With almost 200 churches not reporting 2004 figures, Wayne Jenkins cannot be certain exactly how many baptisms were recorded by Louisiana Baptists last year. But he is certain about one thing.
C. Lacy Thompson
LBM Associate Editor
With almost 200 churches not reporting 2004 figures,
Wayne Jenkins cannot be certain exactly how many baptisms were recorded
by Louisiana Baptists last year.
But he is certain about one thing.
“We’re low, …” said Jenkins, evangelism director
for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. “There’s no doubt about it. We’re
losing ground.”
When the 2004 LBC Annual is published, it will show
that Louisiana Baptist churches recorded more than 12,900 baptisms, an
increase of about 1 percent) from 2003.
Of course, that is without 195 churches reporting.
If those churches averaged five baptisms each last year, the state
total actually could be close to 14,000.
That would bring the annual total to about the same
level seen in last half of the 1990s. Then, when a church did not
report, convention leaders used the baptism figures from the previous
year to calculate the total. Now, non-reporting churches simply are
counted as zero.
But all of that is calculation problems.
What really is happening is a “heart problem,”
Jenkins said of the plateaued baptism figures. And what really needs to
happen is a recovery of focus and intentionality, the state convention
leader emphasized.
“We have to be intentional,” Jenkins explained. “We
all have to ask ourselves – Are we intentionally seeking lost people?
Are we intentionally thinking about lost people? Are we intentionally
praying for lost people? Are we intentionally sharing the gospel with
lost people? …
“When a church is intentional, they’re going to find
a way (to share the gospel),” Jenkins continued. “So, I think that –
intentionality – is our number one problem now.”
The result of that problem is that Louisiana
Baptists are losing ground in the state, falling behind the population
growth. Since 1980, annual baptisms have not exceeded 16,215 – and that
came in 1994. It marked the only time in the 25-year span that the
total reached the 16,000 mark.
Instead, the totals have hovered. In six of the 25
years, annual baptisms topped 15,000. In 11 other years, the total fell
in the 14,000 range. Four years were in the 13,000 range – and three
years were at the 12,000 level.
One could spend a lot of time analyzing the numbers
and factors involved – and even assigning blame, Jenkins said.
But the time for that is past.
“Forget who’s at fault, …” he said. “We have to
get to the point of saying, ‘Let’s put a halt to the downward slide.
Enough is enough.’ And I think that can be done.”
It will take leadership, Jenkins emphasized.
“The number one issue is leadership in the church,”
he stressed. “It determines if a church is evangelistic or
non-evangelistic. … It falls to pastoral leadership.”
Jenkins acknowledged it is easy for leaders and
church members to get sidetracked – to focus on secondary issues. “It’s
not that these things aren’t important necessarily – but they are
secondary to the real issue,” he explained.
Instead, churches must recover their focus.
“We have to come back to where we reclaim Sunday
School – Sunday School classes and departments – as a soul-winning
station,” Jenkins insisted. “People have to see it like that. They have
to equip members to reach people.”
In addition to leadership, everyone has to assume
responsibility for changing the current trend, Jenkins said.
“Everyone of us has to own the problem, …” he
asserted. “God is missing in the lives of a lot of people in Louisiana,
and in a very real way, we’re all to blame.”
At its core, that means each person assuming
responsibility for the lost people in their areas, in their
neighborhoods, on their streets, Jenkins said.
Also, Louisiana Baptists must recover an emphasis on reaching young people and children, Jenkins continued.
“We’re way, way down in those areas,” he said. “We’re losing two generations.”
Statistics show it is increasingly difficult to
reach persons after they reach age 18, Jenkins noted. And yet, the
numbers of youth and children being won to the gospel are plateaued at
best.
“If, as Louisiana Baptists and Southern Baptists, we
were reaching children and youth at the rate we did in 1972, we would
be setting records,” Jenkins said.
Unfortunately, in many instances, so much focus has
been placed on reaching the latest adult generations that children and
youth have been neglected, he noted.
“We can’t just focus on one age group and ignore the
others as we have tended to do recently,” Jenkins stressed. “And the
difficulty of reaching persons past the age of 18 cannot be overstated.
We have to reach children and youth.”
The tools to reach those – and adults as well –
exist, Jenkins maintained. Indeed, two of the best tools are
time-proven – Vacation Bible School and some form of
revival/harvest/mass evangelism event, he said.
“Every church ought to have Vacation Bible School,
and they ought to do it evangelistically and not just as a Bible study
daycare type of offering,” Jenkins said.
Also, research indicates churches that have revival
events reach persons at a rate of one baptism per 19-24 members, he
said. For those churches not conducting revival events, the rate rises
to one baptism per 39 members.
Such statistics offer clear evidence that people can be reached even in this postmodern world.
“We have excused ourselves in many ways by saying we
live in a postmodern world, so it’s harder to reach people,” Jenkins
said. “Well, the truth is that this world is as close to the world of
the first-century Christians as we’ve seen – and they turned it upside
down for Christ.”
In addition, Jenkins said the list of state
convention leaders in baptisms (see accompanying box) show that
churches of all manner can reach people – rural and urban churches, big
and small churches, new and old churches.
“We just have to focus as a church body, …” he
said. “We just have to determine – as a church – what does God want us
to do where we are and how does he want us to do it.”
If that happens, things will change, Jenkins said.
“We have a great opportunity to make an impact,” he
added. “And we have churches in this state already doing a great job of
reaching people – so, I believe it can be done.”
Jenkins does not add the unspoken “if” clause – it
can be done if churches and individual Christians make a point of
getting it done. But he does offer a emphatic
reminder – “If you’re intentional, everything – every event, every
encounter –becomes a gospel opportunity.”