My Response to The SBC Conference
Posted By Aaron Marcelli on August 2, 2009
Here are some excerpts from a piece our local newspaper ran a couple weeks ago covering the annual Southern Baptist Convention conference.
Southern Baptists are facing a membership decline that could shrink the nation’s largest Protestant denomination by nearly half in 40 years, its convention president said Tuesday.
The Rev. Johnny Hunt, a megachurch pastor from Woodstock, Ga., told convention members gathered in Louisville that Southern Baptist need to give more to worldwide missions and attract minorities.
“I really do believe we need a revival” Hunt said in a 45-minute address to kick off the two day convention.
The denomination is declining at a rate that could shrink its membership from 16.2 million to 8.7 million by 2050, Hunt said. Total membership of Southern Baptist churches was 16,228,438 last year, down nearly 38,400 from 2007, according to LifeWay, the convention’s research and publishing arm.
Hunt, himself a Native American from the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina, said the denomination needs to work harder to court minorities. “We need to really join with our brothers of ethnicity in this convention” Hunt said.
The Convention, which formed in 1845 after a dispute with northern Baptists over slavery, is expected to vote this week on a resolution acknowledging the historical importance of President Barack Obama’s electoral victory.
Below is an article I wrote in response.
The Cult of Denomination
Even though I laughed, I was a little hurt in reading Wednesday’s column on the Southern Baptist Convention’s yearly conference. Their precedents of business and religion more than spirituality amaze me in that they believe they must pass a vote in order for the significance of President Obama’s election as a black man to be real. Just several years ago they also thought it necessary to vote on a position about women that is already clearly taught in the Bible.
As a former SBC member myself, I now appreciate being a part of a congregation that’s emphasis is on simply seeing people being saved and restored. It’s not about getting people to join our church and our denomination, and I’m not so sure that targeting a set group of people is not narrowing the focus of the great commission. I actually look forward to the day when church and ministry networking blurs the lines of denominations or perhaps even makes them obsolete.
My concern is that most denominations have become separate identities because their focus is on the minor issues of the religious system and these obscurities become the issues that divide and the mountains we choose to die on. I was disappointed to hear that just this past Sunday my former SBC pastor made the comment that alcohol was never ever permissible because it discredits our witness; a statement that is completely legalistic and extra-biblical. So many churches preach a desire to keep the main thing the main thing, but this rarely happens. In this tough economy, there is not an opening for the job of Holy Spirit, may we instead focus on being the hands and feet of Jesus.
Aaron M. Marcelli
Former SBC Minister
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