Jim Elliff has written a provocative article entitled: Southern Baptists, an Unregenerate Denomination. Elliff begins with a bold indictment: “Although the Southern Baptists claim 16,287,984 members, on average, only 6,024,289 people (guests and non-member children included), only 37% of the membership number, show up for their church’s primary worship meeting.” Where are the other 10,263,205 people? That’s a staggering number to go MIA. There are more missing than present.

From this, Elliff argues that though “discerning who is regenerate and is not is not an exact science,” we must consider that “most Southern Baptists must certainly be dead spiritually.” While I am not comfortable equating non-attendance in an SBC church with unregeneration, Elliff has struck a sensitive nerve. In much of the modern American Church, there is little difference between those who claim to be “born again” and those who do not. This is the very thesis of Alan Wolfe’s book The Transformation of American Religion in which he states that “in every aspect the religious life, American faith has met American culture - and American culture has triumphed. Whether or not the faithful ever were a people apart, they are so no longer.” We must be clear that whatever the problems, they are not confined to the SBC.

The situation is so dire that Tom Ascol, Executive Director of Founders Ministries says in his blog that in many of our SBC churches, “the Gospel has been lost and that Christ is absent.” The causes range from poor teaching materials (via Lifeway) to a lack of church discipline. Fly these under the banner of a “good ‘ol boy” system and an unhealthy emphasis on numbers and you have the recipe for denominational last breath.

Despite the optimistic outlook of many, the brutal reality is that the majority of local-level SBC churches are dead and have been for years. Pews are filled with false assurances and low commitments. So-called “younger leaders” are jumping ship and the good ‘ol boys don’t even understand the basic theological ties between Biblical Calvinism and evangelism (again tied to the emphasis of numbers equaling success).

It may be argued that the seeds of this slow death (at least in the SBC) were planted at the very “conservative resurgence” that supposedly revitalized the denomination. Pressler, Patterson and others drew the battle lines to inerrancy and no farther. While this may have been wise politically, it laid a crumbling foundation. Within such limited fields of engagement, tradition has been allowed to rule the day, both in theology and methodology while true dialogue is often discouraged. Theological dialogue (anything beyond inerrancy) has been deemed divisive, church discipline has all but disappeared, rolls are padded rather than purged (we could continue ad nauseum). We’ve always done it that way has become a subtle siren song, lulling leadership into passivity and local churches into false assurance and slow death (not just in the SBC).

While Elliff has rung the death-bell for the SBC, it is much too early to do so. Great strides have been made (Southern Seminary, Founders Ministries, and Capitol Hill Baptist Church, for example). Evangelical Christianity in the United States, and particularly the SBC is indeed perilously close to having abandoned her first love. But stiffness has not set in. We must commit ourselves to the glory of God in all we do and we must share God’s love for His Church, of which we are stewards. If such deep commitments aren’t made soon, calling for “younger leaders” will simply mean that the next “groomed good ‘ol boy” assumes the helm of a sinking ship.

Read the original article by Jim Elliff.
Visit the Southern Baptist Convention website.
Visit the Founders Ministries website.
Read The Transformation of American Religion by Alan Wolfe.
Read Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever.