Southern Baptists Down to Lowest in 30 Years
Friday, May 24, 2019 | Tag Cloud Tags: Christian, church, heart, News, Protestant, Texas, Worthy News
(Worthy News) - A boost in giving—up to $11.8 billion total—and major church growth in Texas was not enough to fend off more than a decade of declines among the Southern Baptist Convention last year.
The nation’s biggest Protestant denomination isn’t as big as it used to be, according to its Annual Church Profile (ACP), released today. Membership fell to 14.8 million in 2018—its first time below 15 million since 1989 and the lowest it’s been since 1987.
“Facts are our friends, even when the facts themselves are unfriendly,” said new Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Adam Greenway. “Heartbreaking to see these ACP declines. We must do better as Southern Baptists. God help us.” [ Source: Christianity Today (Read More...) ]
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Good.
Now, maybe, all those who left can heal and be healed. And go worship Christ "in truth and in Spirit." They can witness as they should. And do Bible Studies as led by Jesus. They can live and let live and shine (or not) for our God.
The hypocrites (a word which correctly is translated from Greek as "actors acting as if on stage") can go follow their next guru (idol), and the righteous can follow Christ, where ever he leads; which sooner or later, will be with Him in Heaven.
They are caving to the Culture
Culture? What culture does the USA have, if it ever did? The only good culture the USA had was in some of it's songs, or poetry, leisure activities that were families spending quality time together, you know, like the biblical things God approves of in His written Word to us, for us. Do you know how many times a year the men of all Israel were to go to Temple in Jerusalem? I mean the amount of times they were required to attend? It sure wasn't once or twice a week. Though those living in Jerusalem could attend that many times.
Do you know that the tithes people paid covered governmental provisionings as well as the Temple support? All for 10%, now that's actually a good deal. Did you know that tithes to widows, the fatherless, and "strangers in the land (of Israel)" were mandated also, just as portions could, and should, have been paid to the Levites?
Read Albert Dager's "The Church," you can get one for free from mediaspotlight dot org. What most conservative Christians are calling US "culture," God calls pagan.
By "culture" he means using modern business marketing methods to attract more people to church: replacing the choir with a rock band, getting rid of hymnals and traditional hymns for rock music projected on a screen, and generally adopting an irreverent attitude toward worship. They do not realize that God is holy, and that He expects to be worshiped with reverence and respect, not with a rock band. His church should be a house of prayer, not an entertainment venue for holding rock concerts. This instinctively repulses many people who simply want to worship God in spirit and in truth, confuses those who want to know how to be saved, and dampens the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. If there ever were a perfect example of the church of Laodicea, this is it! What's wrong with the traditional style of worship we had 50 years ago? The SBC should go back to their roots, and simply stick with a style that worked so well for such a long time!