An Interesting Question

After my blogs about church membership especially within the Southern Baptist denomination, an interesting question was posed to me by a good friend in a personal comment. The question was something like "are Southern Baptists still relevant?"

This is a great question. It is also one that should be addressed by every Southern Baptist church. The decline in membership among Southern Baptists gives a person a good reason to ask if they are still relevant in the 21st century.

Personally, I believe that Southern Baptists are extremely relevant today. Southern Baptists have at their core the timeless message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. No matter how society and cultures change, that message will be relevant. The teachings of Jesus Christ will not go out of style at any time because they are the very heart of God Himself. As long as Southern Baptists hold to those teachings, they can be relevant theologically.

The real issue with relevancy comes with the methods of presenting the message. As time goes on, things naturally change. Don't believe me? Just look at music styles, clothes, or hairstyles. As new generations arise, they bring with them new ways of communicating. One method of communication may work perfectly for the current generation, but when the next generation comes on the scene, they speak a different language and seeing things in a different way.

If Southern Baptists (or any other denomination for that matter) want to stay relevant today, they will have to make sure that they are communicating in the languages of the present. I plan on putting my thoughts down here on the blog of how a local church might go about doing that... so stay tuned.