SRV and SBC

Anybody know anything about the following at http://sbcoutpost.blogspot.com/

Sunday, May 15, 2005
SRV and SBC

Just turned on "Stevie Ray Vaughan Live at the el Mocambo." It is unbelievably awesome, so if one of your good friends asks you over to see it--do yourself a favor and go. Shred is much too innocent a word for what he did to his guitar that night.

Our Georgia Baptist Convention paper, The Christian Index, did a recent article on the total report for all the state churches. It was reported that the state of Georgia reported 36,000+ baptisms for last year. Man, I thank God for every one of those that was a genuine conversion and in obedience to Christ's command.

I must admit though, to some feelings of concern about that total, for several reasons. First, Georgia is in the middle of a population explosion of sorts. From 1990-2000 our state grew by 26% and from 2000-2009 is estimated to grow by 17% more. In real #'s, this means an increase of 3.9 million souls. The vast majority of this growth is due to business expansion and relocation of workers from other parts of the country. Factoring in this estimated population growth makes our 36,000 look less studly. I placed a call to the Index office and spoke to editor Gerald Harris, asking him, "How many of these were rebaptisms of some kind?" He said, "I don't know the exact percentage, but it is scary high."

My next concern is that Georgia's baptism total from last year represents 20% of the US SBC total. Yep, you read that right--with 42 state conventions and fellowships, 1 in 5 baptisms occured in our fair state. While you are gagging on that, dear reader, then remember that it takes 43 Southern Baptists twelve months to lead 1 soul to Christ and encourage them through believers baptism. I believe that the biblical word for this is abomination.

My third concern is that I firmly believe that the answers which we will be given are to continue to do the same things we have always done, but do them with more intensity. You know, the horse is dead, therefore, we must beat it harder to get it to move. Or, we need to change riders more frequently, or give it more money. But, all the praying, hand wringing and longing for the stellar days of the past will not change the fact that Trigger is dead and we need to buy Secretariat in time for the Belmont.

posted by martyduren