Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Bailing Water Comments":
I didn't submit the first article but have read this one and seems to fit.
http://www.newswithviews.com/PaulProctor/proctor152.htm
SOUTHERN BAPTISTS NOW IN DECLINE
By Paul Proctor
April 29, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
In a story from the Christian Post, Lillian Kwon reports that Southern Baptists are now a declining denomination, meaning they are no longer getting the Results and Relationships they covet.
The troubling article begins this way:
For the first time, Southern Baptists can say membership has reached a tipping point and the nation's largest Protestant denomination is now declining, says one long-time Southern Baptist.
"The decline that many of us have already believed is there is now becoming real," said Ed Stetzer, director for LifeWay Research, in an interview featured on MondayMorningInsight.com, a Web site for pastors and church leaders.
Baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention fell for the third straight year in 2007 to the denomination's lowest level since 1987, dropping nearly 5.5 percent to 345,941, according to LifeWay Christian Resources' Annual Church Profile (ACP), which was released this week.
Total membership also declined by 0.24 percent to 16,266,920.
Later in the article, Kwon offered a quote from the head of LifeWay Christian Resources, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, in response to the findings:
"This report is truly disheartening," said LifeWay president Thom S. Rainer, according to Baptist Press. "Total membership showed a slight decline. Baptisms have now declined for three consecutive years and for seven of the last eight years, and are at their lowest level since 1987. Indeed, the total baptisms are among the lowest reported since 1970. We are a denomination that, for the most part, has lost its evangelistic passion."
Well, Mr. Rainer, that’s not all we’ve lost.
A quick stroll through the trinkets, toys and knickknacks for sale at LifeWay Christian Stores, formerly the Baptist Book Store, speaks volumes about our passion, doesn’t it?
Besides being president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, Thom Rainer is also the author of many books – one of which encourages churches to simplify and “unclutter their ministry” in order to “become more effective for the glory of God” – emphasizing “the importance of eliminating nonessential programs” to “focus on those ministries that really matter” – which is curious considering all the clutter and nonessentials being retailed by LifeWay.
Does he honestly think the Lord Jesus wouldn’t pull out a whip and start turning over tables if He walked into one of LifeWay’s ecclesiastical emporiums today? No, they’re not temples or houses of worship – but trivializing God’s Word by putting it on novelties, notions and assorted household items just so you can sell them to churchgoers is tacky. And does LifeWay really think there’s nothing wrong with using the Lord’s name in vain on their products and play pretties as long as it’s not in a curse word?
Is there nothing sacred anymore?
Where’s the awe, reverence, fear and trembling of our faith for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords – in the bottom of a LifeWay bag with a receipt?
How can we expect the unredeemed to take Jesus seriously, if we don’t?
