Southern Baptists Called to Repent, Grip Reality of ‘Lostness’

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Southern Baptists need to repent of their pride, boasting and disunity and return to God and His vision.

That was the sobering call Dr. Ronnie Floyd made Monday as he presented a highly anticipated report charting out a new course for the nation's largest Protestant denomination.

"We (task force) have been gripped by the reality of the lost condition of our world and about our condition as a denomination, but through this journey we have also been set on fire by the call of God to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ," Floyd, chairman of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, stated in a progress report. "Surely Southern Baptists can agree that we need a new and compelling vision for the future."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Evangelism and Church Growth • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Baptists • * Theology • Soteriology

7 Comments
Posted February 24, 2010 at 8:00 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Sarah wrote:

Heh—the Southern Baptists, recognizing the Dire Seriousness of the .25% loss they experienced, have sprung into action and are repenting.

February 24, 9:37 am | [comment link]
2. Fr. J. wrote:

The SBC would do well to repent of its prosperity gospel which only mirrors the rapacious greed and materialism of the rest of American society.  Time to get back to the beatitudes, the paschal mystery, the connection between humility, suffering and holiness.  These things reflect Christ to the world, not everyone maxed out on their credit cards because God wills that they be prosperous.

February 24, 12:52 pm | [comment link]
3. Scott K wrote:

Someone tell them that the proper response is “All major denominations are experiencing loss” and they’re not doing anything wrong.

February 24, 12:57 pm | [comment link]
4. julia wrote:

I was once SB ... in fact my father was a SB preacher.  Many in my family still are and the prosperity gospel in my experience has not been a part of the SB package.  Not to say that you do not find greed and materialism in the pews of the SB church, I am sure there is plenty of that as there is in the pews of many anglican churches but I don’t think you find the prosperity gospel preached widely in that arena.

February 24, 1:05 pm | [comment link]
5. Ad Orientem wrote:

I thought these were the “once saved always saved” crowd.  Am I wrong?

February 24, 1:33 pm | [comment link]
6. AndrewA wrote:

The SBC would do well to repent of its prosperity gospel which only mirrors the rapacious greed and materialism of the rest of American society

Say what?  I grew up SBC.  I attend a SBC church at the moment, and it anything I’m I think the pastor spends to much time preaching against the prosperity gospel.

February 24, 4:45 pm | [comment link]
7. Todd Granger wrote:

Fr J, as a former Southern Baptist myself, most of whose family are still Southern Baptists, I also think you’ve confused the SBC as a whole with some other group.

Not that I don’t think that there ecclesiology, soteriology and sacramental theology are, for the most part, woefully deficient - but it’s hardly prosperity gospel (which is heretical, not merely deficient).  One will not find a prosperity gospel proclaimed in their official confessional statement, the Baptist Faith and Message, nor is one likely to find it in the sermons and teaching of the vast majority of Southern Baptist pastors.

February 24, 10:00 pm | [comment link]
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