Prioritizing Our Children and Youth With The Gospel
At the Southern Baptist Convention last month, the Executive Committee (EC) presented to the messengers Vision 2025 for adoption. This vision statement articulated five critical steps which Southern Baptist congregations must focus on over the next four years if we want to reverse the present decline in baptisms and membership in our churches. The fourth step listed read, to "turn around our ongoing decline in reaching, baptizing, and discipling 12 to 17-year-olds in the prime of their teenage years." The reason why the EC listed this item is that our churches have seen a decades-long slide in youth baptisms. In recent years, we are not seeing as many students saved and discipled. Specifically, baptisms in this age group have decreased 38% since 2000. If someone were looking for a major reason why Southern Baptist total membership has dropped from over 16 million to just over 14 million in just 10 years, the best reason to suggest is that we are not winning our children to ...