Guest Writer, Grant Castelberry – Executive Director of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Note: KC reported on the SBC’s seventh year of decline. We invited a special Southern Baptist Leader to talk about the decline and what the Southern Baptist can do about it.
Later this month, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) will convene facing a downward trend in baptisms and attendance for the seventh year in a row. I have never been one to put much stock in numbers, but that does not mean that they are unimportant. They do reflect trends and direction, and our baptism and attendance numbers definitely show that the SBC is shrinking.
I am not exactly sure why we are facing a downward shift, but I have some ideas. I think that it probably has a lot to do with the overall secular movement of our country. A recent Pew Research study showed that 20% of our country now considers themselves completely unaffiliated to any organized religion. This shows that the influence of the established church in America is fading away, and with it, the church’s ability to impact the wider culture. So in many ways, the SBC’s decline is indicative of the massive cultural shift that is currently taking place. I have noticed this personally, especially in my conversations and efforts to share my faith. There is a growing apathy towards Christianity and even animosity towards the Christian moral ethic. A young law school student I was sitting next to on a plane recently was flabbergasted that I believed that homosexuality was sinful and that Hell actually existed. She had grown up Roman Catholic and attended an all-girls Catholic high school. In the past few years, I have sometimes found myself thinking the very thing Molly Worthen voices when she says that the “center of gravity” of Christianity is shifting away from the United States.
Where Do We Go From Here?
I absolutely agree with the SBC Pastor’s Task Force’s conclusion that we must pray that the Spirit would renew and revive our country. We must pray that the Spirit will work supernaturally to bring salvation, because I honestly believe that nothing short of revival will be able to reverse the course of conservative, orthodox Christianity in our country. I also agree with Trevin Wax that Christian millennials (my generation) need to own this and redouble our efforts to evangelize the lost and engage the culture with an apologetic that answers the questions of the secular mind. So here are some brief thoughts on how my generation, the millennial generation, can engage the secular culture with the gospel.
Some Thoughts On How Millennials Can Engage Our Culture
1) We need to show outrageous love to our neighbors, especially our enemies (Matt 5:44)
Over the past few years, my father-in-law, Dr. Carl Broggi, and I have traveled to Ukraine to train pastors at the Baptist Bible College in Vinnitsa, Ukraine. I recently heard from my father-in-law, who just got back this week from another trip that the Bible College is now housing and feeding over 200 Tartars that have fled to Ukraine from Crimea seeking safety from the Russians. Since the Tartars are all Muslim, this act of love and kindness is making waves throughout the Muslim world. One of the Tartars recently remarked to a Christian Ukrainian that if the shoe were on the other foot, that Muslims would not show hospitality to Christians. The Christian responded, “You see, that’s the difference between Christianity and Islam. We love our enemies because we are filled with the love of Christ.” This love has stunned these Tartar Muslims and other Muslims throughout the world, and it will continue to stun the secular mind, which knows nothing of sacrificial love.
Evangelicals have historically been good at loving the poor and the needy, the widow and the orphan, but I think we can do better at loving our enemies. By loving our enemies with the love of Christ, the secular world will see and experience the love of our Lord Jesus. They will have to consider our message because of the super-natural love with which we love those who persecute us.
2) We must be ready to “reason” with the secular mind (Acts 17:16)
Luke writes in Acts 17:16 that when Paul entered Athens he “was reasoning in the the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.” Those conversations with the Jews in the synagogue and the gentiles in the market place were incredibly different. With Jews, Paul had to show them how Christ is the long awaited Messiah and King that had come to suffer and die for them to establish His kingdom (Acts 17:1-3). However, with Gentiles, Paul explains that they have missed the God who crafted the world “and all things in it” (Acts 17:24). And this God will one day judge the world through His Son, who has overcome death through the resurrection (Acts 17:31).
So what is the starting point with secularists? That’s a tough question, and I’m honestly still trying to figure out the answer. I think, as Rosaria Butterfield points out in her book, Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, we often have to begin at ground zero, because most secularists do not even have a basic framework from which they can understand the gospel. And as Butterfield points out, they often will not even listen if there is not a previously established relationship. It will be largely through relationships that we are able to explain the simple truths of the gospel, but it will often take time to explain concepts like sin, spiritual death, judgment, righteousness, and propitiation.
Ultimately, to establish the truths of the gospel, we must be able to explain why we believe the Bible to be objectively true and why it trumps other truth claims. This can be incredibly difficult to establish with the post-modern secularist, who rejects objective truth, but I have found that there are some incredibly helpful resources out there that we can turn to for help during these conversations (See Covenantal Apologetics by K. Scott Oliphint, Can You Believe It’s True?: Christian Apologetics in a Modern and Postmodern Era by John Feinberg, The Question of Canon by Michael Kruger, Who Chose the Gospels by C.E. Hill, Jesus and the Eye Witnesses by Richard Bauckham, Defending Your Faith by R.C. Sproul).
3) We must continue to trust the power of the Word of God (Rom 10:17)
As Paul explained to the Romans, faith comes from hearing the Word of God. By this he meant that when the Word of God is read and faithfully explained, taught, and preached, the Holy Spirit can impart power through the Word and invade the dark and unbelieving mind of the lost soul (2 Cor 4:6). This is a powerful tool, and is the only offensive weapon we are given so that we can stand firm in the faith (Eph 6:17).
In an interview with Albert Mohler a few years ago, John Stott said:
Nevertheless, when a man of God stands before the people of God with the Word of God in his hand and the Spirit of God in his heart, you have a unique opportunity for communication. I fully agree with Martyn Lloyd-Jones that the decadent periods in the history of the church have always been those periods marked by preaching in decline. That is a negative statement. The positive counterpart is that churches grow to maturity when the Word of God is faithfully and sensitively expounded to them. If it is true that a human being cannot live by bread only, but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God, then it also is true of churches. Churches live, grow, and thrive in response to the Word of God. I have seen congregations come alive by the faithful and systematic unfolding of the Word of God.
I absolutely agree with Stott’s assessment. When the Word of God is faithfully exposited and proclaimed, there is always opportunity for spiritual growth and reformation.
4) We need to continue to plant churches in the uncharged cities of our country (Matt 28:19-20)
This is something that I think the SBC is doing incredibly well at and is a sign for encouragement. Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend a North American Mission Board (NAMB) church plant in Boston called Redemption Hill Church. I was impressed not only by the clear gospel message preached by Tanner Turley, but also the large turnout. This is secular Boston and even though just a few miles from Harvard, there were over 200 people in attendance for worship and there was an excitement and an anticipation to hear the Word of God and to go out and serve the community and engage the lost with the gospel. I left encouraged and excited by what God is doing through this gospel believing community of Christians.
I also think Redemption Hill is similar to many other NAMB church plants that are popping up in cities all over America as part of the Send: North America movement. Many of the best and brightest millennial evangelicals in America are choosing to be a part of this movement and are volunteering to take their families back into the secular cities of our nation. One number that I have not seen discussed in recent news articles is that at NAMB’s annual conference last year, Send 2013, there were over 4,000 in attendance. I think that number points to the traction and momentum that NAMB has right now, especially with the millennial generation.
But we cannot let down our guard just because we’ve had success. We must continue to go to the hard, secular cities. We must be ready to send our best and brightest into the toughest of environments for the sake of the gospel.
5) We must continue to be faithful to our confessional convictions (Jude 3)
Ultimately, we will not be judged by a lack of converts if we were faithful to preserve the orthodox teaching of Christianity as handed down by the apostles and to share our faith with the lost. In this area, I have also been encouraged by SBC leaders and the direction that they are leading the convention. Russell Moore, President of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, has done an excellent job in speaking to the wider culture about the beliefs of the Christian faith as a voice for not only the SBC, but also for evangelicalism in general. I think Ronnie Floyd will likely be elected as the next President of the SBC, and he is a strong conservative and inerrantist that has been one of the key leaders of the Great Commission Resurgence within the SBC. Also, just yesterday, Albert Mohler released a statement calling Southern Baptists to draw a line in the sand on the issue of homosexuality at the upcoming SBC convention. Moreover, it was just announced that Denny Burk and Andrew Walker will present a resolution at the SBC annual convention that preserves the biblical teaching on gender in the wake of the looming Transgender controversy. I think these are signs of health and vitality within our denomination. Many will protest that this could cause our numbers to decrease even more as people jump ship with our culture on the social issues. But they do not understand that “bigger,” at the expense of biblical compromise, is not better.
The Marine Corps is a relatively small service branch. When I was on active duty, we were about 180,000 strong. But every year, the Marine Corps is seen by Americans as the most prestigious service branch. This is because Marines operate with an ethos of the highest moral character and physical standards. It has the hardest entrance requirements of all the service branches. As a Series Commander at Parris Island, one of my job requirements was to insure that only the highest quality recruits graduated from Boot Camp. Every cycle I would normally send anywhere from twenty to fifty recruits home. This was not seen as a loss, but actually as a gain, because by graduation, we only wanted the recruits that had whole-heartedly bought into our ethos and core convictions. So by sending those home that we not buying into our ethos and core convictions, we were actually ensuring a stronger, more combat effective Marine Corps. I think the same will be true in the SBC. As those that compromise on our confessional convictions leave or are shown the door, we will actually be a stronger, sleeker, more effective force in our mission to share the gospel with every tribe, tongue, nation, and people on this planet.
So as millennials, we must be ready to pick up this mantle of defending the faith that has been delivered to us. Many of my peers are already leading in this area and it is encouraging to see.
So in conclusion, despite the negative number trends, I’m optimistic about what God is doing in our country, especially through the SBC. I’m optimistic because I think we have a core base of faithful Christians that are prepared for the challenges that are ahead because they are relying on the Word of God and seeking God in prayer. Finally, I’m optimistic because Christ said that He would build His church and Hades will not stop it, and I still think the SBC has a valuable part to play in this mission (Matt 16:18).
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Grant Castleberry is Executive Director of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. He is also an M.Div student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a member of Kenwood Baptist Church. He and his wife live in Louisville, Kentucky with their two daughters.<>
