Part Two on More Than 80% of Southern Baptist Churches are Plateaued or Declining
Personal reflections as a lifelong Baptist.
Part Two on More Than 80% of Southern Baptist Churches are Plateaued or Declining
Check out the September 22nd news release from Baptist Press that states this fact HERE.
See Part One Insights HERE.
ForthTelling Innovations Insights:
For many denominations, starting in the 1950s, how churches were helped with growth, plateau, and decline issues was through the design and promotion of various programmatic approaches. The 1950s was when many denominations developed a “program-based design.” They structured what they offered churches to prove that the programs would work for any church.
About the time these programmatic approaches were implemented, the suburbanization of cities significantly impacted churches. Churches in towns and cities began to experience decline. The general response of denominations was to tell churches to work harder on making the programs effective in their setting. This worked in some churches for a short time, but not in many others.
In the 1960s the diversification of towns, cities, and their suburbs brought racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic impacts which churches were unable to effectively address. Some denominations began to realize they had a huge challenge—particularly in the cities and their surrounding areas—that needed to be addressed. Churches in large numbers were not just plateauing. They were declining and dying.
In the mid to late 1960s my denomination, Southern Baptists, began addressing what they defined as an urban crisis. Regarding individual congregations, this led to the development by 1973 of PACT—Project: Assistance to Churches in Transition. This project worked with some success through the mid-1990s. At that point the agency that ran it—Home Mission Board, SBC—was merged into a new agency known as the North American Mission Board. The PACT project was eliminated and not replaced with a new, significant effort for almost 20 years.
The new Southern Baptist effort of the past ten years—Revitalize and Replant—focuses primarily on replanting churches, and secondarily on revitalization of churches. In many ways it is like the former PACT project. Like PACT it is seeking to work with aging, declining, and dying congregations.
Now it is time for a totally new approach! Not PACT or Revitalize and Replant alone. Both efforts are TOO LATE in the life of churches! Church patterns and traditions get too deeply ingrained long before either of these efforts intervene.
We recommend, have used, and will be outlining over the next several months a 7/50 Congregational Sabbatical and Jubilee Strategy. This strategy is based on the pattern outlined in Leviticus 25 of sabbaticals every seventh year and a year of jubilee every 50th year. The intent is to hardwire into the spiritual and strategy journey of congregations that they take a fresh look at their journey every seven years, and a total new look every 50 years. Doing so keeps them from getting too far off track from God’s leadership.
INVITATION: If you want to be on the list of people to receive information on this new approach, as it emerges, please send a request to George Bullard at HERE.