The numbers are in and they are, once again, depressing. The Southern Baptist Convention continues to decline and there is little hope for seeing a turn-around in the near future. The most recent statistics show a decline in baptisms (-3.02%), membership (-1.28%), total churches (-.19%), weekly worship attendance (-.43%), and small group attendance (-2.92%). Other research suggests that we may be losing as many as half of our young people when they graduate high school.
Certainly, there is much that goes into explaining those numbers. Albert Mohler has written on this report and has shown how even a falling birth-rate is partially to blame for the decline in SBC numbers. But a decline in birthrate and demographic shifts do not tell the whole story.
Much of the story revolves around the loss of so many young people and the reasons behind that loss. I, for one, suspect that the loss of so many of our young people is attributed primarily to a lack of discipleship.
Notice above that small group attendance is declining even more rapidly than worship attendance. This year’s ACP shows that on any given Sunday morning about 35% of SBC membership attends worship, but only about 22% of SBC members attend a small group on any given week. Looking at this another way, it seems that only about 61% of regular worship attenders are plugged into a church through a small group.
Here’s a hard truth. No one is being discipled into the Christian faith through a one-hour worship service each week. Pastors and denominational leaders have too long taken joy in the inflated numbers of “members” and “attenders” without considering how many of those people are experiencing life-change through Jesus.
It is common knowledge that many of our churches (especially larger churches) are willing to celebrate if they can achieve small group numbers that approach 50% of their average weekly attendance. Is it any wonder that 50% of our young people are leaving the church? Only 50% of them have been discipled in small groups of any kind.
We are kidding ourselves when we believe that the 24/7 influence of the world is countered by a one-hour worship service every week. Parents, you must do more. If you really believe in the realities of heaven and hell, you have to do more for your kids. Church has to be a priority in your families.
Pastors, it is time that you do more as well. I’ve heard from you. I’ve heard from those who no longer mention travel ball or dance, or fishing from the pulpit because you don’t think you can win. I’ve heard from those of you who feel defeated and unsupported. I’ve even heard from some of you who feel that the only option you have for your own family is to give in to the spirit of the age and send your kids to participate in every traveling sports and hobby experience available. But, pastors, we have to do more. We have to speak honestly and prophetically to our people. We must help them to see the idols in their lives and urge them to turn from their idolatry. Perhaps we need to see the idols in our own lives. The eternal future of their children (and yours) hangs in the balance.
Perhaps it is time that we do even more. Should we begin to distance ourselves from parachurch ministries that regularly take our kids out of church for sports programs? Should we lean on those parachurch organizations to resist regular travel that takes kids out of their local church and away from intentional discipleship?
Further, pastors and church leaders, we must begin to push back against an attractional model of church attendance that emphasizes the “experience” of worship services over the real experience of life-change. We’ve got to do more than create youth services on wednesday nights–we have to disciple students. We have to hold them accountable and teach them the word of God little bits at a time. We’ve got to stop being satisfied with full sanctuaries and create expectation for full discipleship spaces.
But that means that the DNA has to be built into a church from the ground-up. If you pastor a church of 200 and only have 8 small groups, you don’t have an expectation for people to be actively engaged in Sunday School. If you lead a church of 2000 and only have 25 small group leaders, you don’t actually expect your people to be involved in a group.
Discipleship is hard and it is time-consuming. The results of discipleship are often discovered over years, not weeks and months, but discipleship is not an option for followers of Jesus, it is an expectation. It is the Great Commission. We have to speak up for intentional discipleship and create pathways for disciples to grow. We have to make discipleship an expectation of attenders and a part of the core DNA of our churches. We have to speak out against the idols in our culture that keep us from discipling and being discipled and we have to stand on the solid truths of God’s Word, even when it isn’t popular.
Let’s face the facts. We have created churches that expect no commitment to discipleship and as a result, we have created young adults who have no commitment to the church because they have not been discipled.
Why should we have expected anything different?
