{"id":17536,"date":"2018-05-10T16:39:57","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T23:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=17536"},"modified":"2018-05-11T20:35:22","modified_gmt":"2018-05-12T03:35:22","slug":"deep-change-and-decline-in-the-southern-baptist-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/deep-change-and-decline-in-the-southern-baptist-convention\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep Change and Decline in the Southern Baptist Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Babies with dirty diapers like change,<\/strong>\u00a0yet most of the rest of us aren’t very excited about it.\u00a0 Even when individuals and organizations see the necessity of change, excuses are often fielded which keep much-needed changes from happening.\"\"<\/p>\n

Why is it so difficult to change?<\/h3>\n

That question is the subject of The Deep Change Field Guide: A Personal Course to Discovering the Leader Within<\/strong>1<\/span><\/sup> <\/em>by Robert E. Quinn.\u00a0 This workbook, written in 2012, is based upon Quinn\u2019s 1996 book Deep Change<\/em><\/strong>.2<\/sup>\u00a0 While the format of this \u201cfield guide\u201d is more interactive, the message is the same.\u00a0 Quinn\u2019s premise is that leaders need to change themselves first before attempting to change their organization.\u00a0 He states:<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen we choose deep change, we enter the fundamental state of leadership.\u00a0 In that state, we experience exponential growth, and we become living attractors, pulling some of those around us into the same state.\u201d3<\/sup><\/p>\n

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In other words, we change ourselves internally before we seek to help others make changes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Deep Change Field Guide<\/em><\/strong> inspired me with several quality anecdotes.\u00a0 Chapter two talks about a failed General Motors (GM) plant in Freemont, California which was closed because of a lack of productivity. The GM executives felt that most of the employees were dysfunctional. \u00a0Later, GM worked a deal with Toyota to reopen it with the same employees, but with Toyota\u2019s management.\u00a0 Toyota changed the culture of the plant into one that was a beacon of productivity and positive morale. \u00a0Formerly listless employees were on fire with a desire to make a quality car that they could be proud of.\u00a0 The GM execs could have had a successful plant with the same employees, but they were unable to make the deep changes that were needed to turn the plant around.<\/p>\n

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Essentially, Deep Change<\/em><\/strong> is not about replacing old leaders with new leaders.\u00a0 Deep Change is about inspiring leaders to change internally so that they will not have to be replaced.\u00a0 In chapter three, Quinn tells the story of a group of executives that required significant changes for their employees which did not increase productivity.\u00a0 He then asked them \u201cIdentify one time during your planning for a culture change when one of you said you were going to change your behavior.\u201d 4<\/sup>(48)\u00a0 Not one executive responded.\u00a0 The lesson is clear…Leaders who want to change an organization without changing themselves often find their attempts futile.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

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As I read The Deep Change Field Guide,<\/strong><\/em> I began thinking of the evangelical denomination that I have been a part of my entire life, The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).\u00a0 Last year, an article in Christianity Today<\/em> summarized the struggle faced by America\u2019s largest Protestant denomination:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no denying the decline of America\u2019s largest Protestant denomination any longer. The SBC lost almost 78,000 members in the past year, according to the Annual Church Profile (ACP) released ahead of its upcoming annual meeting. Southern Baptists have now lost a million members since their peak of 16.3 million in 2003.<\/p>\n

The denomination is down to its \u201clowest baptisms since 1946; lowest membership since 1990; lowest worship attendance since 1996,\u201d according<\/a> to historical analysis from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.5<\/sup><\/p>\n

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The article goes on to quote the former president and CEO of the SBC executive committee:<\/p>\n

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“Virtually everyone who sees these figures will react negatively and lament the poor state of our churches, our lack of evangelistic fervor, and our increasingly irrelevant programs.\u201d 6<\/sup><\/p>\n

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To be honest, I spent the first 20 years of my ministry in the world of youth work.\u00a0 During this time I had a general aversion to any discussion of denominationalism. Putting it bluntly, denominational politics turned me off.\u00a0 \u00a0Yet, when my career changed from youth ministry to missions ministry, this changed a bit.\u00a0 I had a wakeup call in 2015 when the SBC International Mission Board made dramatic changes in response to low finances that resulted in the loss of over 1,000 foreign missionaries.<\/p>\n

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As I dug a little deeper into the current state of the Southern Baptist Convention, I discovered\u2026<\/p>\n

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