Critical Issues for Garden Oaks Baptist Church

Back in 1980, Dr. Jimmy Draper, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and at the time pastor of First Baptist Church in Euless, Texas, and later executive director of Lifeway Christian Resources, wrote a book called Authority: The Critical Issue for Southern Baptists. The book was released shortly after a movement that has now been called the "conservative resurgence" began in the Southern Baptist Convention. The issue of which Draper wrote, and which essentially fuelled the conservative resurgence was the authority of the Bible in the local church. Draper, who was one of the leaders of the resurgence, insisted that there had been a theological "drift" in the seminaries operated by the convention away from traditional views of the Bible held by most Southern Baptists, and in his book, he defined the place of the Bible in the preaching and teaching of the church. His book, and the movement he was part of, succeeded in turning a major Christian denomination back toward a theology much more grounded in the scripture than what had developed in mainstream Protestant Christianity in America at the time, and away from the direction that the convention's seminaries were apparently headed.

Garden Oaks Baptist Church is firmly anchored in the scripture, believing it to be the written Word of God, and along with the Holy Spirit's guidance and illumination, the source of the faith and practice of the church. For us, today, outreach and discipleship, not spiritual authority, have become the critical issue. I believe the same holds true for most of the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention as well.

This church has existed for going on 69 years, and has been through several transitions related to what constitutes its membership. It has survived through crisis, weathered demographic changes, freeway construction, several major neighborhood transitions and the encroachment of megachurches, along with transitions and changes in the way it worships and does ministry. It is still here, a congregation of about 250 active members, meeting in relatively the same place for almost seven decades.

The critical issue we now face may be among the most serious of the church's long existence. We are located in an inner city neighborhood that has transitioned over the years from being a suburban refuge to a culturally diverse community where property values are soaring, and the affluent population moving in, and now making up the majority of the community, is largely disconnected from the church culture. The church itself has transitioned into a smaller church than it once was, with a larger percentage of people from the "old fabric" of the neighborhood among the active membership. We have few members who are between 20 and 40 years of age, and not a tremendous number of members between 40 and 50. This is a critical issue from several perspectives.

First of all, in terms of evangelism and outreach, we need to be touching the lives of people who live around us and ministering to them. The fact that we do not have a large number of individuals between 20 and 50 in our church is a clear testimony to the fact that, whatever we are doing in our outreach and our ministry, it is not reaching this age group. More than any other single piece of evidence, this is proof that deep change must occur in our approach to outreach and ministry. There is nothing inherently "wrong" with what we are doing now, and of course, since we are familiar with it, and it appeals to us, we don't think change is necessary. But we need to heed the words of Paul in I Corinthians, "I have become all things to all people in order that I might save some." Clearly, with regard to 20 to 50 year olds, we are not there yet.

Second, and perhaps almost equally as critical, is the viability of the congregation. We occupy a facility built to accomodate a neighborhood church running 850 in Sunday School and 900 in worship, during the 1940's and 50's. Maintenance, utilities and insurance costs consume a lot of resources. If our growth does not keep up with the loss of members past 65, who, over the next decade or so will be very diminished in number, the point will come where the church will not be able to maintain either its current ministries, or its facility. If we are pre-occupied with things that distract us from our mission and vision to reach people for Christ by things related to just keeping the doors open and the lights on, we will miss out on missional ministry opportunities.

This summer, in June and August, on specific Sundays, we will be having a leadership seminar from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. This is for all of our church leadership, including Bible study teachers, home group leaders, policy team members, ministry leaders and deacons. But it won't be exclusive! Anyone who is interested in helping the church find ways to reach those individuals who live around us will be welcome to come. We will meet in the library, where we can be comfortable. In June, we will examine principles and concepts from Essential Church by Thom and Sam Rainer. The book is about reclaiming church dropouts, particularly those in the younger age group, who say "I did not see church as essential to my life." We'll look at ways to make the church essential in this Biblically based study. In August, we will look at principles from Comeback Churches by Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson. Ed is director of Lifeway Research, and Mike is a church planting specialist in Pennsylvania. Come with an open mind and an open heart.