LifeWay Christian Resources issued a sobering report Wednesday on the Southern Baptist Convention, days before members of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination gather for their annual meeting in Houston next week.
According to the group’s Annual Church Profile, the denomination experienced several areas of decline in 2012, including membership, average attendance, the number of baptisms and total giving. The number of churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention did increase, but even with more churches, membership dropped by more than 100,000 to 15.9 million. Worship attendance fell by 3 percent to 5.9 million Sunday worshippers.
Baptisms, a bright spot in 2011, dropped by 5.5 percent to the lowest point since 1948.
The Rev. Gary Hollingsworth, senior pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, was bothered by the numbers but not surprised.
“I’m not surprised by that primarily because I believe we are living in an increasingly secular society,” Hollingsworth said, noting surveys that show an increasing number of Americans claim to have no religious affiliation. The so called “nones” account for about 20 percent of the population, according to a 2012 report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Where others might only see bad news in the church report, Hollingsworth sees opportunity.
“It gives all the more urgency and excitement for me in terms of opportunities I have as a pastor and we have as a church to get the Gospel out there and tell the message again,” he said.
Last year’s meeting in New Orleans was a historic one, highlighted by the election of the denomination’s first black president, the Rev. Fred Luter. He is widely expected to be re-elected.
This year the delegates, or messengers as they are called, gather as national debates on religious freedom, same-sex unions and immigration continue to make headlines. The Rev. Mike Lumpkin, senior pastor of University Baptist Church in Fayetteville, expects some of those issues to be discussed in Houston.
“There will probably be some resolutions to assert what we traditionally believe,” he said.
A topic sure to be on the agenda is one that has sparked heated debate within the denomination in recent years - Calvinism.
Hollingsworth said at a basic level the debate exists “in what I call the tension between two equal truths that appear to be opposite.”
On one hand is the sovereignty of God - does He know everything and predetermine everything. On the other hand is the issue of freewill.
“As a Christian I believe in the sovereignty of God,” he said. “On the other hand is do humans have free will and my answer is yes. The debate exists between Calvinists and non-Calvinists in trying to resolve that tension that will never be resolved because those two truths seem to be equally true.”
Gregory Wills, dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said Southern Baptists disagree on the definition of Calvinism.
“In terms of current interest, Calvinism is a variety of evangelical Christianity, emphasizing the full authority of the divinely inspired Scriptures, the utter necessity of God’s grace to redeem sinners and Gospel preaching as the divinely appointed means of saving sinners and establishing Christ’s kingdom,” he said. “It emphasizesa determination to venture all and suffer all for the Gospel of Christ based on a humble trust in God’s sovereignty.”
Wills said non-Calvinists object to the Calvinists’ belief in “the compatibility of God’s unlimited sovereignty and authentic free choice.”
And, while the debate is not new, Wills said tensions have increased in recent years because Calvinism has become more popular among Southern Baptists, a trend some in the denomination find troubling.
During last year’s meeting the Rev. Frank Page, president of the convention’s executive committee, acknowledged the growing tension, saying, “Friends, I’m concerned because there seems to be some non-Calvinists who are more concerned about rooting out Calvinists than they are about winning the lost for Christ.”
Page called for an advisory committee to find a way for Southern Baptists with various theological leanings to move forward together in missions and evangelism. The unofficial committee released a seven-page report in late May titled “Truth, Trust and Testimony in a Time of Tension.”
Steve Lemke, provost of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, was on the committee and expects the report will generate discussion, and hopefully, change.
“It’s our hope that it will,” Lemke said. “Even though we disagree - there’s no pretending we agree on everything - the larger issue is the Great Commission and working together to do the work we’ve been called to do.”
Debates about Calvinist beliefs and their place in Southern Baptist life are nothing new.
“It goes back literally to the roots of Baptist life in England,” Lemke said. Different Baptist groups had different ideas on theology. General Baptists believed in general atonement, that Christ’s atonement was sufficient for all people. Particular Baptists disagreed and held to the Calvinistic belief that Christ came only for the elect, Lemke said. Those differences, and others, endure today.
“Southern Baptists are a mixed bag,” he said. “We have both of those streams flowing into us as tributaries I guess, so we borrow from both traditions.”
Lemke, who said he falls into the less Calvinist category, said the report outlines what Baptists hold in common while rejecting the extremes of both sides.
Lumpkin said the report won’t put the debate to rest but he’s pleased the issue was addressed.
“I really think it’s good for the convention to say here are the things we really agree on and here’s the spirit in which we should disagree,” he said. “It’s a reminder of the autonomy of our local churches, that while we cooperate for local missions we are not held together by a single creed.”
Lumpkin said some in the convention would label him a Calvinist but his congregation includes a mix of theological perspectives.
“I think we have a really sweet kind of openness on it,” he said. He has hopes his fellow Southern Baptists will continue to cooperate in ministry.
“So many of us are completely in strong agreement to cooperate together for missions and for the Gospel, going out to the nations, that to draw some line of conflict between Calvinists is the wrong place to draw the line,” he said.
Wills agrees and said he’s pleased the report not only assesses the theological differences but also “rightly urges Southern Baptists to cooperate in their joint gospel labors in warm Christian love and charity. It will do good. Southern Baptists are in no mood to divide over these differences.”
Lemke, who is serving as chairman of the resolutions committee for the meeting, said he expects messengers will submit resolutions on a variety of issues of the day, such as the recent decision by the Boys Scouts of America to open their ranks to homosexual boys and teens.
“But by and large, on my part and on Pastor Luter’s part, we would really like as much as we can - and it may not be possible - to have a convention that really doesn’t have any controversy,” he said. “We’re trying to not only talk about working together more smoothly but to actually model it … Our hope is to have a unified convention where we are focused more on what we share together.”
The annual meeting will be Tuesday and Wednesday at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. Live video streaming will be available at sbcannualmeeting.net.
Religion, Pages 14 on 06/08/2013