The New Methodists Reflections on the SBC Today

1. The New MethodistsReflections on the SBC Today Dr. Chuck Kelley

2. WOW! In 1945 SBC Baptized 257,000In 1955 SBC Baptized 417,000

4. Farmers need land (church planting)

5. Climate (decisional preaching)

6. Farmers plant Seed (Personal Evangelism)

7. Farmers cultivate after planting (Biblelationships)

8. Farmers harvest (Revival Meetings)

9. The Key: Not Methods SBC Genius the InTeGraTeD Process

10. Had a GREAT Process! Old McBaptist, with Land = Church Planting Climate = Decisional Preaching Plant = Personal Evangelism Cultivate = Sunday School Harvest = Revival Meetings

11. The SBC Way of Doing ChurchUnconsciously Embodied the Biblical Process of Sowing and Reaping I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase(1 Corinthians 3:6)

12. In 1945, SBC Baptized 257,000In 1955, SBC Baptized 417,000 Since 1955, SBC has never baptized 450,000

13. What Happened to the Farm?

14. Southern Baptists are a Harvest-OrientedDenomination Living In the Midst of an Unseeded Generation

15. But Now I Say: We are more like Gardeners working the Window Boxes than Farmers working the Fields

16. We are the Grandchildren of Farmers Keeping Harvest Stories Alive Over Coffee & Dessert at Family Reunions

17. Methods Not Crucial Issue Bible speaks little of methods Fire, Oven, MicrowaveAccomplish Same Purpose Tasks always Outlive Methods(Even Yours!)

18. 0 1 3 Money Not Crucial Issue 1906 – Created Evangelism Department with NO Budget 1936 – Relaunched Evangelism Department with ONE Person 1945-55 – THREE People in Evangelism Department

19. Gospel’s Power Not Crucial Issue Angola Prison • Worst Setting • Worst Prospects • Awesome Results

20. Discipleship the Crucial Issue The farmer, not the harvest, is the root of problems in SBC Evangelism

21. We are not Anointed • Conversion – Work of the Spirit • Revival – Work of the Spirit Neither Conversions Nor Revival TypicalSBC Churches

22. We are Distracted • By a quest for Methods • By Theological Identity • By Fiscal Restructuring • By Uncertainty

23. Today we are more like a driver in unfamiliar territory than a racer roaring down the track.

24. More Importantly Southern Baptists are Becoming the New Methodists

25. I Love Methodists! Key Role in Two Awakenings Evangelized American Frontier Holy Living a Core Value Taught SBC about Harvesting

27. Today’s Methodists Evangelism and Missions Greatly Diminished Behavior Blending with Culture Greatest Theological Fight Over Normalcy of Homosexuality Setting Records for Decline

28. SBC as the New Methodists • Universalism Settling into our Pews • Tolerance Overtaking Conviction • Behavior Blending with Culture • Plateau Becoming Decline

29. Since 1983 I have been saying 70% of SBC Churches are plateaued or declining

30. If Traditional Measurement of Growth Used in 2007 Number of Growing Churches Same Number of Plateaued Churches Smaller Number of Declining Churches Larger

31. 8,765 (28.0%)

32. 13,323 (42.6%) 8,765 (28.0%)

33. 13,323 (42.6%) 9,174 (29.3%) 8,765 (28.0%)

34. Our Great Commission momentum as a Convention has vanished.

35. SBC Discipleship Process • Sunday Night Program • January Bible Study • Periodic Study Courses • R.A.s/G.A.s/Youth Camp ETC.

36. In era of our greatest growth typical SBC churches had more discipleship activitiesthan evangelistic activities We were discipl-istic

37. The Biblical Worldview that unconsciously inspired Church as Farm in SBC Life is like the baton for the USA Men’s Relay in the Beijing Olympics

39. That Biblical Worldview Inspiring Evangelistic Discipleship DroppedBetween SBC Generations

40. We neither maintained nor reinvented discipleship process. While others run the race, we need a fresh grip on the baton of a dicipl-istic worldview

41. Put Another Way: We put so much emphasis on how our way of Doing Churchaffected the LOST, we failed to notice how it was affecting the SAVED

42. Changes made for church to be more welcomingto the unchurched, but little done to make evangelistic discipleship more desirable to believers

43. The most significant and influential death in the modern history of the SBC was the death our Discipleship Process

44. The defining characteristic of Southern Baptists at our best is a passionateevangelistic discipleship We refused to let go of one in order to pursue the other

45. When we loosened our grip on one to strengthen our grip on the other, we ultimately weakened our grip on both DRAMATICALLY

46. We do not knowWho We Are The World does not knowWho We Are Lost friends, neighbors do not knowWho We Are

47. Our problem is not that more of us don’t witness to our neighbors. Our problem is that more of us do not look like and live like Jesus.

48. 2 3 4 1 voice voice voice voice If we do not produce children, youth, and adults who live out a biblical worldview, no strategy for doing church will make us salt and light in the world

49. Southern Baptists are not losing our voice We are losing the Distinctivenessof our voice in the music of today’s culture

50. The Lesson Aggressive EvangelismwithoutAggressive Discipleshipwill eventually undo itself