DEEPLY ROOTED: 2014 Annie Armstrong Offering and Week of Prayer • Devotionals, page 9
Volume 108, No. 3
IB Insider
FEBRUARY 10, 2014
CHALLENGE IN THE MIDWEST
Start planning now page 2 Responding to the marijuana debate page 5 She’s sharp: Young writer helps Disaster Relief page 8 Telling stories in Africa page 3
Southern Baptists in northern regions face formidable realities Part one in an Illinois Baptist series
By Eric Reed
Jesus in pop culture page 11
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Illinois | Kermit the Frog sang, “It’s not easy being green.” He felt that no one noticed him because he blended in with the scenery. Southern Baptists in the North might identify with Kermit. We blend in, not because we are like the backdrop against which we live, but because there are relatively few of us. We have a head start on what Christians elsewhere (especially Southern Baptists in the south) are just learning: how to be in the minority. And yet, few in number, we stand out because we are different from the world around us. Like a tap dancing
frog playing a banjo, being a Baptist kind of gets you noticed. We’re outnumbered. But we can make it work for us.
The majority culture is shifting. “I don’t think they have a negative opinion of Southern Baptists. I think, in general, they don’t know who are at all,” said Odis Weaver, pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Plainfield. He was describing witnessing encounters with his neighbors in the suburban Chicago community. “For many people in my region, church just isn’t on their radar,”
SBC: State of the state we’re in Springfield | Since he began studying and teaching evangelism more than 30 years ago, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Dr. Chuck Kelley, told associational leaders in Illinois in January, we’ve been quoting the same statistic: 30% of our churches are growing, and 70% of all Southern Baptist churches are plateaued or declining. “The difference today is the 70% aren’t so much ‘plateauted;’ our churches are declining. We are a convention at a crossroads.” Kelley is one voice in a chorus of national leaders calling on Southern Baptists to end the decline in baptisms and missions giving in our churches that threatens fulfillment of our kingdom work and the future of the denomination itself. The head of the convention’s executive committee, Dr. Frank Page, also delivered a stark address in January. “…You say, ‘What is our future?’ I do not know. I’m asked that every week by someone, and I say, ‘I cannot answer.’ If things do not
change, I can tell you in 20 years we will be happy to have 27,000, not 47,000 churches,” Page said. In a “State of the SBC” address at Midwestern Seminary, Page cited “fault lines” in the denomination, where pressure has built and the fabric of the organization is threatened. Among them are the arguments over the nature and authority of Scripture in the 1980s, and more recently the debate over Reformed theology, methods of funding missions, and democratic-based church governance. The effect of these “fault lines” is seen in declining baptisms and a 20year downward trend in missions funding through the Cooperative Program. “We have argued over issues that have taken away our evangelistic fervor to the point that now our baptismal rates have reached a low not seen since 1948,” Page said. “God help us.” Southern Baptists baptized 314,956 people in 2012, the most recent tally available. That was a decline of 5.5%. Continued on page 7
Some big issues
• The majority culture is shifting. • Southern Baptists swim in a larger evangelical pond. • We wrestle with identity and loyalty. • Big city gravitation tugs at all of us. • Our churches often work from the margins.
Read more on pages 6-7.
Weaver said. As a pastor in Kentucky, I could engage someone in a conversation at the store or the gas pump, and we might quickly get to some deeper issues in life. But not in my present community. “And if you mention the church and its location, they can recall the fastfood restaurant across the street, but not the church. They just don’t see it.” Continued on page 6
Bright spots in 2013 Illinois tallies
Springfield | Increases in baptisms and giving through the Cooperative Program are two of the 2013 highlights Executive Director Nate Adams reported to the IBSA Board ahead of their committee meetings this month. “I think indicators like 3% growth in baptisms and almost 2% in Cooperative Program giving demonstrate encouraging, steady progress, in the midst of a tough economy and an increasingly calloused culture,” Adams told the Illinois Baptist. He also reported good news in the areas of leadership training and church equipping: Last year, 754 Illinois Baptist churches were assisted through 2,800 phone, e-mail or personal consultations, and 370 were trained in evangelism. And four new campus ministries were started. Involvement in missions and church planting also were bright spots in 2013. Adams said 249 churches are now participating in comprehensive Acts 1:8 missions strategies, and 24 new Continued on page 2