NASHVILLE, Fla. (ABP) — What do dead frogs and stagnant churches have in common? A lot, Southern Baptist Convention president Bobby Welch told the recent SBC meeting.
Welch provided one of the more memorable sermon props in recent history when he displayed a squashed, dried frog — and several more like it — from the pulpit. “This frog belonged in the deep, but he hopped in the street. And that's where his end came,” said Welch, pastor of First Baptist Church of Daytona Beach, Fla.
Welch, who has repeatedly warned Southern Baptists about their slumping evangelism, said he discovers another “flat dead church and a flat dead bunch of Christians” every day. Like the frogs — which were run over by a concrete truck on a road near Welch's house — Christians are intended to live in the “deep waters,” fishing for converts, Welch said, citing a similar admonition of Jesus' to
his disciples in Luke 5.
“You see, if you're destined for deep water, you better go that way,” he warned in his presidential address. “The consequences can be dangerous.”
“You know where I found all these little dead frogs?” he asked, removing several from Ziploc bags. “Following this big dead frog. … Just because that frog's a big croaker and a high hopper doesn't mean he's going in the right direction.”
Welch, who has challenged Southern Baptists to baptize 1 million people in the next year, said too many Christians are choosing the safety of the shore over following God out into the deep. “In fact, this shore fishing we've caught into is what is going to kill evangelism in this convention, in this nation.”
Messengers laughed and applauded at Welch's sermon illustration. Photos of Welch displaying the dead frogs — initially offered to the media by Baptist Press — were later withdrawn by convention officials.
Among other memorable and overlooked moments in the June 21-22 meeting:
— A statue of Billy Graham will be placed in Nashville next year as part of the SBC's tribute to the famed Southern Baptist evangelist, who is expected to end his preaching career soon. The SBC presented a commendation to Graham's grandson June 22 and unveiled a smaller model of the statue, which will be completed next year by Terrell O'Brien, a sculptor and bivocational pastor in Wyoming. It depicts Graham standing before a towering cross, dressed in a three-piece suit, with a Bible in one hand and his arms outstretched. Graham preached to 210 million people, “more than any person in the history of the world,” during his 56-year career, according to a video tribute.
— Southern Baptists broke all of their evangelism records during “CrossOver Nashville,” a weekend witnessing event that preceded the convention. More than 10,000 volunteers reportedly participated in the event, knocking on more than 40,000 doors and recording more than 2,500 conversions. Messengers to the SBC meeting also witnessed eight baptisms — reportedly the first conducted during an SBC meeting. Welch explained why the demonstration was important: “You have to realize, 10,000 [of the SBC's 43,000] churches haven't seen a baptism in a year.”
— The official SBC denominational calendar was amended to delete references to “Baptist World Alliance Day” for the next five years. Last year, the SBC withdrew from the BWA, comprised of 211 Baptist conventions worldwide, over charges of liberalism.
— Messengers turned back an attempt to redirect money from missions to political action. “We are fighting for the soul of America” on issues like abortion, gay marriage and stem-cell research, said Missouri pastor Rodney Albert, who made the proposal to add almost $1 million to the budget of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission from the SBC's two mission boards. But Jim Wideman, executive director of the Baptist Convention of New England, countered: “Our purpose is not to save the culture of America. Our purpose is to save the world. If our culture goes down, it won't be because we didn't spend more money for lobbying. If our culture is saved, it will be because we spend more money for evangelism.” Messengers approved the Cooperative Program budget of $189.9 million as originally proposed.
— Southern Baptists called off their eight-year-old boycott of Disney Co., claiming to have cost the entertainment giant millions in lost sales. Wiley Drake, the Anaheim-area pastor whose motion triggered the 1997 boycott, also claimed to have cost former Disney head Michael Eisner $10 million from his annual bonus. Drake, the convention's most vocal messenger and a frequent motion-maker, lost his bid to be elected SBC second vice president this year, despite his nominator's promise that Drake, “who is seldom wrong and never in doubt,” would be less likely to rise to the microphone as a platform officer.
— “In an instant, 250,000 lives were swept into eternity without Christ,” said International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin of the tsunami that devastated eight Asian countries Dec. 26. “This tragedy reminds us of the urgency of the task of getting the gospel to all people,” said Rankin, adding that more than 607,000 new believers were “swept into kingdom” through the work of IMB missionaries worldwide in 2004.
— Adrian Rogers, the first president elected during the SBC's “conservative resurgence” and the only recent three-term president, confirmed he is under treatment for colon cancer. Rogers, who retired this spring after 32 years as pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in suburban Memphis, Tenn., was honored with a resolution that called him the “prince of preachers.”
— Also honored and retiring was former SBC president Jimmy Draper, president of LifeWay Christian Resources for 14 years. Draper later warned messengers: “In spite of the struggle for 25 years to recover biblical faithfulness, we are still witnessing a stagnation in evangelism. Our passion for souls has cooled.” Of the SBC's rise in history, Draper said: “God passed by the great magisterial denominations of this land and he put his hand upon a group of people considered by the elitist of society to be under-classed, backward, ignorant and prejudiced. God took a group of people huddled around little churches in the south and on the frontier and elevated them into the greatest denomination in the strongest country in the world.” But he added, too many SBC churches are plagued by chaos, division, power struggles, “bitterness, resentment and cynicism.”
— As the final gavel fell on the 148th annual SBC meeting, so did red, white and blue balloons released from the ceiling of the Gaylord Entertainment Center, as president Bobby Welch led messengers in a chant of commitment to convert and baptize 1 million people in the coming year.
“Everyone Can, and I'm It,” messengers yelled repeatedly at Welch's prompting. “We're going out there and we're going to attack the gates of hell for the sake of souls,” he said.
– Contributing to this story were David Winfrey, Marv Knox, Todd Deaton and Lonnie Wilkey.