Holy. Cow.

The Nashville Tennessean posted a potentially explosive article about the future state of the Southern Baptist Convention from outgoing President Frank Page, who was surprisingly elected in 2006. The actual article is here, but let me give you a few snippets:

"If we don't start paying attention to the realities … by the year 2030, we will be proud to have 20,000 rather than 44,000 Southern Baptist churches,'' Page said. Page believes the 16.2 million-member convention faces the same challenges that bedeviled other Protestant denominations — lower birthrates, aging demographics and a culture increasingly hostile to Christianity. In response, churches tend to circle the wagons and hang on for dear life.

Me again: So the SBC shrinks in half, not because it has no choice, but because the churches refuse to innovate and adapt? Wow.

Page: "You've got massive numbers," he said, "maybe not a majority but massive numbers of evangelical churches out there, yes, Southern Baptists also, who are small groups of older white people holding on till they die."

Me yet again: The article has a bit more on SBC politics. Being raised an "independent" Baptist, I've never been too connected to SBC life, but I was shocked to read that Page's election was the first time they've ever had to actually vote for a President- the convention has always been a rubber-stamp ceremony. This year, they have 6 up for the spot. The fact that the SBC is just now getting around to having real elections with real choices makes Page's predictions that much more startling. How far behind is the SBC?

The wife and I are strongly considering an SBC church for membership, and while I think the political intrigue of the SBC is not quite so important at the local level, I still like to learn about the cart I'm considering hitching up to. In some ways I hope Page is wrong-- but if the losses he predicts are just dead weight, than I'm inclined to say that I hope he is RIGHT.

Barna on struggles- not good news

clipped from www.ministrytodaymag.com "Many of the same people who claim that their faith is very important to them and that they are absolutely committed to Christianity also say that they face no spiritual challenges in life,” Barna says. "Americans focus on what they consider to be the most important matters; faith maturity is not one of them.” So how do we avoid fostering a faith that only knows how to drive one way down Easy Street? It's beginning to sound like a broken record (check out our previous blog), but it's as simple as relationship. Person-to-person ministry that challenges an individual and, at times, even gets in his or her face with biblical truth. "Ministry is most effective when it addresses the specific needs of each person on a one-to-one or few-to-one basis," Barna says, echoing the point. "The data underscore the importance of people knowing and ministering to each other in a very direct and personal way, recognizing the uniqueness of every person and their journey."

More questions...are we in trouble?

Another "Letters to Emerging Christians" from Scot Mcknight's blog....go to the page and read the comments as well.......

clipped from www.jesuscreed.org I’ve been struggling with some similarities that I have seen with several Hebrew Scripture passages and our current church culture. My struggle is that I read Isaiah 58 or Amos 5:21-24 (among others) and I see a people that is obsessed with worship, traditions, going through the motions. I then see God’s displeasure with outward displays of worship and His urgent desire for us to seek justice. What I cannot shake is this feeling that God views many of our American churches today in this way. With the obsession with musical worship, programs, churches run as businesses and so on, I get this sense that we are in danger of looking like the ancient, unfaithful Israelites (with the exception that we are not being threatened with imminent doom).

Emerging Wednesday- burnout

I have never been a big fan of the "Superman Pastor." While attending college preparing for ministry, I vowed I would never let myself experience burnout and would never try to run my own show and do everything. While I think a little age and maturity have shown me that avoiding that may be harder than you think (passionate people have a hard time holding themselves back), I still think that if you as a pastor can remember a few key points, you're well on your way:

1. The pastor isn't supposed to do it all. I'm not a C. Peter Wagner follower, but one book he wrote, Pastors & Prophets, makes a really good point: pastors shouldn't and can't wear all the spiritual hats in a body. He/she is not supposed to be the pastor/teacher/apostle/prophet/elder/evangelist/caregiver. It will kill them to try to do it all.

2. Some pastors are bad at doing anything other than pastoring. Let's be clear: a pastor is someone that fosters relationships and communes with others in fellowship through life. They comfort, guide, and share with others and serve them. That doesn't make them a good preacher or speaker, though, and that's part of the problem. Some pastors need to get out of the pulpit, and some preachers need to just teach and let someone else run the church. We have titled people as "pastor" when they aren't, and we have asked pastors to be things they are not.

The paradigm problem is that the "pastor" is in charge, and only he can be the mouthpiece of what God wants to say on Sunday, and that's not healthy. Why? Because I don't think the pastor can hear EVERYTHING God is saying and I don't think one man can convey that message to the right people at the right time.

I was fortunate in 2005-2006 to work in a church where the head man was willing to share his pulpit, and all the leaders rotated and shared the pulpit. Some were better than others, and sometimes I wished someone would skip their turn, and sometimes I thought someone had something going and should go a few weeks in a row. But the overall beauty was that the congregation got to see the hearts of their entire leadership, and the church experienced the Word of God and the heart of God from different perspectives, different voices, and different styles. It was refreshing!

The problem is that if the "pastor" is relieved of the majority of preaching, then what are you paying him for? The idea would be that he is more free to pursue community development, counseling, relationship building and visitation. But how can you measure that? Will logs have to be kept? Would he have to report his minutes? The reason I bring this up is because tithers will want to know where there money is going. I don't like that, but it's going to be an issue.

I'm going to ramble more on this later....

In other news, the Cubs are 0-1. Surprised?

My pew- Cartoonchurch.com

Growing up in a traditional Baptist church, I knew there were places you could not sit because that seat belonged to Mr. or Ms. long time member. Ushers would even direct visitors to a worse seat. Some of the ladies even had pillows they left in their seat 24/7, as a way to lay claim to that spot. So I laughed hard when I happened on cartoonchurch.com and this made my morning:

Pastors on the tightrope

I went to college and earned a Pastoral Ministry degree. I knew enough from growing up in church and hearing snippets of gossip that a pastor can go from hero to pariah faster than you can blink. Always aware that being a pastor in a traditional church setting would be hard, I knew that it would be a tough life. I eventually decided that I would rather serve on an associate level, freed from the responsibility and the stress of being the man on top.

I want to present this article by Jim Rutz about the infamous Ted Haggard scandal. Jim's not really going to get into the specifics about what happened, but he is going to raise some hard questions about the pastoral position in American churches. This is exactly why I never wanted to be a "senior" pastor. Here are some snippets:

"Yet Ted was and is a saint, just like the rest of us who have genuinely been born again by the grace of God. Trouble is, we all have dirty habits. Ted was more like the reforming alcoholic who really wants to quit the bottle, except that he didn't have a close group of fellow alkies around to support him.

Ted probably has a personal prayer support team. But it's almost impossible for pastors to share their innermost problems, even with a select core of parishioner friends. The word about the pastor's weaknesses will eventually get out, and then he will be out of a job. It's lonely on that pedestal, and very slippery."

"We can blame Ted for not seeking help. But there is a much greater blame in this case, and it must be aimed at the pastor-centered church system that does not and cannot provide ongoing help and correction."

Ouch.
What really stinks is that the reason the help and correction is not there is because pastors often operate under a zero-tolerance policy, while those in the pews can make the same mistakes and as long as they make their weeping trek to the altar during revival week, they get off with little punishment. For pastors, correction is often a U-Haul and tarnished record. I've even heard of pastors who went out of state to get another church, and members of the church that fired him tracked him down and called his new church members and gossiped about the man, claiming they were operating "in love."

The dilemma for me is that I don't see how this can change within the traditional paradigm, because I don't think the traditional church is willing to give up the pastor pedestal as Rutz aptly calls it, so the problem spirals into a chicken or egg coming first argument. You need a new system to protect pastors and help them, but you have to eliminate the lofty perch they are forced to live on. Which one comes first?

T.M.I.

Check out a cool survey on what denominations line up with your beliefs. If you're not affiliated or not sure if the denomination you are a part of agrees with your beliefs, this will provide some unscientific insight. It's a great survey but their HTML code is horrible and I am too lazy to fix it, so I'm just going to list my top 6:

1. Seventh-Day Adventist
2. Assemblies of God
3. Mennonite Brethren
4. Free Will Baptist
5. Methodist/Wesleyan Church
6. Orthodox Quakerism
   

An interesting mix, if I do say so myself. It hammers home to me that no denomination has all the answers, and if you are close-minded enough to think that a denomination is invalid because they don't line up with you 100%. For example, I was shocked to see the 7th day as my no.1. I have never held that Saturday or Sunday is the required day to attend church, and I definitely do not agree with the teachings of their founder; but apparently we do have some common ground. Or it could be the unscientific nature of the poll: one question was about the day of worship, and I chose the option that I didn't believe Sunday was the only day; I think that question heavily favored in scoring for 7th day adventist. I took it 3 times and got the same result, even with a little variation in how I answered.

I then found a Christian Tradition poll from the same site, and got a slightly different result:

1. Baptist (Reformed/Calvinistic)
   
2. Pentecostal/Charismatic/Assemblies of God
3. Methodist/Wesleyan/Nazarene
4. Anabaptist (Quaker/Mennonite)
5. Baptist (Non-Calvinistic/Fundamentalist)
6. Lutheran

See? I really think that one question changed the whole thing. This poll had no question about the day of worship and in this one, 7th day slips from 1 to 7. Hmm. The second is more in line with my background and thought process, although I didn't know there was such a thing as Calvinistic Baptists.

Now I know why I avoid polls most of the time.....