“How do you rebuild your church’s reputation in the community?” Steve, a pastor in Kentucky, emailed me after my last post. Like me, he had to adjust from church planting where the pastor builds the reputation to leading a church whose reputation is already built.

Here is what I told him:

I’ve been here for 5 years in June. Much of what you described for your church is true here. I’ve actually apologized to some people for how our church treated them. I haven’t seen the massive shift in how our community sees us that I hoped to see yet, but we are trying to do consistent, faithful basics along with creative, generous ideas where we can. 

We try to reach everybody in our very small, rural town, but  we do a lot for kids and families because that reaches grandparents too. Also, younger people and new people to the community don’t have the memories of what our church might have done.

You should know that our town is super rural (300 people in a county without a stop light–but we reach into the towns around us). And I believe in faithful, biblical worship without anything fancy. We just try to do congregational singing, solid preaching, and loving one another. 

The main thing that I do to help our church reach our town is to live here, be present, and stay. People expected a 36 year old pastor to leave quickly. 5 years later, I’m still here. 

Being present and visible is also a big plus. I try to see the families at the bus stop. My family and I keep a garden that is a ½ mile walk across town. I try to walk or ride my bike to be visible in the community.

The best things we’ve done to try to reach our community are done consistently:

• Give away popsicles at the bus stop across from the church.
• Host a community BBQ competition at the town park across from our church.
• Set up a synchronized Christmas light display.
• Host the town Easter Egg Hunt (this year we did a story walk in the park across the street for the two weeks leading up to it). Doing this every year means that families count on us. The same goes for Trunk or Treat.
• Host the town trunk or treat (we host it but everyone is invited to decorate and join us).
• Host a lunch called Free Lunch Monday three times a year for the local high school students where we give away books.
• Go door-to-door with a Daylight Savings Time gift and invite.

I wish I could say that we’re seeing revival, but we’re not. But the other day, a teenager in the park asked when we were doing Free Lunch Monday again because she said, “we always like it when you do.” We are building relationships, giving away books and resources that share the gospel, inviting people to our church, and being present so that kids and teenagers talk to us.

Most Baptist historians mark the beginning of the Conservative Resurgence in 1979. In that year, the messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting elected conservative pastor Adrian Rogers as president of the SBC. His election came about through careful planning by Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson. In the years leading up to 1979, they developed a strategy to take control of the SBC. The key element in their strategy was to elect conservatives to the presidency of the SBC for many consecutive years. They accomplished this by mobilizing conservative churches to send messengers to the annual SBC meeting. Why was electing conservative presidents important?

Pressler and Patterson understood that the way to reform the SBC was to elect conservative SBC presidents. Each year, the SBC president appoints the members of the Committee on Committees, which then chooses members of the Committee on Nominations, which in turn nominates trustees for the mission boards, seminaries, and other agencies. Almost always, the SBC messengers elect the slate of nominees presented by the Committee on Nominations. By electing conservative presidents year after year, they could gradually fill the boards of trustees with conservatives.

The conservative faction in the SBC had many concerns, but they focused much of their frustration on the Christian Life Commission (now the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission) and Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. The conservatives considered both bastions of liberalism.

If you do the math, Southern Baptists elected Adrian Rogers 47 years ago. Thus, many, perhaps most Southern Baptists, were not even alive in 1979. I’m sure lots of Southern Baptists wonder whether the Conservative Resurgence was necessary or not. In this article, I’ll explain why Southern Seminary needed change, at least in my opinion.

I studied at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, graduating with my Master of Divinity in 1975. I had graduated from a conservative Christian college, John Brown University, so I had a conservative grounding. I don’t recall hearing anything in my classes at Southwestern that concerned or alarmed me. After graduation, my wife and I went to serve as SBC missionaries in the Philippines, so I was away from the USA during the early years of the conservative resurgence. Indeed, most of what I learned about it came from state Baptist papers. Generally, those state papers viewed the resurgence as unnecessary, and I tended to agree. After all, I encountered no problems at Southwestern. I thought the problems at the other seminaries must be exaggerated.

My viewpoint changed when a fellow-missionary studied at Southern Seminary during his furlough. My colleague enrolled in the Master of Theology program at Southern. As part of that program, he took a doctoral New Testament seminar. He reported that he was the only student of ten who believed in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. The professor himself did not believe in the physical resurrection of Christ. That report stunned me, and it made me rethink my position about the conservative resurgence.

The conservative faction in the SBC could not revamp the boards of trustees quickly. Trustees serve terms of several years, and they normally serve two terms. So, it took a while for conservatives to gain a majority on the boards of trustees. This was true at Southern Seminary as well. By the early 1990s, the conservative trustees were a majority on Southern Seminary’s board. They began to press for reforms at Southern, and this brought them into open conflict with the faculty and administration. The fight became so intense that the trustees and faculty agreed to bring in a mediator to negotiate peace. The agreement that resulted from that process was called “the peace treaty.” One provision of the peace treaty was that the seminary administration would bring in conservative faculty members to “balance” the faculty. That’s where I entered the picture. I was one of three conservative professors hired to balance the faculty. Of course, that meant that I came to campus with a big C on my forehead, which did not endear me to the old liberal faculty.

What was my experience at Southern? I arrived on campus in July 1993. Dr. Al Mohler, the new conservative president, arrived that same month. The trustees gave him a mandate to reform the seminary, while the old liberal faculty remained determined to resist change. You might think of this as the irresistible force hitting the immovable object.

Let me share some anecdotes to help you understand. The first class I taught at Southern was theology of evangelism. The first day in class, I went over the syllabus with my students. On the second day, I started the class with prayer, and then I said, “Open your Bibles to Genesis chapter three.” Half of the class laughed out loud. I was shocked. I gathered my wits and stated, “In this class, we’ll work to construct a biblical theology of evangelism, so you’ll need to bring your Bible every day.” In that class, the conservative students sat on one side of the room, and the liberal students sat on the other. I thought that was very strange.

Faculty meetings were tense, and at times, faculty members expressed hostility towards the president. Normally, faculty meetings last from 60 to 90 minutes. In the first three years of Al Mohler’s administration, our faculty meetings lasted three or four hours. One day, I walked down the hall and came upon a circle of professors. I asked, “What’s going on?” One answered, “We’re discussing making a ‘no confidence’ motion against the president in the faculty meeting this afternoon.” Well, I knew that motion would pass. I responded, “Oh, don’t do that. The trustees will come to town and fire everyone. Then, they’ll just hire back those they want.” They did not make the motion that afternoon.

I learned more about Southern at a Christmas party for the faculty of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism. The faculty members who studied at Southern in the 1980s shared experiences from their student days. One reported that he kept a running count of the curse words one professor uttered in class. He stopped counting at 152. (When I was a student at Southwestern, a professor was fired for saying “damn” in class.) He also shared that a different professor beat his Bible on the lectern and shouted, “This is not the Word of God; this is not the Word of God!” Many of the faculty were universalists (believe that all persons will be saved). They thought my belief in exclusivism (the belief that Jesus is the only way to salvation) was quaint and naïve. Further, one of the ethics professors often spoke at abortion rights rallies and made pro-abortion statements on local television.

For their part, the students also expressed opposition to Dr. Mohler’s changes. For the first three years, we witnessed protests at the graduations, and many students refused to shake the president’s hand when they received their diplomas. Students even staged a sit-in in the hallway outside the president’s office. He ordered pizza to be delivered to them, and they ate it. The situation on campus continued to be tense for three years. It seemed like everyone but me was angry about something. Eventually, the situation improved. A student generation lasts for three years. The malcontents left or graduated. Also, in the third year, the board of trustees offered the faculty an early retirement deal. Many of the old faculty accepted the offer, so the seminary faculty changed considerably in a few months. The atmosphere on campus changed like someone had flipped a switch.

I attended a meeting away from campus, and my friend asked, “How are things at Southern?” I replied, “The people who were happy before are unhappy now, and the people who were unhappy before are happy now.” Really, that is still true. Many Southern Baptists are happy with the reforms at Southern Seminary, but others lament the changes wrought by Al Mohler and the trustees. As for me, I believe the reforms were absolutely necessary. It was not right to ask Southern Baptists to support the seminary as it was before 1993.

As we head into the home stretch leading up to the SBC Annual Meeting, we are once again hearing familiar voices espousing familiar positions that have had familiar results. Baptist Press is once again reporting that one of our entity heads (who seems to have a lot of time on their hands to be running the flagship seminary) is once again bringing the issue of women’s roles in the church to the front and center of a meeting which is supposed to be about missions.

The claim states there is still confusion over the role of women. Is there? After expelling some of our most influential churches over this issue, one must ask, is there any confusion over where we stand? The claim is that churches are changing women’s titles to other things, like  to “shepherd of…” This entity head asserts that doing so is still “unbiblical.” Is it too far of a stretch to ask that what he really means is using the title: “minister?” “Minister” is a term that is derived from the word “servant,” or our English term: “deacon.” Not pastor, not overseer, not elder, not bishop.

In the millions and millions of SBC minutes spent over this issue, is the end goal to restrict even further what 45,000 autonomous congregations can and cannot do with the people who are called to serve?

In the four consecutive years this question has been brought up, Southern Baptists have time and again said that the Baptist Faith and Message is sufficient. That is not “confusion.” Yet some entity heads are clearly unhappy with the results. So again, much like efforts to defund the oft-derided ERLC, this issue is being brought to the messengers, sporting a bowtie and all.

What is not confusing is that certain entity heads are using a playbook more at home in Washington DC than in SBC life: flood the zone, make the people exhausted, win. What is not in need of clarity is this: we pay our entities millions of Cooperative Program dollars for the leaders of those entities to draw attention and notoriety to themselves. We pay millions of CP dollars for missions, only to get told there’s “confusion” on an issue to which we’ve clearly spoken.

The only people who are confused on this issue are the ones who believe that the convention exists to be their sandbox. The rest of us are clear of why the SBC exists: we are about missions. To help clear up any confusion, I propose the following action steps as we go to Orlando: Let’s pass the budget, send the missionaries, and return to our mission field. It’s as simple as that.

Matt Johnson is a life-long Southern Baptist. He has served churches in California, Nevada, and is currently pastoring in Oklahoma.

Fifty-four years ago, I sat in Dr. David Garland’s Old Testament Introduction class at Southwestern Seminary. When we came to Genesis 1:28—“be fruitful and multiply,” Dr. Garland declared this was the only biblical commandment that people had consistently obeyed. Well, he spoke the truth fifty years ago, but today birth rates are plunging in all the developed countries. In recent days several articles have appeared on the internet explaining how the low fertility rate in the USA will affect our future as a nation. It seems appropriate to consider the effects on the Southern Baptist Convention and its churches.

The “fertility rate” reflects the number of births per adult female in their lifetime. Population stability (status quo) requires a fertility rate of 2.1 births. I realize that a mother cannot give birth to a .1 child. We’re considering large populations here that demand sweeping statistics. The 2.1 figure comes from the necessity to replace the father and mother, with .1 to allow for premature deaths, epidemics, and calamities. The fertility rate in the USA began to drop in 2007, and it has trended down since then. In 2025, the fertility rate in the United States was 1.57. Other nations have also experienced declines, as you can see:

Russia—1.5
Singapore—1.1
Japan—1.2
South Korea–.8

I saw an article on the internet with the title: “East Asian Nations Face Demographic Crisis.”

What makes low fertility rates a critical issue?

Economic Problems

Declining birth rates mean there are fewer workers to fill the jobs necessary for economic growth or even stability.

Social Welfare Problems

Fewer workers in the economy means there are fewer workers paying into the Social Security System. In the 1950s, there were about six workers for each Social Security recipient. That ratio provided for a stable system financially. Today, in the USA, there are 2.3 workers per recipient. Because of this, the funds in the Social Security Trust Fund are being rapidly depleted. In fact, the trustees of the system estimate that without changes to the financing, benefits paid to the Social Security recipients must be reduced by 19-24 percent in 2033. Lots of SS recipients barely survive now. What will happen to them if their benefits are cut by 20 percent?

Education Problems

Fewer children are being born, and that means the number of school-age children will also decline. My grandson is a student in the Keller Independent School District on the north side of Fort Worth, Texas. Next year, the Keller District will close one elementary school and three intermediate schools. His elementary school is operating at 74 percent capacity. Other school districts in our area are closing schools as well. Why? Fewer students.

The population decline will also affect higher education—colleges and universities. A recent article on Google News—”More Than a Quarter of Private Colleges Are at Risk of Closing”—explains the problems facing America’s colleges. The writer, Jon Marcus, quotes a study from the Huron Consulting Group. The study mentions 129 colleges at high risk for closing and predicts that 442 of the 1,700 private colleges in the USA will close in the next ten years. Why so? There are 2.3 million fewer students than in 2010. Beyond that, the government has made it harder for international students to study in the USA, so their numbers are down. Further, the high cost of college has discouraged students from enrolling. More and more young men are choosing to enroll in technical schools and apprenticeship programs rather than go to college for four years. For example, our great-nephew became an apprentice plumber after graduating from high school. Within four years, he was earning more than $100,000 per year. He had no student loan debt to pay. The percentage of high school graduates going on to college dropped from 70 percent in 2016 to 61 percent in 2023.  Even big universities are downsizing. I live about 30 miles from the University of North Texas (enrollment 47,000). The university just cut 45 major and minor fields. Of course, other universities are doing the same. Why? They cannot justify continuing low-enrollment programs. Colleges are also facing the “demographic cliff.” This phrase refers to the decrease in the number of 18-year-old youths. The number of teenagers is decreasing along with the general population. Soon, colleges will be competing to enroll new students from a shrinking pool of eligible kids.

Church Problems

What are the implications for churches and for the SBC? For sure, we’ll see children’s Sunday School enrollment decline, as well as other children’s programs. Our children’s enrollment and youth enrollment will decrease along with the general population. Another result will be a further decline in the SBC’s membership. Most of our churches are predominantly white (Caucasian), and the white birthrate is even lower than the general birthrate. Southern Baptist colleges will struggle with the demographic cliff. Those with big financial endowments will survive; those that receive most of their money from tuition and government student-loan payments will eventually fail. Of course, our seminaries will struggle to maintain their enrollments as the number of young adults diminishes. Do you see other issues on the horizon?

On Easter Sunday, I thought back to my years as a pastor. I can guarantee that every pastor has thought/wished this: “Maybe they’ll all come back next Sunday.” Of course, the attendance the next Sunday reverts to the usual level. Still, a pastor can dream.

I was sad to learn Steve Gaines passed away on March 20^th. He was formerly president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of the famous Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis. I first met Steve at Southwestern Baptist Seminary when we were students in the same PhD seminar. At that time, he was pastoring in Lake Dallas, and he invited me to speak on missions in his church. Many years later, when we retired from missionary service, we joined Bellevue and enjoyed hearing him preach weekly. I always thought that he preached like an old-fashioned country preacher who had gone to seminary—fiery and erudite. I learned one thing about him after we joined Bellevue Church. He could play the guitar and sing quite well. Bellevue invited Greater Vision, the famous southern gospel trio, to perform a concert. At the end of the evening, they invited Steve to sing with them. He sang the bass part, and it sounded great. He could have toured with them. I recall a funny thing that happened one Sunday morning. His youngest daughter, Bethany, regularly sang with the praise team in the contemporary service. One Sunday, they sang just before the sermon, and Steve walked onto the stage as the singers stepped away. He stopped Bethany and kissed her on the cheek. Steve’s wife, Donna, always sat on the front row. She spoke up, and when he began his sermon, Steve said, “By the way, the woman I kissed is my youngest daughter, Bethany.” Of course, the congregation laughed, and I’m sure his television audience was reassured. Steve Gaines was a faithful preacher of the gospel. Rest in peace.

In my opinion as a missions professor and author of books on the history of missions, Dr. Rebecca Naylor is the “Lottie Moon” of the 20^th century for Southern Baptists. She served with the FMB/IMB as surgeon and administrator at Bangalore Baptist Hospital in India for more than 35 years. During her years of leadership, the hospital doubled in size and evangelized well in the area. My main claim to fame is that I had a class with Rebecca at Southwestern Seminary. When I was in the MDiv program at Southwestern, a rumor spread across campus that the president’s daughter had enrolled as a student. In those years, Robert Naylor was the president, and the rumor proved true. Rebecca had completed medical school at Vanderbilt and her surgical residency. Nevertheless, in order to serve as a medical missionary for the Foreign Mission Board, she had to complete 30 semester hours of seminary courses. She did that at Southwestern Seminary. Now, in those days, Southwestern had been inundated with students because of the Jesus Movement. Every place on campus was crowded: hallways, classrooms, restrooms, and the Student Center. The hallways were so crowded that it was hard to walk to your next class. That was not true for Rebecca. When she walked down the hall, the students parted and pressed against the walls. She passed freely down the hall, like the Israelites through the Red Sea. I’m happy to tell you that in her “retirement,” she teaches missions at Southwestern as its Distinguished Professor of Missions. She also serves as a consultant on Human Needs Ministry for the International Mission Board. I hope the IMB will commission someone to write her biography.

Every year, I enjoy watching March Madness, the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Of course, this year Michigan defeated UConn in the final. I doubt many Southern Baptists had a dog in that fight. I thought Florida, from my beloved Southeastern Conference, would make the final four, but Iowa knocked them out. Still, their first-round game against Prairie View A & M caught my attention. Now, this was a mismatch between Florida, a number one seed, and Prairie View, a sixteen seed. I watched Florida run out to a 40-point lead in the first half. Late in the first half, the CBS sideline reporter interviewed Byron Smith, the Prairie View coach. The reporter asked him, “What can you do to slow down Florida’s offense?” He replied, “We need some help from the Lord.” His answer went viral, but God did not answer his prayer.

I saw this on the internet the other day. In 2025, 19.1 million Bibles were sold in the USA. That represents a 12 percent increase over 2024. I’m wondering what conclusion to draw from that fact. What do you think?

“The churches are emptying, and the pastors have no idea what to do about it,” my friend told me. This was 20 years ago. I had asked my friend from the deep South what things were like. I spent my high school years in Georgia and had moved to the other parts of the South for college and seminary. I was curious what was happening in the churches. She was the first person that mentioned to me that there was a problem.

Dr. Terry started a discussion a few weeks ago about churches closing. Churches declining and closing is not a new problem. I’ve been thinking about four more possible reasons that I don’t hear anyone talk about.

Bad theology

As I understand the conservative resurgence, there were major movements of churches, pastors and professors that were compromising on major doctrine. Even though the conservative resurgence was successful, that doesn’t mean everyone agreed with it. Why would we be surprised that churches that compromised on core doctrine would eventually decline and close?

Loss of Spirituality 

I don’t think there’s any shame in the church with solid doctrine closing its doors if while they closed their doors they prayed, fasted, loved the Lord, and loved their neighbors. A church that has spiritual fervor but closes its doors is not a tragedy, but how many of our churches have that passion? Dr. Terry did mention spiritual stagnation as one of his reasons for the death of SBC churches.

I’m a little concerned that we’ve heard a lot of talk over the last 15 to 20 years about decline, and very little call to pray and seek the Lord. 2014 was the last time I can remember a major Southern Baptist leader calling for fasting. It’s hard for me to take seriously people concerned about the decline of churches, but there is no call, equipping, or movement to pray and fast for holiness, evangelism, and for the Lord to move among us. When was the last time we were known as a denomination or churches that cried when we thought about the lost people living around us? Have you ever heard of an all-night prayer meeting in the SBC? How about just an evening?

Our Leadership Priorities

If we just go off of what our leaders have admitted to, we’ve had many leaders over the last 20 years admitting to moral failure and deceit. 

I am a Southern Baptist by choice multiple times. I love Southern Baptists, and there are good and godly men and women in this denomination. I think we should be honest, though, about how we prioritize outward success and impressiveness over spirituality and godliness. Someone admitted to me that he got invitations that had never been offered to him at his previous church. The only thing about him that changed was the size of the church he pastored. It’s not just at the denominational level. Our churches often prioritize things that are not spirituality and godliness. 

The Reputation of our Churches

I pastor an established church now. I was a church planter before. One of the things I’ve discovered pastoring a 200-year-old church is that things that happened 30, 40, 50 or 60 years ago still affect the way people in our community think about our church. 

There are things that have been done by SBC churches that we as individuals had nothing to do with, but the communities around us don’t see it that way. They think of what our church used to be and how our church may have treated them. Sometimes one of the greatest challenges that a church has to deal with is the reputation that it has in the community, and that cannot be easily fixed. A new pastor will carry the weight of things that happened under pastors many years before.

Dr. Terry gave ten reasons, and I’ve added four more. Are there any of these that you and I can be the answer to? 

I suppose my Voices readers think of me as a writer or a semi-retired seminary professor. I think of myself as a retired (emeritus) missionary. After all, Barbara and I served with the FMB/IMB for twenty-five years in Southeast Asia. The Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) appointed us in April 1975, and we went to Missionary Orientation in the fall. We arrived in Davao City, Philippines, in April 1976. Today, Davao is a large, bustling city, the largest city on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, but in those days, it was a sleepy, provincial town. A current missionary or resident might say that things are different now, and I’m sure that’s true. The following, though, are my memories from 49 years ago.

I recall our first Easter in the Philippines. A church in the barrio (village) invited me to preach on Palm Sunday. When we arrived in the village, we saw Catholics walking to their chapel, carrying palm branches. When I asked about that, the pastor told me that the priest would bless the palm fronds. After the service, the parishioners would tack one leaf to their doorposts to ward off bad luck and evil spirits through the coming year. Our Baptist churches did not do this, but I found it interesting.

Holy Week (Easter Week) in the Philippines was a big deal. You could not do business or get anything from a government office from Wednesday until Monday after Easter. In those days, my grandson calls them “the olden days.” 90 percent of the people were Catholic. For them, Good Friday was the big day, and Easter Sunday was like an afterthought. They certainly believed in the resurrection, but they emphasized the suffering of Christ. Our Baptist churches all held Good Friday services, and most featured devotions on the Seven Last Words of Christ from the cross. Our pastor assigned me a word to speak on, so on Good Friday, we drove into Davao City for the service. To reach the town, we had to drive down the main north/south highway on the island of Mindanao. It was always busy, crowded with cars, trucks, jeepneys, buses, and pedicabs (motorcycle taxis). To our amazement, when we turned onto the highway, it was deserted. My vehicle was the only one on the road. It was spooky! When we arrived at the church, I asked our pastor about the empty streets. He answered, “Oh, the Catholics are afraid to travel on Good Friday. They believe the Lord is dead on this day and unable to protect them.”

Several years later, we decided to spend a week of vacation at the Wycliffe Bible Translators compound, near Malaybalay, Bukidnon, also on the island of Mindanao. There were several guest cottages on the compound, and we rented one for the week. Because our trip coincided with Easter, we decided to take Easter eggs and let our children (aged five and two) experience an Easter egg hunt. I sneaked away and hid the eggs in the garden around the cottage. We were just about ready to take the kids outside when someone tapped on our door. When I opened the door, the security guard stood there with a bag in his hand. He smiled and said, “Sir, I found all the eggs that you lost.” I thanked him and took the bag. When I was sure that he was gone, I re-hid the eggs, and our children enjoyed finding them.

At that time, the Wycliffe Center served a number of Bible translators. Typically, they spent six weeks out in the village with their tribe, and they would return to the center for two weeks to rest, refresh, and consult with a translation consultant. Their travel to and from the villages was provided by the missionary pilots of the Jungle Aviation and Radio Service (JAARS). They had to use small planes, like a Piper Cub, that could land and take off on short jungle landing strips. Someone told us there would be an Easter Sunrise Service at the compound airport, and we were glad to attend. After the service, one of the missionary pilots graciously showed his plane to my children. He let them climb into the plane and patiently answered their questions. I said to him, “You must have had some exciting experiences flying over the jungle in this little plane.” He laughed and replied, “Yes, but my most frightening flight was my flight across the Pacific.” I gasped and said, “You flew this little plane across the Pacific Ocean?” He answered, “Yes, I did, and that does wonders for your prayer life.” He went on to explain that they stripped everything possible from the plane to lighten it, and they added extra fuel tanks. To make the journey from the United States to the Philippines, he flew from island to island, refueling as he went. I had always respected the missionary pilots, but after hearing that, my respect soared. I wondered if I could have mustered enough faith to fly across the vast ocean in a single-engine plane.

When we visited the Philippines in 2007, we got to visit a church we helped to plant. While we were there, a Filipino man approached me and said, “Twenty years ago, a big Americano came to my home and told me about Jesus. You were that missionary. Thank you for telling me about Jesus.” I was able to do that because Southern Baptists sent us and supported us.

I realize, and freely admit, that the SBC has lots of problems now. Still, the SBC was established to support missions. Let’s keep our eyes on our fundamental purpose.

Recently, I posted on Voices about the number of SBC churches that die/close their doors. That research piqued my curiosity, and I decided to research why churches leave the SBC. It is important to understand that the Southern Baptist Convention consists of churches that have voluntarily joined themselves together. The SBC is often described as a voluntary association of churches. A church can decide to apply for membership in the SBC, and a member church can vote to leave (disaffiliate in the terminology of researchers).

How many churches do leave? I learned that many more churches close than leave. In 2022, Lifeway Research reported that 813 churches closed, while 17 left/disaffiliated. So, clearly, lots more churches die than leave. Still, the question remains. Why do churches leave the SBC?

The Issue of Women in Ministry

In recent years, the SBC has taken a strong stand against women serving as pastors of SBC churches. This includes a ban on calling female staff members “pastor.” This stand by the SBC has prompted two SBC megachurches to leave—Saddleback Church in California and Elevation Church in North Carolina. Surely, some other churches have made the same decision, but these two grabbed the headlines.

Local Church Autonomy

Some churches believe the SBC has increasingly infringed on local church autonomy. They see the SBC as dictating doctrine and practice to its member churches. The leadership of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas cited this as the main reason Park Cities left. Now, Park Cities Baptist Church is a big, wealthy church in Dallas. They did not join the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; rather, they made their affiliation with Texas Baptists (Baptist General Convention of Texas) primary. (For non-Texan readers, there are two Southern Baptist state conventions in Texas—the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the old moderate convention, and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, the newer conservative state convention).

Disagreement with the SBC’s Direction and Culture

Some churches have left because they disagree with the Convention’s increasing identification with the Republican Party. Others have become frustrated by the SBC’s inept response to the sexual abuse scandal.

Align with a Moderate Baptist Entity

The Conservative Resurgence in the SBC began with the election of Adrian Rogers as president of the SBC in 1979. In the years that followed, the conservative faction won one presidential election after another until the Moderates gave up the fight and left. They organized the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) in 1991. By their count, 640 SBC churches left and joined the CBF. In 2002, the CBF claimed to have 1,800 member churches. Southern Baptist critics claimed that the number was inflated because the CBF counts any church that sends money as a member church. I know this to be true. My family and I were members of Hurstbourne Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. It was an SBC church, but we had one family that gave a designated gift to the CBF each month. The church office dutifully processed the gift, and we were counted as a CBF church, though we were not. I might add that some churches are dually aligned with both the SBC and the CBF.

Financial Concerns

In recent years, many Southern Baptists have expressed concern about the lack of financial transparency in the SBC. Beyond that, other churches have grown frustrated with what they view as denominational bureaucracy. In other words, they are frustrated with the way that state conventions retain a large percentage of money that is given to the Cooperative Program.

Internal Identity Shifts

Years ago, I learned of an SBC church that called a pastor who had been an independent Baptist. He believed the SBC was liberal theologically, and he did not agree with our system of financial support for missions. Over a period of several years, he persuaded that church to withdraw from the SBC and become an independent Baptist church.

Disfellowshipped by the SBC

Some churches have left the SBC because they were disfellowshipped (expelled) by the Convention. Several years ago, the SBC disfellowshipped a church in Georgia for racism. The SBC has also disfellowshipped churches for tolerating a sexual abuser as their pastor or staff member.

Of course, there are many individual Southern Baptists who have left the SBC to join a church of a different denomination or an independent church. I know we have several regular Voices commenters who are former Southern Baptists.

Perhaps you can think of a reason that I did not mention. I look forward to hearing from you.

Artificial Intelligence press, hype, and doom is everywhere. I can’t look at the news without hearing about AI. I’ve written elsewhere about what I can do as a pastor that AI can’t do. Today, I wanted to argue why I think SBC Voices matters in the age of AI.

First, In an age of general thoughts and predictions, SBC Voices matters because the posts here are the particular thoughts of specific people. AI can only do general or predictive work. We live in specific places, though. We pastor specific churches, not the idealized or general. 

Early fighter jets were made for the average pilot, but that made them really unsafe because no actual pilot was average. No one person had average legs, arms, torso, height, and weight at the same time. The cockpits didn’t fit anyone. In the same way, no church is actually average. No leadership situation or decision can be averaged out and predicted. SBC Voices is a place where the particular still exists.

Second, this site matters because we can share actual stories of real life and ministry. 

There aren’t a lot of stories in SBC life anymore. State convention newspapers and entity communications departments don’t have the support or budgets anymore. This is the one place besides personal blogs where real stories can be shared. Many of us who write here are pastors, ministry leaders, or retired from those positions. This is a place for our stories.

I would love to see someone write about the absurd, heart-wrenching, joyous work that we do in the style of James Herriott. I keep a list of the ups and downs and crazy in-between stories. A layperson would be surprised at the number of times that animal hijinks happen in the life of a rural pastor.

We can also tell the beautiful real life stories of what God is doing. Just this week, a little boy in our church repented of sin and trusted Christ. He told the church about his decision and desire to be baptized. I heard him tell others later, “I repented of my sin and asked Jesus to save me. And he did!”

AI doesn’t have stories like that.

Third, SBC Voices matters because AI can’t share wisdom, but SBC Voices can. AI can learn from what others say, but it can’t learn from sitting at the bedside of a dying saint. It can’t learn to persevere and wait on a prodigal child to come home. It can’t learn hard lessons from hours spent fasting and praying. It can’t gain skill in making disciples who love the Lord. This is a place where the wise can share their wisdom. 

I’m not in charge of who writes here, but if someone asks you a question because they think you know what you are doing, consider that a signal that you should write down your answer. Others could use your wisdom too. Does a young leader ask you how to handle a difficult conversation because he knows and trusts you? There are a lot of young leaders who could use that same wisdom. Consider writing it down.

SBC Voices has what AI doesn’t have and what it never will. It has us.

Recently, I posted about the reasons to plant new churches. I wrote that one reason we need to plant new churches is to replace those that die (close their doors). That prompted me to do some research on dying churches in the SBC, and I’m sharing it with you in this post.

Church Closure Statistics

A number of SBC churches close each year. Here are some statistics from recent years.

2020—845
2021—780
2022—984
2023—292
2024—183

(Source: Lifeway Research, years 2020-2023, and Baptist Press for 2024)

I attribute the higher numbers from 2020-2022 to the impact of the COVID pandemic. During those years, I was on the Missions Committee of the Kauf-Van Baptist Association, which is just east of Dallas, Texas. During COVID, we saw four small churches close their doors. That was true all over the country.

You should not think that only the Southern Baptist Convention has experienced a decline in the number of churches. Ryan Burge reports that from 1960-2025, the United Church of Christ (not to be confused with the Church of Christ in the South and Southwest), a mainline Protestant denomination, declined from 8,000 churches to 4,485 in 2025. Lots of Protestant churches have disbanded in recent years, and the number will surely increase in the future.

Reasons for SBC Church Decline

Loss of Vision and Mission

Those who plant churches do so with a vision of what the church will become and do. Once that initial vision is fulfilled, many churches become aimless. Robert Dale, in his excellent book, “To Dream Again,” says churches must gain a new dream (vision) in order to avoid decline and death. Churches also struggle because they forget their mission—to obey the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20). Declining churches often become introverted, fixating on survival rather than emphasizing evangelism and missions.

Failure to Reach New Generations

During my years of service as a seminary professor, I did a lot of interim pastorates and supply preaching. Many of the churches that invited me were composed of older folks. The nursery and preschool areas were empty, and the baptistery was dusty. These churches had failed to retain youth and young adults. Of course, empty rooms and a dusty baptistery pointed toward a bleak future. Why did they lose younger members? Sometimes it was due to economics. In Eastern Kentucky, the coal mines closed, and young people left the mountains to find work elsewhere. Sometimes, the problem is worship style and/or programming.

If a church stops reaching and retaining younger people, the average age of its members will rise each year. Eventually, there won’t be enough new members to replace those who move away or pass away.

Refusing to Change

Churches must change or risk dying. I don’t mean they should change their theology, but they should change their programs and methods. Churches that refuse to change choose to die. I said that to a television reporter in Louisville some years ago. After the taping stopped, he asked me a personal question. He said, “I grew up in a little Baptist church in the mountains of North Carolina. That church had a wonderful spirit and fellowship. Why would it need to change?” I replied, “I’m sure in 1955 your TV station had the best equipment and programming of any station in Louisville. How would your station do today with that same equipment and programming?” He sighed and responded, “I surrender. I understand.”

Lack of Discipling and Leadership Development

New church leaders come from the church’s pool of disciples (trained, mature believers). If a church does not disciple its members, then there are few potential leaders to enlist.

Internal Conflict

I am a life-long Southern Baptist. I love the SBC—its churches, members, and leaders. Still, I must admit that Southern Baptists are bad to fight. We fight about leadership, doctrine, money, change, and even the color of the new carpet. Fighting can deeply divide a congregation. When conflict becomes the main focus, people leave. Some leave because their side in the church fight lost the showdown vote. Some folks leave to escape the conflict. As the conflict continues for years, the church loses more and more members until those who remain cannot maintain the church.

Poor Pastoral Leadership or No Pastoral Leadership

More than 30 years ago, I served as the interim pastor of a county-seat First Baptist Church in Kentucky. During that year we averaged 200 in Sunday School and 300 in worship. When I left, I believed the church was in good shape. Fifteen years later, we returned to visit the area, and we went to worship at that church. To my dismay, only 30 people worshiped that Sunday. A deacon who remained from my time, asked me what they could do to survive. I advised him that the church could revert to mission status and request assistance from the Kentucky Baptist Convention. I asked a friend and local pastor what had happened to the church. He told me they had called one ineffective pastor after another, and the membership dwindled away.  

Sociological Mismatch with the Community

Sometimes, the neighborhood changes, but the church does not change—adapt to the new population. When that happens, the church gradually becomes detached from its neighbors. I saw an example of this in Memphis. A neighborhood church there invited me to preach on missions and promote the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. As I drove to the church, I noticed that all the stores and businesses in the area had signs and advertisements in Spanish. When I arrived at the church, I encountered about 40 older white folks. They were worshiping in the church fellowship hall. They had an auditorium that seated 500, but they could not afford to heat it. So, they met in the fellowship hall. After the service, one of their deacons approached me and said, “We know our church is dying. When should we close it?” Well, why was that church dying? It failed to adjust to the transition in the neighborhood. The neighborhood became Hispanic, but the church did not offer worship or programs in Spanish. It became an Anglo island in a Hispanic sea.

Economic and Demographic Changes

In 1900, more than 50 percent of the U.S. population lived on farms. By the year 2000, the figure was 2 percent. In the old days, Southern Baptists started lots of rural churches to serve those farm families, but now those folks have moved to urban areas. That’s one reason why many rural churches are struggling—the population has relocated. When I served in Southeastern Kentucky, many “coal camp” churches were barely hanging on. Communities, called “coal camps,” had developed around coal mines. Kentucky Baptists planted churches to serve the people who lived in those communities. Now, most of those mines have closed. Younger adults have departed to look for work elsewhere, leaving only older folks behind in the camp and the church. Some years ago, the Louisville airport expanded, and all the buildings in the expansion zone were demolished. One building belonged to a Southern Baptist church. The church disbanded, and most of the members joined a nearby church that survived the demolition.

Financial Decline

Usually, the immediate cause for a church closure is finances. That is, the church cannot pay its bills any longer. When that happens, the church is forced to close. Of course, the financial problem is a symptom of other problems.

Spiritual Stagnation

Many Christian leaders say the deepest issue is spiritual: when prayer, discipleship, and genuine faith growth fade, the church becomes more like a social club than a spiritual community.

What reasons did I omit?

(I used artificial intelligence in my research. Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks?)

Note to Readers: I did not address the reasons why churches leave the Southern Baptist Convention. I plan to do that in a later post.