Baptist leaders are worried. Baptism, a “ritual immersion” that, according to some, makes one saved — and Baptist — is in decline. On Monday the Southern Baptist Convention‘s medieval-sounding Great Commission Resurgence Task Force unveiled a plan titled “Penetrating the Lostness” that they hope will encourage members to increase tithing from 2.5% to 10% and focus mission efforts to domestic foreigners. Church members are also encouraged to spend their vacations “penetrating” the lost and unsaved. Writes Adelle M. Banks of Religion News Service (reposted at HuffPo), the report will be voted on at the annual convention in June in Orlando, FL.
4 comments
brantl says:
May 7, 2010
Couldn’t they just stay lost?
Nameless Cynic says:
May 7, 2010
Church members are also encouraged to spend their vacations “penetrating” the lost and unsaved.
Wow. So that whole “abstinence” and “no sex outside of marriage” thing has just gone by the wayside? The Baptist church is way more open-minded than I remembered…
Episcopal Bail-Out? « The Revealer says:
May 11, 2010
[...] Bail-Out?11 May 2010Baptists aren’t the only denomination worrying about the decline of church membership. Episcopalians are too, but, as Very Rev. Kevin Martin, dean [...]
Dann Brown says:
May 12, 2010
A great subconscious acknowledgement — full of projection and bravado — that birth rates have more to do with church membership than any other factor.