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Mainstream Alabama Baptists |
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JUNE 2003 From the Executive Director...
You possibly have your own theory as to why this is so. Let me suggest a couple of possibilities. One is a growing desire among church members to do direct missions or "hands on" missions. An ever increasing number of them are traveling to mission fields in the United States and around the world on short term mission trips. At the same time, and possibly in response to the volunteer missions phenomenon, churches are linking directly to missionaries, mission stations and churches on the field. Such relationships make missions more personal. This may direct attention away from the convention to the more immediate missions involvement of the local church. Whether it lessens interest in and attendance at the annual SBC meeting is but speculation. A second possibility is more likely. Formerly there was broad ownership of and participation in the SBC. The result of the "conservative resurgence" is the concentration of the leadership, and thus the power, into fewer and fewer hands and the methodical exclusion from leadership anyone who does not agree on every point with that leadership. Many Baptists are acknowledging this exclusion with their absence from the meetings. The dwindling participation in the annual conventions raises a question, "Do the rank and file still feel an ownership of the convention or is this also slipping?" How long will Baptists who don’t bother to attend the annual meeting of the SBC, continue to support the convention financially? One thing for sure, we don’t want leadership in the Alabama Baptist Convention restricted to just a few. Nor do we want good Bible believing, convention supporting Alabama Baptists excluded from leadership. Grace and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ. Mel Deason
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I read with interest the
newspaper reports from the Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix last
week. One item that grabbed my attention was the reported attendance, a
scant seven thousand. Over the past few years it has become obvious, fewer
and fewer messengers are turning out for the conventions. Before the
beginning of the "conservative resurgence" conventions in the deep South
would draw from fifteen to above twenty thousand messengers and those in
other areas of the country would draw ten to fifteen thousand. At a recent
ministers meeting of a local association, when asked how many planned to
attend the convention, out of forty or so present only a half dozen raised
their hands. A lot of Baptists who might have attended in prior times are
electing not to attend.