NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — The reason Southern Baptists are lagging behind in evangelism is not all the attention they give to issues of public morality, Bobby Welch told reporters after his re-election as Southern Baptist Convention president. Instead, a lack of effort and “unity of purpose” is keeping Southern Baptists from realizing their evangelistic potential.
Welch, pastor of First Baptist Church of Daytona Beach, Fla., spent his first year as president urging Southern Baptists to confront flagging evangelism, pointing to a drop in total baptisms during four of the last five years. During a press conference after his June 21 election, he discussed how Southern Baptists balance activism on social issues, which have kept Southern Baptists in the news in recent years, with evangelism, which he and others say has been the SBC's historic hallmark.
During the convention, messengers adopted resolutions about public-school morality, stem-cell research, judicial activism and other hot topics.
Asked if such social issues are distracting Southern Baptists from witnessing, Welch told reporters, “I don't think so. In fact, I almost wish it were true, because I would know how to come at it. They just don't do it anymore.”
“Lack of effort” is the reason baptisms have dropped off in SBC churches, and the slump can be overcome by working harder, he said. “A lot of pastors are looking for a drive-thru window” where they can order a simple solution to the evangelism, Welch said. “It's hard work.”
In fact, he said, evangelism and political action complement each other. “If you get involved in people's lives personally, you'll be concerned” with their public lives. He pointed out the 10,000 volunteers who worked in the preconvention Crossover witnessing effort in Nashville went door-to-door “looking for ministry needs,” not merely for lost souls.
Of those Southern Baptists involved in political action, Welch said, “I'm not calling them to give it up.” But he added, “Political leaders are not going to do our work for us.” Changing laws won't produce more Christians, he suggested. “We're here to change society by changing people.”
While political action is not a distraction for Southern Baptists, Welch said, “that political stuff is a lot easier than the spiritual stuff.” Doing the hard work of evangelism and getting involved in people's lives attracts a lot of criticism, he suggested. “You can catch nothing but trouble doing what we're doing.”
Welch, a self-described “average guy” who easily won re-election without opposition, endeared himself to Southern Baptists during his first term with his down-to-earth style and single-minded focus on evangelism, traveling mostly by bus to all 50 states to stir up evangelistic commitment.
He told reporters all the renewed attention to evangelism during the last year gives Southern Baptists “a real possibility of being in on something monumental.” But if Southern Baptists are not successful at revitalizing evangelism statistics after “all the running and jumping and preaching and going all over the world,” he warned, “then this convention has problems far deeper than anyone believed.”
Although evangelism is a bottom-line commitment of Southern Baptists — “you can hardly find a lower common denominator” — the convention nonetheless lacks “that unity of purpose” that will maximize its evangelistic potential. “We are stifling and slouching along … because we are not creating spiritual synergy,” he said.
“We need something to force us to come together on a quest.”
Welch promised he will do something dramatic, like last year's nationwide “Everyone Can” bus tour, “to fan the fire,” but he said he has not decided what that will be.
During the two-day convention, several comments and motions from convention messengers — including New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelley — warned of the danger of growing “centralization” of power in the SBC bureaucracy. Asked if that was hurting the convention, Welch said, “Always with something this size, that is a continual risk.” He said most denominational leaders are aware of the danger and fighting against it.
But he added, “The large struggle for the convention is that we don't have enough bold, centralized leadership.”
On other topics, Welch, a decorated veteran, said the war in Iraq is “a just war” by traditional standards of Christian morality. He said the United States needs to finish the job in Iraq. “I wish all our [soldiers] could come home by the first of year, but if they come home there will be a bunch of terrorists following them,” he said.
But he said his military experience in Vietnam doesn't qualify him to critique the handling of the Iraq war. “I was just out there crawling on my knees trying to stay alive,” he said.
On the issue of the moral influence of public schools, Welch said he opposes a movement for Christians to withdraw from public schools. “I do not believe it is the best contribution Southern Baptists can make,” he said. For many Christians, home-schools and private schools are not an option, he said. And to withdraw would be to abandon the mission field of public education.
“How many steps backward can you take from a pagan world?” he asked. “We are called to be change agents [in the culture]. I don't see how we can change much if we are backing up.”