We discuss a lot of issues about what has gone wrong in the SBC. When I first started blogging, we were still experiencing minimal growth and we could argue that while we are not exactly in our halcyon days when the SBC was busting at the seams, we were not doing as badly as “those guys.” That bubble has burst. We’ve had nearly a decade of consistently poor statistical reports revealing declines in most of the numbers we care about. We’ve had systemic divisions over soteriological viewpoints and a host of other issues, scandals that rocked us to the core, and general denominational malaise. I doubt that there is anyone today that wants to argue that these are the golden days of the SBC.
And so we opine on social media. What can the SBC do to fix its problems? What can IMB do? What can NAMB do? What can the EC do? LifeWay, the ERLC, the seminaries – how can they contribute?
- Every year, just before the Annual Meeting, the ACP statistical report is released and all the sharp objects have to be hidden. We are a convention in statistical decline and there’s no way around that conclusion. What can the SBC do to reverse that reality?
- Once, it was considered standard for SBC churches to give at least 10% to missions through the CP. The national average was over that number, was it not? Now it hovers around 5% and the trend is not encouraging. I don’t have the latest figures but I believe this is pretty close to accurate.
- For the first time I remember, we had to significantly reduce our mission force overseas. We were well over 5000 missionaries, and now we hover, I believe, below 4000. Slipping CP giving has necessitated a smaller IMB missionary force.
- In the last year or so, the #metoo scandal that has been simmering for a decade or two boiled over onto the front pages. We had to come face to face with the fact that in our small churches and in megachurches, in schools and in entities, women and children had been used in unspeakable ways that should never happen in the Body of Christ and instead of ministering to the victims, Baptists often acted to protect the abusers.
- We read statistical studies that the majority of SBC churches are plateaued and declining, that thousands (tens of thousands?) go year after year after year without reaching anyone with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
- We have a plethora of problems in the SBC, enough to satisfy El Guapo. We have racial divisions that have plagued us since our genesis and while progress has been made, it is slow, unsatisfying, and resisted by many. We are divided and have seen a level of nastiness in some circles of the SBC that is contrary to Christ, grieves the Spirit of God and hinders our work. Look at our interactions on Twitter and wonder whether the Savior is pleased. I could continue to list problems, but I think it suffices to say we have no shortage of challenges.
We look to our denominational structure and ask, “What are you going to do about it?” How will they fix these problems? How will they repair our statistical decline, our CP malaise, our declining missionary force? Our president and his blue-ribbon Sexual Abuse Workgroup have been hard at work, but after all of the recent discussions, we are still searching for answers. How do we prevent abuse and minister to the abused? We wonder what the denomination is doing, where the solutions are, and why they have taken so long.
And we do look to the leaders of our entities and our convention to accomplish certain things.
- We ask our two main entities, IMB and NAMB, to coordinate a worldwide missions program. There have been financial restraints and leadership turnover at the IMB, but all in all, these two entities are still our flagships and the reasons we cooperate. Both have good leaders now and bright futures, we pray. But the challenges of ministering in this world are not going to get simpler. Almost 75% of our budget goes to these efforts.
- We have entrusted our seminaries with a theological system and expect them to provide a quality theological education to train our pastors and church leaders. We went through the Conservative Resurgence because we saw the theological drift occurring in our seminaries (some more than others) and even recently have been concerned by the goings on at some of the schools. But in the last decade, the perennial seat of dysfunction in Kansas City has become our fastest growing school, Southern has continued to be our flagship, Southeastern has forged a place of prominence and respect, and Golden Gate continues its work out west. Southwestern has just undergone a transition that was tumultuous, to say the least, but gives hope of a true renaissance. And New Orleans is now in a time of transition which we hope will lead to a prosperous future as well. We put roughly 23% of our budget into theological education, and in general, it is well spent.
- We have the EC to coordinate and administrate our work, the ERLC to advise us on moral issues and to speak to those issues in the world. We have LifeWay to produce materials to assist our churches.
- At our Annual Meeting, we adopt resolutions, pass motions, hold elections, and do other important things. What we do at the meeting matters.
Our entities exist to serve churches and seek to do it. Sometimes, they do it well and sometimes they need to improve. Sometimes, our Annual Meetings accomplish great things (I thought last year’s was particularly effective), and sometimes they are less so. But the work of our entities will never solve the problems of our convention. The Executive Committee can do some good things, but it can never reverse our statistical decline. Our seminaries can seek constantly to be more effective in accomplishing their task of training future leaders for our churches, but they cannot solve the issues that plague us. Paul Chitwood and Kevin Ezell can work hard and work well, and we will see people won to Christ, our missions force increase, and churches planted. But they cannot reverse our decline.
The Southern Baptist Convention is a fellowship of autonomous churches who partner to do missions together. Our problems exist primarily at the local church level and the solutions are local church solutions.
I am not absolving the SBC of responsibility. Our entities need to improve and do better in every way they can. They need to adjust and strategize and reinvent themselves and do whatever it takes to serve the churches of the SBC. But our problems are not convention problems they are church problems and they will be solved at the church level, not the convention level.
1. The SBC baptized the SAME number of people this year that it baptized last year. ZERO. It baptizes no one. Churches baptize people (or don’t). Mark Tolbert of the Caskey Center shared with me the results of a stunning study that had been done recently to figure out why people were not responding to the Gospel in Baptist churches. Guess what? The simple fact is that many churches do not bother to evangelize their communities and the vast majority of “Christians” today do not ever tell anyone about faith in Jesus.
Can I share something with you? If no one tells people about the saving grace of Jesus, people are unlikely to get saved. (We can argue over the efficacy of the invitation, but if you don’t actually tell people about Jesus’ saving grace, that is not acceptable – Calvinist, Arminian, or anything in between.)
2. How do we fix the trend of churches giving less to the Cooperative Program? Well, it is both complicated and simple. I do not have an easy solution to motivate churches to give more, but the solution is for my church to increase its mission percentage. My small to medium-sized church increases its percentage, and yours does, and another and another, and suddenly the CP is up!
The EC can promote CP giving and the other entities can provide an excellence that people desire to invest in, but the solution is at my local church.
3. What about abuse? Others can debate the idea of a national database, and people can criticize autonomy all they want, but the fact is that churches are autonomous. The SBC can create any program it wants, any database it desires, but it is up to my local church to decide to enact policies and follow them when the time comes. We did that about a decade ago, without being told to do so by the convention. Of course, schools and entities have to have policies and procedures and follow them, and there are things our convention can do – I support that. But ultimately, the solution is a local church solution. Will my church act to protect the abused or the abuser? Will we keep our policies up to date and follow them? Will we act to protect our reputation or to minister to those who have been injured? Those are local church decisions that the SBC cannot make for us.
It is odd that a convention of small-government conservatives often looks to the “federal” SBC for solutions to all of our problems. We should know better. Our polity is not an excuse, it is a conviction. Look, I am not pointing fingers, I am making a confession. (I really hope none of my people read this!) My church was once a growing church that has been through some rough times. I will not give a rundown of the issues at our church, but it is badly in need of “revitalization” – something I’ve been trying to do for years.
My only point is that the solution for the problems of the SBC rests not in Nashville or Richmond or Alpharetta or Ft. Worth or Louisville or, frankly, in any of the nearly 200 megachurches across our convention. It rests in churches like mine. We need to reach people, baptize people, increase our giving, and be more focused every day on the mission. I write at this blog to influence the SBC, but the most important thing I can do to affect the future of the SBC is to pastor my church well and to be God’s tool in revitalizing them!
The problems of the SBC are local church problems and the solutions are local church solutions. The SBC cannot fix these problems. God working in my church can!
Dave,
If likes were allowed I’d offer 1000 for this post!
I don’t think I could possibly agree with you more.
“My only point is that the solution for the problems of the SBC rests not in Nashville or Richmond or Alpharetta or Ft. Worth or Louisville or, frankly, in any of the nearly 200 megachurches across our convention. It rests in churches like mine. We need to reach people, baptize people, increase our giving, and be more focused every day on the mission. I write at this blog to influence the SBC, but the most important thing I can do to affect the future of the SBC is to pastor my church well and to be God’s tool in revitalizing them!
The problems of the SBC are local church problems and the solutions are local church solutions. The SBC cannot fix these problems. God working in my church can!“
Yes, yes, and amen! (The same is true for us commenters too!)
Thanks
Dave, these are some great points. I read some of these gloom and doom posts and articles about how there are so many problems in the SBC and it always puzzles me, because I look at the SBC through the lens of my local church. I don’t have any expectations that the SBC is defined in any other way than by the work of the local church. I’m thankful for the Cooperative Program, NAMB, IMB, and seminaries – very thankful for them – but if they go away, that doesn’t mean our church won’t be commanded to do missions and fund missionaries.
I think it would be interesting (though I’m not sure possible) to see how many dollars SBC churches are giving to missions overall in 2019 versus any period years ago when the Cooperative Program and the 3 annual missions offerings were all we really thought about. My guess would be that churches are giving more dollars per capita overall today than ever before. There are just many more options for giving than ever before and the internet has made it possible for us to be much more aware of these opportunities. Just looking at the CP is short-sighted and, I predict, will continue to seem negative.
My church still gives to the Cooperative Program, though it’s a small percentage. They don’t get excited about the Cooperative Program. They get excited about what they can more readily see in front of them, by giving to organizations local and beyond that they can embrace a relationship with, and even have reports from in their church. It’s just reality.
I think the “next wave” of things like IMB and NAMB has to be in making those more personalized in some way. What I mean is, rather than giving to one organization that funnels money for many things, having opportunities to connect with particular entities and ministries. I realize that some of that is possible already.
I think we can see some of this same type of effect trickling down to the questions of how necessary/effective are state conventions and local associations. These are valid questions. It’s a matter of stewardship.
I don’t know what the next wave is, but i do think reenergizing local associations is key.
What I am seeing is the local associations who are focusing on the old model are dying, but the ones that are running leaner financially and using the association as a missional hub are flourishing. The days of the DOM being the CEO of the association are dying a natural death, and rightfully so.
A good word. The more that folks beat up the convention for not doing the things that it was not created to do the lower giving will be. A generation that is and is coming does not even know enough about the SBC to know what they have lost once it torn down.
You said a mouthful in that last sentence. I’ve had many people who I’m having a conversation with about joining the church say “are we Southern Baptist, or what?”. They aren’t terribly concerned with it being Southern Baptist, nor do they know what it means. If they know anything about it, very few have any idea of any issues or who the President is, nor do they care.
The lack of understanding of basic Baptist polity is amazing at times.
But how important should it be to the average church member, really? I’m asking a serious question.
Thanks Dave for your heartfelt statements. I agree it all starts at the local church. After-all isn’t that what the SBC is, but local independent congregations gathering together to worship the Living God?
It is.
You doing okay, Jim?
Amen and Amen Bro. Dave. The SBC is not the solution. The SBC was never organized to be the solution. The glory days of the SBC did not come out of Nashville, Richmond or any national entity. One issue or challenge that everyone will not agree upon, but is real non-the-less and should not be ignored, is many of the young pastors coming out of any or all of our great Seminaries are taking a hard look at CP for the very reasons you mentioned in your post. They (and some of us old guys) see the SBC as not the answer to all of these problems and thus the CP is not the answer either. I’m not saying CP should be discarded, but if the answer is in the local church, which I agree, a serious look must be given to how the local church allocates it’s resources, including mission giving and CP. We have discussed on Voices how much of CP many of the states keep. My state keeps about 64-65%. It’s sometimes hard to get excited about that. We also happen to give a large %. Over double the national average. We must, as good stewards, carefully and prayerfully examine our mission allocation budget to determine if that is the best use of these funds for our church. To not do so would be neglectful of the responsibility God has given us as a church.
These are tough decisions and not to be taken lightly. But, they must be made one way or the other regardless.
Good words Dave. I’d say that the answer to our problems will not be found in the pulpit but the pews. Once people get fed up with not reaching their community, or harboring child abusers, or with not having baptisms, then things will start to change. Leadership and pastors are important. But I think this has shown that gifted leaders can’t pontificate out of a problem. If we could do it we would have by now. The average church member must develop a heart for God, a passion to share with others, and a desire for truth. It won’t fix all the problems it will go a long way towards it.
I feel like should say also, because it’s comments on a blog, that I’m not saying pastors are perfect and it’s those dumb church people. Pastors and leaders have a multitude of ways to lead better, things to ask forgiveness for, and more. But if there are 48,000 churches in the SBC that’s at least that many pastors, a good amount. But it still pales to the 8 million or so members. When they get mobilized to give, share, and go, then things will start to happen.
Gold star for El Guapo.
I agree but since I can’t do anything about any local church other than my own, I’ll put some energy into our cooperative work.
May I feed your pessimism: get used to saying that the CP is below five percent and, I suspect, never to rise above that again.
Tony, there’s no way to get the data unless LifeWay Research does some random sampling but I feel sure the per capita missions giving is lower, unless you define missions to include spending money on carpeting or repainting the church. If…if…all SBC churches cleaned their rolls, we could have an increase in per capita giving. Then we could brag about that while we lament the loss of millions in membership. Just be thankful the financial data are reported without being adjusted for inflation.
Best chance of increasing membership is for Southern Baptists to start having more children.
…anyway, I look forward to the annual weepfest we have when the statistical report is released prior to the convention.
You might be right on the per capita giving, but I’m going by the experiences I’ve had over the past decade or so in local church and associational life where there’s been an increase in giving to various mission causes, in spite of the decrease in giving to entities like CP and the mission offerings. My church now wants to give and invest in things they can see and put their hands on and have a connection to. That actually excites me.
Tony, you are correct, especially for the younger pastors and church members. It hurts CP and thus IMB, NAMB, and the seminaries. It is unfortunate, but it is reality and to ignore it is to prolong the problem. Someone speculated on here a while back that eventually IMB and NAMB might merge and some of the seminaries might also. I don’t know and would hope not, but it is certainly possible I suppose. A new and much different culture in this millennium just might demand a whole new way of doing missions, church, and the SBC.
Actually, my favorite part of the GCR was the intro. Per capita giving is down. Church giving by % is down. They made a pretty convincing case they a selfish spirit dominated.
I grew up in the days of “yotta.” “Yotta” be using Lifeway literature in your church. “Yotta be sending your young men to SBC seminaries. “Yotta not” call a pastor who didn’t go to an SBC seminary. “Yotta” not support missionaries from alien agencies. “Yotta” give more to the CP. “Yotta” buy your Bibles at the Babdiss Book Store. Denominational loyalty was a holdover from the 50’s and 60’s. Later generations don’t have the kind of denominational brand loyalty built in that groups like the SBC once depended on.
Following the SBC presidency of Jimmy Allen, whose church gave about 14% of its undesignated offerings to the CP, a succession of megachurch pastors was elected to the presidency, all of whom came from churches that gave single digit percentages to the CP, most of them less than 5%. And while I’ve heard the argument “dollars pay bills not percentages,” the fact of the matter is that a lot of mid-sized SBC congregations giving over 10% gave more actual dollars than the presidential megachurches, some of whom barely tipped the CP. If you want to trace the decline of CP giving in the SBC, you can trace it to the series of presidents between Jimmy Allen and Jim Henry. People follow their leaders’ example.
And while I agree that the problems related to declining attendance and membership are only resolvable by the churches on the local level, it’s not just that. Through thirty years of a career in Christian education, I’ve encountered an increasing number of people who have a negative impression of the term “Southern Baptist.” A substantial number of churches have taken that identity off their sign and name. There are a lot of reasons for it, mostly related to the national body or state conventions, not the local churches.
There are still plenty of “yotta” churches; lack of denominational loyalty is a thing, but I’m not sure it is in-and-of-itself bad. If GoFish has better VBS material (and I think they do) then why should I utilize LifeWay in my church? That “competition” and availability of other good materials should lift up and not bring down the teaching and ministry of the local church.
Lamenting has little value. The past was never what we remembered it was. So let us celebrate as we move forward from where we are, draw another line in the sand and celebrate what is accomplished in the 21st century. Perhaps our numbers will go up. Perhaps not. But so long as the KoG is advancing in some measurable way we can and should hold our heads high and carry on until Christ returns.
Dave the best post you written by a country mile. The last paragraph says it all. The strategy for winning our nation to Christ is not complicated. Simply stated each of our 44,000 or so churches just take care of their own back yard, their own church field. Now that I am retired and no longer pastor I guess that makes me a “layman”. I point that out to say the job is too great for my pastor or anybody’s pastor, hence as “laymen” I must accept my responsibility.
On a similar note, I like Johnny Hunt, I really do. However I’m not sure another person traveling the nation with more evangelism training materials is the answer. National initiatives just hasn’t seemed to do much IMO. Perhaps his role will bring more success. We can hope so.
They can help. They cannot cure.
I agree with much of David’s assessment of the SBC and our churches. He is spot on in identifying the problems as primarily local church problems, and I agree. But I would like to suggest that there is a missing component in most of the articles I read about our Baptist work together (I am not talking primarily about SBC Voices). David wrote, “We need to reach people, baptize people, increase our giving, and be more focused every day on the mission.” I agree. But what is the mission?
It seems, to me, that in SBC life, the mission is to proclaim the gospel, reap the harvest, baptized them and celebrate it. Yes, we do talk and write about discipleship some, but not much. From my perspective, the most glaring weakness in our churches and in our convention is minimal teaching/training on how to make disciples who can make disciples. We are really good and conducting classes in our churches with an informational dump based on our educational models in schools. However, we are not very good at the relational model that Jesus gave us that goes beyond baptism into genuine spiritual growth and maturity. I do believe our seminaries and Lifeway are doing a better job with this subject. But for most of our churches, discipleship simply means taking some more classes and reading some more books. Until we begin to lead our people to joyfully embrace the biblical model of discipleship that makes disciples who can multiply, we will continue to decline in our churches. There are some good resources available for helping us with biblical discipleship. But I am not sure that we are really that interested in serious disciple making.
I preach that discipleship has 2 aspects- reaching and teaching. We must do both. One cannot prosper without the other.
The source of the problems is really simple, to me. The Great Commission being to make disciples, our major focus should be on teaching learners. That’s what “disciple” means. And were they well taught, they might realize that making converts is not the result of a church program; it’s the responsibility of the church members, one and all, to do as God has gifted them to do.
With attendance … including young children and visitors … somewhere under 1/3 of membership, I do not think disciples are being made per the Great Commission. 3,000 people were saved the day of Pentecost, after a 2 or 3 minute sermon by Peter. And consider also this: 3,000 people could not possibly have heard him give that talk, either (have you seen pictures of the streets and houses back then?). It must be true that the people told the people, and look what happened!
Also consider that God is the source of all increase. Including bringing us people. And why should a Holy God bring us more people when we collectively failed with the vast majority?
SBC “leadership”, IMHO, could have told us this, years ago. Goodness knows, I tried to from the floor at the SBC gathered. And in personal meetings with SBC entity leadership. All to no avail.
You’re right. The answer lies not within the SBC.
I do not think a lot will change until women gain their rightful place at the table. Genesis 1:27 (KJV) “ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female he them created”
Until the church recognizes and uses the gifts and talents of the other 50% of its congregation it is slogging along on only half cylinders.I think it is only fair to say that the church would not be in the mess it is in on the #MeToo movement, and the abuses that are coming to light with such frequency, if women had been part of the equation. Having been in a leadership position on a Board of Directors, I saw firsthand how men and women working together realize better solutions working together than in same sex groups.
I realize that in the SBC things have been the way they are for a long time. I hope that the powers that be will turn to God instead of tradition to make the necessary changes.
Not to pick on you, Leslie, but this is a common and unhelpful response.
“The SBC will only succeed when ______________(insert your hobby horse issue) is resolved in the way I believe it should be resolved.”
There is no reasonable basis for believing that adopting egalitarianism will reverse our decline.
Theological constructs are imperfect attempts to guide the understanding and behavior of disciples, but too often obscure meaning and become entrenched barriers to true discipleship. In humility, there is no war between egalitarianism and complementarianism. Whatever real authority we have comes from spiritual maturity, not from our position at the table. I shudder when I consider the possibility that our humble, Godly, and Spiritually mature women might adopt the proud and infantileattitude toward authority that many of our men have adopted. As Dave seems to be saying, we should deemphasize the table.
Spot on….. The SBC has been a good old preacher boy club spouting inerrancy as a cover for the suppression of women. The fallout is not yet complete. It is time to lament. Much more pain is coming. Tear down those stained glass idolatrous windows at SWBTS. That would be a good start. The two leaders of the CR have fallen from grace and need to ask forgiveness of the SBC. It is sick the way those two erected gallows for many a faithful Southern Baptist.
I guess whatever church you attend doesn’t preach against lying, Jerry?
Spot on Dave.
The SBC is going the way the local churches are going.
And it will continue to do so.
Its not about how many minorities are or are not in leadership positions.
[Though more would be nice]
Its not about disputes, or the lack of, over soteriological issues.
Its not even about how much money is available to the CP, or to IMB, or NAMB.
There will always be problem people and problem churches and diverse off the wall movements.
The question will be and is, will the churches, who are SBC, be faithful to the Lord in their time and energy and finances?
The USA is entering into uncertain times where society is possibly changing in a big way and in such a way that wil affect faithful Christians adversely.
Our nation’s sins will be reaping judgment which includes a giving over to more sinning and more dastardly sinning. Which will bring more judgment. And we have the words of hope -the Gospel- but it seems like we either dont believe it or we are afraid to speak it. Today is the day of salvation.
“said corporation being created for the purpose of eliciting, combining, and directing the energies of the Baptist denomination of Christians, for the propagation of the gospel, any law, usage, or custom to the contrary not withstanding.” These are the last words in the one paragraph charter for the SBC as a group of churches incorporated the SBC in 1845. This is the heart of what it means to be Southern Baptist. If pastors and leaders do not communicate this to the churches then it should be no surprise that participation declines. If Elected leaders fall into the temptation to divert the conversation, energies and resources of the convention to other purposes then they have also missed the heart of what it means to be Southern Baptist. There are many calls for Southern Baptists to take on what are good causes but in the end those efforts invariably distract the SBC from its sole purpose and erode confidence and cooperation.
The San things are happening within the American Baptist Association. We can argue it is the end of time and there is nothing we can do or we can focus locally on our commission. We need to teach and preach each one win one.
Good article. However the church I am a member of have increased greatly their mission giving. Just not to SBC so much. When entities act as if they are a royal class who doesn’t answer to the local church local churches will look elsewhere to spend mission dollors. SBC cp giving will continue to decline because our entities feel entitled and aloof.
IMHO the declines in all facets of SBC life are irreversible unless there is a meeting of the minds on soteriology. That chasm is so wide it will never be closed.
To me the most revealing and alarming statistic was quoted by the SBC president recently highlighting the fact that only approximately 5 million SBC members attend a worship service on any given Sunday. We can continue to keep our heads sunken in the sand about the real reason for the declines but the proof is in the pudding. Obviously, approximately 2/3 of SBC members have opted to follow a path of withdrawal and/or indifference rather than live with the status quo.
The question needs to be addressed, “is the decline in SBC statistics simply the fact that the number of active SBC members is declining precipitously?”
True Ken. Most churches numbers of membership are highly inflated. I personally know of way more than one church in our association that will have 100 or less in any worship service and they report over 600 members every year. That is deceitful. If you double those actually in a worship service any given Sunday we have 10 million real members not the highly inflated number espoused by our leaders.
Alan Davis:
Thanks for those facts which back up my observations.
Now, do you have any hope that the current SBC “hierarchy” will get moving with some research to identify the reasons why this tremendous falloff of active SBC members, and, consequently, the statistics of accomplishment, are occurring, and initiate programs to reverse the trend? It’s beyond understanding why they have not done anything in the past(at least I have seen no evidence that they have, and I have been a member of SBC churches(2) for almost 70 years).
I’m certainly not a genius but it doesn’t take too many smarts to realize that the way to solve any problem is to first identify it’s root causes and then initiate steps to rectify them. For instance, my Industrial Engineering career taught me to apply the questions “who, what, when, where, why, and how” to every problem. I have seen no evidence that such questioning has ever been applied to our current dilemma; all I have ever heard said is “oh, my!, oh my! , oh my!, our vital numbers keep falling,” without making any attempt to identify why they are dropping, and initiating efforts aimed at reversing the trends.
What really amazes me is that the decrease in monetary giving is as small as it is in spite of the drop in active membership. Its mind boggling to think of what glory would accrue to God from SBC efforts if the reasons for declining active membership were to be identified and reversed, and many of those 10 million inactive members restored to the active list.
I realize that the local churches should have been doing this all along and eventually must bear the brunt of the corrective efforts but, as we have seen from the sexual abuse scandal, they need to be encouraged and challenged to be more aggressive in many of their efforts, and especially efforts to help in fulfilling the Great Commission.
My many years as a Christian and SBC member have revealed to me first hand what can be accomplished for God’s Glory if God’s people are united in their devotion to God’s Word and Work.
May God richly bless you!
See note to Leslie above about hobby horses.
Dave Miller:
My almost nine decades on this earth have taught me that talking (or writing) about problems will never solve them.
Action must be taken to define the source of and reason for the problems and then implementing corrective action. And, when identifying the source of the problems one must never hesitate to step on some toes, if necessary.
You did a masterful job of designating some problems in the SBC but until SBs pinpoint the sources for those problems I see no hope of solving them.