation as one of his reasons for the death of SBC churches.
I’m a little concerned that we’ve heard a lot of talk over the last 15 to 20 years about decline, and very little call to pray and seek the Lord. 2014 was the last time I can remember a major Southern Baptist leader calling for fasting. It’s hard for me to take seriously people concerned about the decline of churches, but there is no call, equipping, or movement to pray and fast for holiness, evangelism, and for the Lord to move among us. When was the last time we were known as a denomination or churches that cried when we thought about the lost people living around us? Have you ever heard of an all-night prayer meeting in the SBC? How about just an evening?
Our Leadership Priorities
If we just go off of what our leaders have admitted to, we’ve had many leaders over the last 20 years admitting to moral failure and deceit.
I am a Southern Baptist by choice multiple times. I love Southern Baptists, and there are good and godly men and women in this denomination. I think we should be honest, though, about how we prioritize outward success and impressiveness over spirituality and godliness. Someone admitted to me that he got invitations that had never been offered to him at his previous church. The only thing about him that changed was the size of the church he pastored. It’s not just at the denominational level. Our churches often prioritize things that are not spirituality and godliness.
The Reputation of our Churches
I pastor an established church now. I was a church planter before. One of the things I’ve discovered pastoring a 200-year-old church is that things that happened 30, 40, 50 or 60 years ago still affect the way people in our community think about our church.
There are things that have been done by SBC churches that we as individuals had nothing to do with, but the communities around us don’t see it that way. They think of what our church used to be and how our church may have treated them. Sometimes one of the greatest challenges that a church has to deal with is the reputation that it has in the community, and that cannot be easily fixed. A new pastor will carry the weight of things that happened under pastors many years before.
Dr. Terry gave ten reasons, and I’ve added four more. Are there any of these that you and I can be the answer to?
