SBC Insider Critiques 'Unregenerate' Contemporary Southern Baptists
by Jim Brown
July 26, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Christian conference speaker and author says the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, the Southern Baptist Convention, is an "unregenerate" denomination. That is the conclusion to which Pastor Jim Elliff has come, and it is a situation he regrets deeply, he says, because he loves the SBC and has been involved in it all his life.For 20 years, Elliff has been directing a ministry called Christian Communicators Worldwide, an organization that seeks to "propagate God's Word" through preaching, publishing, and visibly living out "the life of trust" in an effort to reform churches and transform lives. In addition to founding and directing the ministry, he has authored two books, Led by the Spirit and Pursuing God -- A Seeker's Guide, as well as several booklets published by CCW.
As a minister who is passionate about communicating the gospel and encouraging people to grow in their faith, Elliff is concerned that of the SBC's reportedly 16 million members, only 6 million bother to show up for church on Sunday. "We have a bad habit sometimes of just assuming because a person has an emotional quiver at a certain moment that they're a true believer, and we're very quick to get them on the rolls of our churches," he says.
"This has proven to be disastrous," the CCW founder continues. "I think many of these people don't even show up in the weeks following the time we've accepted them into membership." He contrasts this with the early days of Baptists in America when, according to historical statistics, churches had five times as many people attending as the congregations had names on the rolls.
But today, Elliff says, "Nearly 99 percent of Southern Baptist church members appear to be little different from the 'cultural Christians' who populate mainline denominations." Obviously, he asserts, SBC members need a more serious commitment to the "regenerate" church model.
"It would do us so much good," the Southern Baptist speaker says. "In days when we grew excessively and reached many people in a serious way, we cared very much about the church being regenerate. In fact, Baptists have a great history of some people who believed in dying for the regenerate church. But today we've become very proficient in adding numbers to the roll that do not represent true Christians."
Among the areas where Elliff feels Southern Baptists need to exercise more discernment are childhood conversions and what constitutes a true convert. Also, he says, the SBC needs to address the issue of persistent sin among members by implementing church discipline.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
