Reading Time: 10 minutes Since we’ve been talking about the SBC’s decline generally lately, it fits in quite well. Today, we look at why the SBC’s various leaders seem so singularly incapable of leading the denomination back to power–and why they’re only going to get worse as the religion’s decline continues.
Megachurches
Posted inReligion
J.D. Greear Wants Southern Baptists to Become Even Creepier
Reading Time: 10 minutes Last week I mentioned offhandedly that Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) president J.D. Greear has a plan that he thinks will reverse the denomination’s decade-ish-long decline. Well, he had one anyway. Like a lot of other things Christians talk about, this plan is not what it seems.
Posted inReligion
Andy Stanley Has Found Five Reasons Why Nobody Leaves the Church
Reading Time: 11 minutes Andy Stanley illustrates some potent takeaways in his essay. Today, let’s walk together through “Five reasons people leave the church.” I’ll show you why his list is complete horse-hockey, and then we’ll look at why it matters.
Posted inReligion
A Tale of Two Non-Solutions: The NEW New Plans to Fix Evangelical Churn
Reading Time: 9 minutes While we wait for the big Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) 2018 Annual Report, I thought it’d be fun to look at how their two nominees for the SBC presidency proposed to fix their decline. We can take a lesson from their example–but I don’t think they can.
Posted inReligion
Andy Savage and the Problem of Evil
Reading Time: 9 minutes The first important thing that Frank Page’s resignation shows us: that the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is still way too focused on shoring up its disintegrating power level to worry about reforming its own broken system. But I hinted–as Yoda did once–that there was another reason: many Christians still haven’t figured out that “Jesus” is doing exactly diddly-divided-by-squat to help anybody at all in Christianity do anything, or realized what this perceived inaction means.
Posted inReligion
Possibly the Worst Reaction Christians Could Have to the Churn in Their Churches.
Reading Time: 10 minutes Christianity is a business, and like most businesses nowadays, its leaders are concerned about the acquisition and retention of customers. Today we’ll be talking about one of the most pressing concerns Christianity faces as its business falters–their churn rate.
Posted inReligion
Fireproof: Hunting Bears with an Umbrella.
Reading Time: 9 minutes (This is part of our Fireproof review week–here’s the review itself and here’s where I talk about how the movie assumes that only Christians can make marriage work. Consider this, like all my movie posts, full of ALL THE SPOILERS. Also, I’m popping this into our Unequally Yoked Club series for obvious reasons.) Last time […]
Posted inReligion
Church Marketing Sucks: No, It’s a Religion, Yes, Christians Follow the Bible, and Yes, That Is Totally A Church.
Reading Time: 10 minutes I was reading this funny site that gathers “horror stories” from Christians about really awful church experiences they’ve had and realizing that quite a lot of Christian marketing isn’t very well thought-through. Not much says “churches are businesses like any other” quite like the amazing and extensive variety of resources available to Christians wishing to promote […]
Posted inGaming, Religion
Mark Driscoll has finally lost Mars Hill for good
Reading Time: 9 minutes (Content note: religious abuse, mind-blowing misogyny and anti-LGBTQ bigotry.) Big, big news, R2Ders! Over the last few days we’ve been seeing a lot of news about Mark Driscoll, the Lizard King of Misogynists, and finally there’s some kind of resolution to his increasingly-erratic, unstable fall from grace. See, it seems that this bigoted, misogynistic, sex-obsessed […]
Posted inReligion
No, Virginia, Jesus Doesn’t Magically Change People
Reading Time: 8 minutes It’s time again for another episode of “Christians Behaving Badly.” I’ve seen some additional–and dramatic– stories of Christians who did not actually experience the 180 turnarounds that Christians like to say people experience with Jesus. I’m bringing this up because Christians like to pretend otherwise, and it’s time we really confronted this myth and busted […]