Learning From the Baptists

At a time when our Synodical President is praising the megachurch model and extolling it as the savior of anemic Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod membership, the Baptists are pointing to the same model as the reason for their own decline.

Save the LCMS reports that an article in The Christian Post states that “Weak preaching and cultural adaptability are just two of many reasons Southern Baptists give to explain the decline of membership and baptisms.”

Paige Patterson, the President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, says “The more attuned to culture Southern Baptists have become and the more we have incorporated the world into our worship, the more our baptisms have dropped!”

Note that even the Baptists measure their growth (or lack of it) in terms of the number of Baptisms, an statistic that is sadly left out in the LCMS’s biggest evangelistic effort, Ablaze!^®

Perhaps we could use the Confessional model for Church growth, through the preaching and teaching of the Word, and rightly administering the Sacraments. Perhaps God’s ways really are better than man’s ways.