Whether or not you are a Southern Baptist, if you are interested in the future of the church in North America, I encourage you to watch Al Mohler’s analysis of the history and future of the SBC.
A great deal of what Mohler says applies beyond the SBC.
Mohler’s agenda is to understand what is going on with the SBC. In so doing, he draws parallels between the demise of General Motors and the SBC; between the death of shopping malls and the SBC.
Quotes:
Are we going to be younger or, are we going to become dead? . . .
The SBC will either be more “bold” or “more boring”. This is the generation that is not going to be satisfied with boredom. . .
We’re going to be way outside our comfort zone, or our comfort zone will lead to death.
If we are a denomination of unhappy cranks, we will decline and disappear and deserve to do so. . . .
Audio here:
For video, click here.
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More notes below – Please note, these are paraphrased notes, not verbatim quotes.
There are a series of questions that the SBC needs to face:
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Will we be “bureaucratic” or “missiological”? Unless we become missiological – – we will find ourselves out of touch with our churches and the upcoming generation . . . the logic of bureaucracy will never take us where we need to go.
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Are we going to have a “tribal identity or a “theological” identity? Historically we have had many shared convictions, but careful not to be controversial . . . nostalgic for the tribal identity, but the tribal identity is gone and we need the right theological identity
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Is the basis of our work together “convictional” or is it “confused”? We need to grow up theologically. Southerners are no longer “regionally protected” with the culture of the south. In order to cooperate, we need to share some very clear convictions.
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Are we going to be more “secular” or more “sectarian”. We are going to have to admit that we were sectarian. We can’t be fully at home in the culture . . .
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Are we going to be younger or, are we going to become dead? The birth rate has been cut in half in the last 30 years.
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Are we going to be “diverse” or are we going to be “diminished”? This is going to be hard for the SBC. It’s not attitude, but it takes more than an inclination. We need a strategy and the willingness to be uncomfortable. We can’t all sing out of the same hymn book. 2050, 25% of all Americans will have a Hispanic grandparent.
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Will we be “missional” or more “methodological”?
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Strategic or anemic? You have to become a methodological think tank. The days of just opening the doors are over.
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The SBC will either be more “bold” or “more boring”. This is the generation that is not going to be satisfied with boredom. We can be bored anywhere. It’s not going to work. It’s not the New Testament. The mission is so bold, that it can never be boring. It’s tough to take risks when an organization is feeling the pains of change of seeing their traditions die. We’re going to be way outside our comfort zone, or our comfort zone will lead to death.
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Are we going to be happy or bitter? We have taken on the identity of denominational crankiness. We appear frustrated even when we insist we are happy. We criticized people who are not even there. We ask a question on the floor only to make some sort of cranky point. The risk is we will be cranky to make the wrong point. We have enough hard things to say to culture. . . we have to pay the cost regularly for standing by the truth of God’s word. We cannot afford to waste the opportunity to reach our neighbors by being cranky about the wrong stuff. People will stop coming because we can be unhappy at home. Find an unhappy family and you know there is a problem. God’s people should be found joy. “If we are a denomination of unhappy cranks, we will decline and disappear and deserve to do so.”
Southern Baptists are going to have to decide if we are going to move into the future with all of these questions of structure and question open because we know by theological conviction where first we stand.
“Let’s not be caught in the dark, wondering why we missed the opportunity when it was day.”
