That is a question that was asked of me this week. If one means by fractured, broken and not useful at all, I would say no. But to admit we are in a state of disrepair, causing our convention to be less, much less, than it could or should be in the cause of reaching the world with the Gospel, is a given in my estimation. Our membership numbers climb but the baptismal numbers are flat or declining year by year. Our Cooperative Program giving is up but we not making advances in evangelism by winning the lost. What is the problem? Here are some of my thoughts.   

1. We are fat. By that I mean we have more materially than ever. Giving to missions is up but the doing of missions is not. One cannot serve God and mammon.   

 2. We are passionless. Of late I have been calling a list of friends to ask their thoughts on the SBC. I have received a lot of ho-hum responses. It seems today we just do not care for convention involvement as much as we have in days gone by. A spirit of independence has crept in among us. Cooperation for world mission does not drive us.   

 3. We struggle to define who we are. The SBC has always had various groups within it. Mission is what has united us. Lately we seem to point to ourselves as something other than Baptists. We label ourselves as Traditionalists, Fundamentalists, Calvinists, Contemporary Church Practitioners, Cooperative Program Supporters or some other name and/or emphasis rather than Southern Baptists.   

We will always be forced to walk a balance beam as Southern Baptists as we unite in mission. Our local autonomy and our commitment to cooperation is a tension we must keep but never stretch so tightly that it breaks. We are a big tent but it has a flap on it. Not everyone doing Kingdom work is a Southern Baptist. It is my prayer that our SBC family will come together for the cause of the Gospel. It is my pledge to work with others who are in the convention. Together we can do great things. The question is, “Can we get together?” For the Gospel’s sake we must.    

Pastor Ted Traylor     

Posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 9:57 am.
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