The Gloom and Doom Convention in Phoenix

Half of Arizona is on fire, a fitting backdrop to the SBC's annual meeting in that state, which Plodder deems the "Gloom and Doom" convention.

The SBC reports the previous year's statistics just prior to its annual meeting each year, held in June. I suppose that in the past statistics gave us figure fueled Baptists extra bragging rights. Not last year. Not this year. Possibly not in the forseeable future.

Baptisms down 17k, continuing a general trend decades long. Membership down. Worship attendance down. Giving down. Lottie Moon down.

"Lack of passion" sayeth our Fearless Executive Committee Leader, Frank Page. "I told ya so" sayeth Associated Baptist Press which reminds those who follow our triumphs and travails that the Conservative Resurgence was supposed to increase everything.

Look for extra church-bashing, clergy-bashing, general fume and fuss preaching, lecturing, flogging, flaying, and cajoling in Phoenix this week, all under the guise of extra unction.

Expect a gaggle of the brethren to remind us that it takes a gazillion Baptists to generate one baptism. Anticipate finger pointing at the calvinists who don't believe that anyone is ever saved sufficiently to be baptized, at the traditionalists who are hindering the advance of the kingdom of God by (gasp!) singing old hymns instead of spiffy new dittys. See if the Baptist Identity group gets slammed for being too narrow, the egalitarians for being too broad, the sub-calvinists for doctrinal deficiencies, the megachurches for sucking the life out of thousands of smaller churches, the smaller churches for lacking vision and passion.

Naturally, expect pastors to be blamed for everything.

If you get most of your SBC news from the vast number of bloggers, you have good reason to be depressed. We've got bloggers pronouncing the death of the SBC as we know it, the fracturing of the convention, and about everything else that might get a look.

It's not an excuse but the SBC reflects the general trend among mainline denominations, just later and slower. Baptisms will likely continue to trend downward with spurts where they bump up. Per capita giving will continue to decline, with years of dollar increases when the economy improves. The numbers of churches, up this year by more than 700, will increase.

How about a little optimism here?

We have new leaders at our two chief entities, International and North American Mission Boards. We have a new XComm leader. Everyone in SBC life is being forced to look hard at things, mainly because money is short. I think the eventual outcome will be positive, but that doesn't preach as well as negative stuff.

But I have to be honest. SBCers do gloom and doom well.

Southern Baptists and Numbers

Let’s be honest, most SBCers never met a number they couldn’t inflate. So, I congratulate our top two entities, the International and North American Mission Boards for declaring that they will practice more realism in their reporting. Baptist Press reports:

Clyde Meador, IMB VP:

“…clarified changes in how statistics are reported, noting that the work relating to work with which IMB personnel have direct involvement is tabulated apart from statistics relating to Baptist conventions and unions overseas. New IMB categories have been added to document the number of gospel presentations, challenges to make commitments and professions of faith.”

"This doesn't mean we're devaluating baptisms, but we understand better the kind of interactions our people are having," Meador explained.

Even with the new approach, Meador said the number of baptisms stemming from IMB-related work remained strong at 360,000 and the number of new churches started was even greater than the previous year.

The IMB has been criticized for lumping statistics of all the groups that our overseas people relate to. The resulting numbers are, well, fuzzy.

Memo to IMB: I know you have many people in difficult places. My support of your work doesn’t depend on your knocking my socks off with statistics.

NAMB’s new leader, Kevin Ezell’s approach to reporting church starts was summarized by Baptist Press thusly:

While church planters can expect a faster track to start new work, Ezell also promised greater accountability, making sure all of the partners are "using the same dictionary" when defining what constitutes a church, a church plant and a missionary.

To be blunt, no one really can tell what NAMB has been doing. I commend him for paying attention to reality and not having a goal of spiffy stats rather than honest church starts.

One caveat here is this: The SBC seems destined to be ruled by megachurch pastors, folks who know something about numbers and who understand the value of looking good on paper. I trust that they will respect the folks who pay all these bills, ordinary SBCers like me, by being honest in their reporting.