Thursday, May 8, 2008
- Dennis Newkirk
Dying to Change
“There has been too much change!” “I can’t stand all the change!” “Just leave things alone; we like it the way it is.” These are sentences every pastor dreads hearing. They are not confined to just one age group or demographic segment. These are sentiments that may be held by young and old, long time members and new comers, and church staff members as well as congregational members. Read this article carefully and slowly. Remember that no church is immune. Change is coming because change is a reality of life. Don’t hold on; reach forward!
CARY, N.C. (ABP) -- The Southern Baptist Convention is rapidly dying, and resistance to change could kill over half of the denomination’s churches by 2030, the outgoing SBC president said May 1st.
Unless something is done to reverse the downward trend, Southern Baptist churches could number only 20,000 -- down from the current total of more than 44,000 -- in fewer than 22 years, South Carolina pastor Frank Page said. His comments came in a conference call with pastors, hosted by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
Page said the problem “resided in the churches” that refuse to change to stop their inevitable demise….
…“Many Southern Baptist churches are small groups of white people who are holding on [until] the end,” he said. “Not only have we not reached out to younger generations, but we have failed to reach out to other ethnic minorities who are all around us.”
Rather than embracing a “whatever it takes” mentality to change and restore a local church to health, Page said, many pastors and churches have “chosen to die rather than change, and they are doing it.”
Page said the vision of pastors must be biblical, firm and resolute, or else when they face “the horizon of trouble, their vision is the first thing out the window.” Pastors must stay the course or risk being blown off course by the trials that accompany any change in any church, Page emphasized.
“Church members must be helped to catch the vision, and pastors must work to bring their people to a place of trust” so they will follow the pastor’s vision, he said.