Dr. Chuck Kelley has more nerve than I. A lot more.
On March 3 of this year, the president of our New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary gave his analysis of the Southern Baptist Convention–our family of churches–concerning the 89 percent of our churches that have either stopped growing or are in decline. He made this statement:
“We are the new Methodists.”
What he meant, he went on to say, is that this major denomination–the United Methodists–once set the pace for the Christian church in America, both in reaching large numbers for Christ, and teaching the rest of us how to evangelize. “What Baptists know about evangelistic harvesting,” Dr. Kelley said, “we learned from Methodists.”
Gradually that great denomination lost its zeal and is now in serious free-fall, declining in numbers of members at the fastest pace in the history of the American church.
Southern Baptists are following in their footsteps, Chuck pointed out.
President Kelley’s statement and his analysis have been reported and quoted far and wide by news services and countless blogs like this one.
No one has reported (to my knowledge) how the Methodists took that. It’s no fun being pointed out to the other children as the wrong kind of example.
That’s why I say he has nerve.
He’s right, of course.
I first joined a Southern Baptist church as a college sophomore. West End Baptist Church on Tuscaloosa Avenue in the Western section of Birmingham reached out to me, welcomed me in, and made me part of their incredible fellowship. I knew my soul was at home. Three years later, they ordained me into the ministry. I’m their child, their spiritual son.
The first 19 years of my life, however, were spent in a Free Will Baptist church in rural Alabama and a Methodist church in a West Virginia coal mining town. I’m eternally indebted to both; they were wonderful churches and did a hundred things right.
When I was seven, our family moved from our Alabama roots and planted our lives on a mountaintop six miles outside Beckley, WV, in a tiny camp called Affinity. The only church serving those hundred families was Methodist. (The merger that brought the “United” to this denomination’s name was still in the future.) I loved that church and joined it when I was 8. Not that I knew what I was doing, but it was a safe place for a child and a wonderful environment to grow up in. My favorite hymn was number 100 in the Methodist hymnal: “I Love to Tell the Story.”
I still love that song and still love to tell the story. In a sense, I’m part of their legacy.
We remained in that church for four years when we returned to Alabama.
As a teenager, once in a while I accompanied my girlfriend to the MYF (“Methodist Youth Fellowship”) in her church, in Double Springs and later in Jasper, Alabama, and occasionally went to worship services with her.
My roommate at Berry College, George Gravitte, became a career UMC pastor. After my freshman year, I transferred to Birmingham-Southern College, a Methodist school, and graduated three years later.
All of that is to say I have traces of Methodism in me and with it a deep appreciation for the UMC.
Over the years I have grieved at some of the changes in that denomination. I’ve read a few of the books analyzing the decline of the UMC and noticed little things myself.
For twelve years, I served the First Baptist Church of Columbus, Mississippi, located two blocks from the First United Methodist Church. During my dozen years, the UMC had at least three or four pastors. We flourished; they languished. (I happily report that under Pastor Sam Morris, who has served that church for perhaps a dozen years now, the First UMC of Columbus is thriving.)
One day, I was in the foyer of that church and noticed a poster promoting evangelism. That struck me as something I’d not seen the Methodist church doing, so I read the entire thing.
To increase the number of members in our churches, the poster announced, Methodists should tell their neighbors about John Wesley.
That’s what they called evangelism.
I went away shaking my head. “Not John Wesley. Tell them of Jesus.”
I recall a sermon in the First United Methodist Church of Jasper on a Sunday night in the late 1950s. Granted, these days the number of churches even having Sunday night services has almost dropped off the scale, so let’s give them credit. But I was struck by the pastor’s sermon, comparing our lives with the various parts of a car: we need an engine, we must use the brakes, it must be steered right, that sort of thing.
Even as a teenager, I felt he was insulting his audience. No one came to church for such juvenile lessons. Why didn’t he open the Scriptures and teach what they say?
I’ve mentioned on this blog a sermon I once heard my friend Wallace Roberts preach on the radio. This United Methodist pastor and I were neighboring pastors in both Greenville and Columbus, Mississippi. Wallace was an excellent pulpiteer and in time became the voice of a statewide radio program for his denomination. It was popular and he was effective.
On one occasion, he was issuing a strong invitation for people to turn their lives around. “If you are lost,” he said, “if you are empty and miserable inside, burdened with guilt and hungry for a better way, you need a new relationship with….”
Yes? Go ahead, my brother. Preach it.
“You need a new relationship with the church.”
I hollered at the car radio, “No, Wallace. A new relationship with Christ! They need to know Jesus!”
Wallace knew that as well as I did. He was a dear brother and he has long been in Heaven. I’ve often wondered what kind of influences would cause him to change his preaching of the gospel to the point of telling people the answer to their problems is the church.
Sometimes the problem is the church.
Jesus is the answer. He is the Subject we preach. He is the One we urge friends to turn to. No greater confession of faith was ever spoken than “Jesus is Lord.”
Chuck Kelley says the decline in the Methodist denomination is the result of two major factors: their efforts in evangelism diminished and their passion for holy living (cf. John Wesley) was replaced by an accommodation with the present culture.
And now our Southern Baptist Convention seems to be taking that same path.
Pray for your church, no matter what the label on the outside sign. The pressures to adapt and compromise are everywhere and subtle.
If your church is getting the job done right, rejoice, give thanks to God, and let the pastor know you know.
If yours is one of those 89 percent in decline, get concerned and call your people to serious prayer.
By the way, nothing in Dr. Kelley’s remarks and nothing in this blog diminishes our appreciation for every United Methodist Church that is serving Christ well and teaching His word. If you belong to such a church, be grateful and be faithful.
I forget where I was one time–it was a UMC congregation and I was there only momentarily–but I recall seeing posted in the foyer a list of all the committees in that church. If they had forty or fifty members, they seemed to have that many committees. Every member was serving on three or four committees.
I remember hearing Dr. David Seamands of Kentucky say: “We Methodists think the Kingdom of God cometh by committee.”
Southern Baptists are the new Methodists: in danger of being committeed to death!
PREACH ON! BROTHER, PREACH ON!
Joe,
As a Faculty member at NOBTS (Professor of Leadership and Pastoral Ministry), I was present in Chapel the day Dr. Kelley deliverd his “The New Methodist” address. As you indicated, he was right on in several areas, but the one that resonated most with me was his conclusion that the reason Southern Baptists have become less evangelistic can be traced to our becoming less “disciplistic.” He coined the term that day by making the case and tracing the timeline of Southern Baptists de-emphasizing Discipleship Training. It was through a strong Discipleship Training program that Southern Baptists emphasized personal witnessing, evangelistic impact, sharing your faith without fear, ministry evangelism, etc. As Discipleship Training declined, so has our Evangelistic impact! I think Dr. Kelley is right on target. It is entirely possible that a new emphasis and commitment to Discipleship Training will result in an Evangelistic Resurgence!
Joe: A very good analysis. However let me add a comment or two.
We are seeing our denomination being led down the path of acculturation. Fancy word for aaccpeting the ways of the culture around us rather than to seek to be the Evangelistic people that will bring people to Jesus. Ancient Israel had a hard time with that process. We use words now like assimilation or acommadation. Ex: Who would have ever thought that the SBC would be asked to study drinking personally versus drunkeness. For me there is no debate on that issue. Total Abstinence,in the church and outside the church!
Another issue that is weakening us is Calvinism. It is all around us. Many have forgotten that So. Baptist fought that battle in the early 20th. century. The church where I am a member had their round in the late 1930’s. Two of my friends have recently told me about their churches. One is or was a Pastor. The other was a person you know and is retired and member of a church. In both churches the Pastor had to leave over Calvinism. One was preaching it from the pulpit. The other had some Calvinist join the church and made it so hard on the Pastor he left the church.
Enough bad news. Let me tell you the good news. In our church today we had 34 in attendance. One on profession of faith and joined the church. I might add that it was my 9 yr. old grandson. The other was a lady in her 50’s made a profession of faith and did not join today but perhaps will do so later. Also there are two already awaiting baptism.
Joe, as a United Methodist pastor you know I gotta respond to this one.
While I don’t know the inner-workings of the Southern Baptist Church I can state with some assurance that if the United Methodist Church continues on its current path it will cease to exist within the next twenty-five to thirty years. On the verge of division (again) the UMC has lost its zeal. John Wesley when asked how he drew such large crowds stated that he was on fire for the Lord and people have to come to watch me burn.
We have replaced that “fire” with social and political correctness. Responsible for more social change in Great Britain and American than any other organization, the same Methodist Church has abandoned change in favor of the status quo.
There is a glimmer of hope. There is an organization called The Confessing Movement Within the United Methodist Church that seeks to have the church return to the teachings of John Wesley, set people on fire, and invite the world to come and watch us burn. Amen.
You “hit the nail on the head” as usual. I agree with the principle of making the message of the Gospel “culturally relevant” but we must be carefull lest we sell our birthright for a “culturally relevant bowl of lentil soup.” The danger of “enculturating the Gospel,” a phrase I first heard used by William Hull when he served as pastor of FBC, Shreveport, is that we look more like the culture and less like the Gospel. The Bible still calls us to holy, separated living: 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 is instructive along with many other passages. Regarding the Methodists: I am old enough to remember when the Methodist church closest to my growing up place (11 miles) was truly the most evangelistic and still is today in that area (Live Oak community, Watson, LA). May we catch fire like that Methodist church!
Good stuff, Joe. And I’m so thankful for Dr. Kelley. He is showing himself to be prophet in our day. What courage.
Also, I’m with Dr. Ogea. We have so focused on baptizing that we have forgotten the rest of the Great Commission. I meet long time Christians regularly who can’t find the book of John without looking in the table of contents.
As to the comment on Calvinism, however, I have to disagree. 89 percent of our churches are plateaued or declining, but only 10 percent or less of our pastors are Calvinists. It’s too easy to throw stones at some with whom we disagree. Not only that, Calvinism gave fuel to the modern missions movement: William Carey, John Paton, David Brainerd, Hudson Taylor. And some of our greatest evangelists ever were Calvinists: Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, George Mueller. Today, some of the largest churches in the country–churches that are reaching and growing people–are led by Calvinists: John Piper, John MacArthur, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll. And one of the fastest growing denominations today–the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)–was founded largely by a resurgence of Calvinist doctrine. Really, I’m not into defending Calvinists or Calvinism. I just want to see us doing evangelism and discipleship instead of blaming others and casting stones at fellow Christians. I know there are myriad stories about Calvinists destroying churches, but unless Calvinists are the only ones stirring up trouble, we need to focus on the real issues. All the trouble I’ve had in churches has come from non-Calvinists, but I don’t blame their lack of Calvinism.
All that being said, I’m with Henry Blackaby. We don’t need another program or slogan. What we need is for God’s people (myself included) to walk intimately with Jesus. When we walk with Jesus, we can’t help but speak of Him to everyone we meet. Oh, may God pour out His Spirit on His people for a true revival in our day.
You asked me to think about this and then post a comment. Here goes:
When James and I were in graduate school in Indiana back in the early 60s, we found the Baptist churches in Bloomington not to our liking; the Southern Baptist was much too fundamentalist for our liking, and the preacher wasn’t very polished. The American Baptist churches were too cold and liberal for our taste (quit going the Sunday the SS class we were attending came to the conclusion that adultery might not always be a sin, but might be an appropriate thing to do depending on circumstances). So we started church-shopping in earnest, finding none that fitted our “high-church Southern Baptist” upbringing. In the course of our shopping, though, we did discover that the United Methodist Church had the most glorious music; so that’s were we wound up. Now, in the better than 2 years we attended, not only did I never hear anybody discuss how to become a Christian — not even that anybody needed to do so!! The music fed our souls, and we sat through the sermons. As you can imagine, that didn’t leave a wonderful concept of the modern Methodist church in our hearts and minds.
When we moved to Columbus, James became the organist of the First Baptist Church. We spent many happy years there, but as we moved through the 90s, I became aware that the Southern Baptist Convention was slowly but surely moving away from me and my understanding of God and how to worship and honor Him. For a long time, the Convention’s leanings didn’t affect FBC Columbus very much. However, one day I realized that new leadership was moving FBC in a direction with which I was not happy. However, it was my church, and I was determined to ride out the storm. Not to be! You, Joe, are familiar with why we left FBC, and I don’t really want to share it with anyone but an extremely close friend, so let us just say that we did.
At that same time, the organist of many years at the First United Methodist Church was retiring, and the committee wanted James to take her place. I decided that since we had no church home at the time, I could put up with whatever doctrinal problems I had and be fed by the music, which was wonderful there, too.
Well, on the Friday before we officially became a part of FUMC, I was participating in the “Stations of the Cross” which, during several years, was sponsored by the downtown churches (FBC, FUMC, the Catholic, Presbyterian, and Episcopal churches). A scene from the Stations of the Cross was enacted at each of the churches, ending with the body being placed in the tomb in the garden of the Episcopal church. As I approached FUMC, God spoke to my heart with one word — “Home”. I was both relieved and astonished, but I have learned to listen when God talks to me, so I thanked Him for the promise. What a glorious fulfillment of the promise. I think I have found my spiritual home in this world! I’ve never been a part of a more loving and considerate/concerned of/for each other congregation — not even the one where I grew up which had the world’s best preacher/pastor and a loving congregation. (And I still think so.)
We were warmly welcomed as part of the family at FUMC, even though it was more than a year before we joined.
Yes, there are some differences in the theology, but none are so significant as to drive me away. I don’t think you’d now see an advertisement to tell about John Wesley; these days we are encouraged to evangelize and tell people about Jesus. Sam Morris is a gifted preacher, and I have learned much under his preaching/teaching.
I think my grandfather, John Wesley Colmer (you see, I have a Methodist heritage, too), is gratified to gaze over the ramparts of heaven and see his oldest grandchild joyfully involved in being a Methodist — he who married a Baptist and joined the Baptist church when his oldest child accepted Jesus as her savior and wanted to be baptized and be a member of the Baptist church. He said it was time to quit going to one church one Sunday and the other the next and settle down and have a family church. Guess there’s a family heritage of making a change when it’s needed, too.
Since I’ve referred more than once to family heritage, let me say that John Wesley Colmer met his Baptist bride in church (Methodist); my Baptist parents met at church; James and I met in the Baptist Student Union at USM; Elizabeth (our wonderful daughter) met her fabulous Mark at FBC in Columbus.