US Gospel Growth
In an online article, ‘God-Lite Doesn't Cut it’ Dave Shiflett notes the decline of many American denominations:
Progressive churches are progressing, it seems, ever closer to oblivion. The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (11,106 churches) has experienced a decline of 11.6 percent over the previous ten years; the United Methodist Church (35,721 churches) was down 6.7 percent; and the Episcopal Church (7,314 churches) lost 5.3 percent of its membership. Also, the United Churches of Christ (5,863 churches) declined 14.8 percent while the American Baptist Churches USA were down 5.7 percent.
His perspective on this decline is the unattractiveness of the “God-lite” theology to many Americans:
One group of theologians has whittled the traditional God down to 30 percent of his original power: He cannot affect the past or future and isn't holding all that many cards in the present. This 30 percent god may not be powerful enough to fix a parking ticket. For many Americans he is certainly not worth rolling out of bed for on Sunday mornings.
By contrast:
The denominations showing growth included the deeply conservative Southern Baptist Convention, a collection of 41,514 churches, whose overall growth rate was 5 percent. The traditionalist Presbyterian Church in America (as opposed the mainline Presbyterian Church U.S.A.) experienced an impressive 42.4 percent increase, while the Christian and Missionary Alliance rose 21.8 percent.
According to Shiflett, the God of these denominations is different:
This God is also a great and perplexing mystery. He brought man into being for reasons unfathomable, and with the full knowledge of what would befall this creature made in His image. There would be endless calamity, murder, and proud disbelief. By their reading man would reject the greatest offering, His Son, who would suffer to an unimaginable degree. Every trial and tear was known at the foundation of time, and still He created and still He came ... This is a serious God. This is not a lodge brother.
To begin to understand how the Southern Baptists avoided going down a ‘God-lite’ path, Al Mohler's article is a useful starting point. Mohler, now a theological leader amongst the Southern Baptists himself, refers to the story of Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler, two of the key players in turning around the Southern Baptist Convention. Mohler notes that:
The hard lessons of experience had taught Pressler and Patterson that symbolic actions would not be sufficient. The Convention had adopted resolutions opposed to theological liberalism in years past, but these had been largely deflected by the denominational machinery.
Patterson, in fact, was pessimistic about his hopes for reform in his denomination:
[He] had observed Baptist controversies for most of his life, and he had seen the Convention's bureaucracy triumph again and again. Nevertheless, Pressler and Patterson, along with a corps of determined pastors and laypersons, were determined to put their reputations and careers on the line to attempt the reformation.
For Christians everywhere struggling to achieve Gospel change and stem the move towards liberalism in their own denominations, Patterson's comments on why he persevered, despite his pessimism, are an encouragement and challenge:
In the final analysis, we did not attempt a reformation movement because we thought it would succeed but because we sincerely believed that we were right about the inerrancy of the Bible and because we did not want to tell our children and grandchildren that we had no courage to stand for our convictions. Above all, the conviction that the continued drift of the Southern Baptist Convention could spell eternal doom for hundreds of thousands of people was the principle compelling motivation.