Southern Baptists workshop how to stem decline

[Baitball Blogger]

(The reader comments are illuminating)

The Florida Baptist Convention and the North American Mission Board are teaming up for a one-day workshop to discuss ways of stemming the decline in church membership. The Church Growth and Revitalization Conference will be held Jan. 29 at the First Baptist Church in Brandon.

Nearly three-fourths of Southern Baptist churches nationwide are in decline or stagnated in terms of membership, the Florida Baptist Witness newspaper reports. The denomination is losing 900 churches a year, said NAMB president Kevin Ezell.

Ezell said the conference will offer Florida Baptist congregationss tools and opportunities to strengthen and revitalize churches in the state. Registration is $30 per person and includes conference notebook, lunch, refreshments and a $15 LifeWay gift card.

snip

Prior to the convention, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Church Leadership Development group will host a networking seminar on ideas for church group. The session will be held at 5 p.m., Jan. 28, at First Baptist of Brandon. The dinner meeting is free. Contact Lori Morgan at 800-226-8584, ext. 3018, or 904-596-3018, or via email at [e-mail].

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features-the-religion-world/2012/12/27/southern-baptists-workshop-how-to-stem-decline/

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. so little time, and so much to do. only 900 a year?

Let's double that number!

[RKP5637]

2. Yep, another WTF and DUH moment in my life. People are fed up with

authoritative organizations, persecution, and fire and brimstone.

[steve2470]

3. Let's see, better music, more hip preachers

Barring another Great Depression or equally cataclysmic event where people feel they have lost control of their lives, they are doomed long-term.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. there will always be another Great Depression, or equally cataclysmic event

but in those future times, people's knowledge base will have been so improved, that the idea that an angry god or goddess caused an earthquake or a tsunami, instead of a tectonic shift in the earth's crust, or that a devastating drought was due to a lack of prayer, instead of global climate change, will be exceedingly rare. Not gone, but rare.

[steve2470]

6. I agree

My point was that *some* need what the Baptist Church offers. Not me and not you and not 99% of DU, but some. I damn sure would never go there no matter how bad things get.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. I suspect that they really hate the intertubes

as well as other modern communications systems.

If you cannot control their knowledge base, it becomes far harder to control their minds.

[Hekate]

4. You mean, being a Talibaptist isn't selling as well anymore? Daughters leaving in droves?

Women realizing that this "submission" thing is a crock? Who could have imagined?

[madfloridian]

7. I can tell them their rigidity is the problem.

I can tell them calling the Iraq invasion a "holy war" didn't help their cause. We left the church then.

[Mariana]

9. They're unlikely to care what you think.

They should be asking you, and people like you, but they probably won't.

[Populist_Prole]

10. Good riddance

I hate those &^%$#@ people. Till I moved to the south, I never realized what loathesome people fundies were.

[Flashmann]

11. Southern Baptists workshop how to stem decline

Bah.........Their time would be much better spent,sharpening the points on each others heads......

[Elwood P Dowd]

12. Southern Baptist are not Christians. They are rabid repukes who go to church.

How could you possibly believe in the teachings of Christ and then go out and promote so much hate, fear, and divisiveness?

[msu2ba]

13. More cowbell! n/t

[tledford]

14. Maybe they could try NOT being intolerant assholes. eom