Southern Baptists in the News: Three Articles

Floyd: 'Rise up' in a 'dangerous, hopeless world'

Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd called for pastoral leadership in the nation's largest Protestant denomination to seize a "Bonhoeffer moment" by refusing to be silent in the face of persecution, to hold on to the Word of God, take heart and be encouraged.

"The lostness has never been greater in our dangerous and hopeless world," Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, said in his president's message to the SBC annual meeting June 16 in Columbus, Ohio.

"Everyone, and I mean everyone, needs to rise up and lead." Keep reading

Floyd & former SBC presidents take marriage stance

The current and 16 former Southern Baptist Convention presidents released a statement on biblical marriage and the national implications of same-sex marriage in a June 17 news conference prior to the concluding sessions of the SBC annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio.

A Baptist Press news story on the statement and the news conference, moderated by SBC President Ronnie Floyd, is in process.

The full statement follows.... Keep reading

Here are three reasons why Southern Baptists are on the decline

As Southern Baptists gather Tuesday for their annual summer meeting, gloom hangs over the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Perhaps it is not the utter despair wracking the “mainline” denominations — Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and others — who are in statistical freefall, according to the latest Pew Research Center religion study. Indeed, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) stands out as a large, old American denomination that is not in demographic collapse — at least not yet.

Early warning signs may indicate that such a ruinous trajectory is imminent. Last week’s annual report from the SBC’s LifeWay Research showed that multiyear declines in membership and baptisms are accelerating, even as the number of SBC congregations has grown. The SBC lost more than 200,000 members between 2013 and 2014, its largest decrease in over a century. As the 2015 SBC meeting reflects on these disturbing patterns, leaders should consider three steps that can help the SBC not only survive, but thrive. Keep reading