America’s Largest Evangelical Protestant Denomination Continues To Lose Members

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Great news!

Damn, the future sure does look bleak for evangelicals and fundies.

My future doesn't look bleak at all.  Because I have believed in Jesus Christ, and Him, exclusively, as Savior, His Redemptive Work being the sole means by which Man can be Saved from Sin, and in His Victory over Death, Hell and the Grave by his Resurrection, I am saved.  Because I have acknowledged Him as my Sovereign Lord, I have been filled with the Holy Spirit of God and empowered to live according to His dictates, certainly not perfectly, but with a heart willing to be submitted to His correction and His refining, that I will be forever with Him in Heaven, eternally.

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." (Mark 16:16).  I have no idea what category you are in, but you're in one or the other.  The Good News is that by believing in Him as Savior and Lord, you can be in the first category.  Right now.

“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away [apostasy] first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember you not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?”
• 2 Thessalonians 2:1–5

Perhaps there is a falling away from the true faith.  "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)  Perhaps that time is now.  So be it if it is.  "For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." (2 Timothy 1:12)  I, too, know in whom I have believed.  If my church shrinks down to 10 members, my Eternal Fate has been decided at Calvary.  Of course, there have been great revivals at times when America's moral decline was at its most hideous.  It's happened time and time again, so who's to say that it won't happen in the next decade? 

Regardless if my local church rises or falls, or if my denomination rises or falls, the Church is the Body of Christ on Earth, and I am forever a part of this.  "I will built My Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18)  That's Jesus, Himself; is He trash-talking?  Somehow, I doubt it.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:3-4) 

"Bad things will happen, until the Good Thing happens."

Basically all of fiction since 3000 BC

At least you're unequivocal about being an unbeliever.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

I wonder what the numbers would be like if you included the nondenominational churches that are similar to Southern Baptists in their theology and organization (Baptists already being congregationalists whose churches may join in association rather than more formally connected denominations such as Presbyterians or Methodists).

I mean, if you were that similar to the SBC, why wouldn't you just join it or make some formal statement of affiliation?

Some of the nondenominational churches seem to be cases of "we're nondenominational because none of the denominations are right-wing crazy enough for us and we don't want to have to be held accountable to any national organization."

Others, fewer in number but often larger, are basically unabashedly capitalistic enterprises that provide entertainment to members and abundant cash flow to the clergy. Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church is a good example of this type.

Sad to say, the highlighted is often true.  The lack of accountability of any kind to a national organization is, by and large, not a good thing.  Although the Southern Baptist Convention is a very loosely held together organization; its churches have Congregational government.  I currently attend an SBC church, but until recently, I attended a church that was part of the Church of God/Cleveland, TN, which is very much a top-down denomination.

Joel Osteen takes a lot of unnecessary flak, however.  He takes no salary from his church, and his income is derived from his book sales.  His church has a significant staff of Pastors on staff.

Many preachers take swipes at him from the pulpit, including my most recent ex-pastor.  Much of this is coated in jealousy; his messages are NOT "prosperity preaching" and they are Biblically sound.  A megachurch such as Lakewood isn't exactly my cup of tea, but it doesn't deserve the criticism it does.  My hypocritical former pastor took swipes at Joel Osteen, but he cut back all of the church's ministry activities and closed its Christian Daycare to ensure that he'd still get HIS $116K annual compensation package.  (Few know it, but when they give to my former church pretty much all of their money goes to the Pastor, personally, aside from the monies that go to keep the building up.)  My wife and I have left that body.  What is sad for me is that this man (whom I had reservations about from the beginning; I was one of only three that opposed his appointment) turned out to be everything I sensed he was, which is, frankly, just about everything most Atlas Red Avatars think Evangelical Pastors are all about.

I do wish to emphasize that this man is not typical of pastors we know.  We stayed as long as we did because we had a ministry burden for the dwindling number of children that were there, for the school (which my wife worked at), and for some of the older couples there whom we have ministered to.  Our present pastor is "normal" and not a hypocrite.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

My hypocritical former pastor took swipes at Joel Osteen, but he cut back all of the church's ministry activities and closed its Christian Daycare to ensure that he'd still get HIS $116K annual compensation package.  (Few know it, but when they give to my former church pretty much all of their money goes to the Pastor, personally, aside from the monies that go to keep the building up.)

This seems like a problem that is going to happen with the Protestant conception of what pastoral duties are.

Catholic and Orthodox churches basically give their priests a very low-risk, low-reward arrangement: you live a very modest life in rooms provided by the church, but you are never going to be turned out onto the street.

The problem with independent churches is that they can offer no such guarantee - if attendance declines, the church folds. There is no diocese to pump money in to keep the lights on and the employees fed and housed.

So if you're going to subject pastors to that level of risk, why shouldn't they be getting paid six figure salaries? After all, they might not have a job at all a year or two down the road.

Pastors of those churches are also in practice the CEO/administrator of the church as an organization, and in that sense, higher compensation reflects the broader trend of "managers" getting incomes that outpace everyone else's over the past several decades. Your pastor was getting paid a lot for the same reason the CEO of Bank of America gets paid a lot and the "bureaucrat" who runs the state university gets paid a lot. They are managers; everyone must make do with less so that the people at the top of the pyramid can have more.

If you knew how little work he actually did, you wouldn't say this.  This church does not have the sort of membership to support this level of compensation.

In the military, he'd be considered R.O.A.D. - Retired On Active Duty.  (I've not served; that's what an Army vet friend of mine, one of the guys that hired this guy, described him as during a moment of "hirerer's remorse".)