One year ago, I published a blog entitled “An Open Letter to Young Southern Baptists.” I do not intend here to copy that entire blog, but a quick reminder of the challenges I offered will help in understanding the words that follow:

• Know that many of us realize that we have much room for improvement. We older leaders are not ignorant of the concerns that grip you.
• Do review the history of this denomination. Remember that past and current leaders deserve respect.
• Do not give up on the SBC. You, your church, and the SBC lose if you simply walk away without patiently trying to make a difference.
• Continue to support the Cooperative Program even while you seek your role in the denomination. Be kingdom-minded enough to give even when the immediate benefits for you and your church are not always obvious.
• Stay focused on the entirety of the Great Commission. Refocus our churches on strong discipleship, but never allow evangelism to be a “back burner” task.
• Pray humbly for Southern Baptist Convention leaders. From pastoring a local church to leading a denominational agency, the tasks involved in SBC life are not easy.

That blog ended with these words:

Young Southern Baptist, I believe in you. I want you involved in SBC life, trusting that you affirm our clear stand on the Word of God, choose to live a God-honoring life, and are committed to the Great Commission. Be both patient and persistent with us, modeling humility for us in all that you do. All of us want to see God do a mighty work through this denomination.

During the fourth week of June 2009, young leaders did show up at the Southern Baptist Convention, and their passion brought a renewed sense of excitement to the event. In light of that event, here is my follow-up letter – this time, written to older Southern Baptists (a group to which I belong).

Older leaders, we must first love younger Southern Baptists. This one is not difficult for me. As a seminary dean, I have the privilege of working with young men and women whose Great Commission focus puts mine to shame. Most are energetic, passionate, and unashamedly Christ-followers. They are deeply serious, yet genuinely fun. They want to make an eternal difference with their lives. They are, to state it simply, easy to love.

We must also listen to younger Southern Baptists. Whether or not we always agree with them, their voice is worth hearing. These are brothers and sisters whose Christian integrity, doctrinal fervor, and evangelistic zeal deserve our attention. New voices that critique old paradigms should not threaten us. We will miss much if we choose not to hear their thoughts simply because they are young or inexperienced.

As we love and listen to our younger leaders, we must be willing to learn from them. There is no question that young leaders sometimes wrongly assume that they have the answers to whatever ails us. We have all thought that way at some point, and we recall with embarrassment our own youthful pride. But let’s be honest: if we assume that we have nothing to learn from leaders younger than we are, we, too, are gripped by arrogance. We who claim maturity should know better.

We must also labor in prayer on behalf of our younger leaders. As Paul prayed for Timothy – remembering him constantly, night and day (2 Tim. 1:3) – we must intercede now for those who increasingly lead the good fight of faith. The enemy aims his arrows at young leaders, knowing that their youthfulness makes them vulnerable. Hence, our most important work on their behalf might well be what we do in our prayer closets.

Finally, we must still lead younger leaders. That’s the way it ought to be – older leaders leading younger leaders, who then are better prepared to lead on their own. Indeed, I can say with certainty that young leaders long for strong, faithful, experienced, godly Christian leaders to pour themselves into their young lives. Young leaders may stretch us, challenge us, and even dislodge us from our comfort zones, but we must not abdicate our responsibility to help guide them. They still need us, and we still need them – and a dying world needs all of us working together for the sake of the Great Commission.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I do not readily sign my name to a document. I read, re-read, and re-read again. I dissect every sentence and analyze every word. Hence, when leaders within the Southern Baptist Convention produced a document entitled, “Toward a Great Commission Resurgence,” I did not sign it without thought. For what it’s worth, here is why this Southern Baptist is on board.

I am a product of a Great Commission Southern Baptist church. Not having been raised in a Christian home, I knew nothing of the gospel until a junior high classmate told me the good news of Christ. Neighbors – a Southern Baptist deacon on one side and a Southern Baptist church secretary on the other – provided a ride to church every week. My Southern Baptist pastor and church gave me two gifts that mark my life to this day: a belief in the authority of the Word and a commitment to the Great Commission. I will forever be grateful for those faithful Southern Baptists.

I have seen needs around the world. As a consultant regarding international theological education, I have met people who worship false gods, who offer fruit to statues, who carve idols from wood, and who fear demonic forces. Others reject any belief in God, choosing instead to live for the temporary gains that this world offers. For the sake of the billions in the world who still need Christ, Southern Baptists must take a frank look at our commitment to the Great Commission.

I believe in the missiological approach suggested. Ours is a denomination that has taken a clear position on the Word of God. That stance does not, however, require that we all do church the same way. I have worshipped in services where the music was not my style, but it was appropriate for that context. I grew up in a church with a typical pulpit, but good preaching is not dependent on the pulpit furniture. If Southern Baptists are to influence the world for God’s glory, “methodological diversity that is biblically informed” is indeed on target.

I know many of the leaders who have signed this document. God has allowed me to serve alongside many of the SBC leaders who support this call for a Great Commission resurgence. I know some of these men well, and I trust them. We do not always agree on every issue, but I have no doubts about their commitment to the Word of God. Men like these will lead us to a healthy evaluation without compromising any ground gained during the Conservative Resurgence of the last thirty years.

I know many of the young leaders who have signed this document. Some of these young leaders were my students. Others I have met in other settings. The young leaders that I know are not liberals who believe that God’s Word is no longer relevant. They are not radicals out to destroy the Southern Baptist Convention. In fact, they understand that they are building on the shoulders of others who preceded them. They want to be part of a Great Commission denomination.  They are not, though, going to wait for decades for the rest of us to get re-focused.

I work with unhealthy churches. As a church consultant, I assist many churches that are inwardly focused. Evangelism happens there by accident more than by strategy and training. Leaders might sound good in the pulpit, but the gospel is hard to find. Intentional discipleship is non-existent. In the end, non-growing believers and unhealthy churches lead to an unfocused, maintenance-oriented denomination. Somewhere, change must begin.

I believe in continual evaluation. This document’s call for a “more effective Convention structure” is discomforting to many, if not threatening. I understand that concern, both as an older Southern Baptist who likes consistency and as a denominational employee who prefers security. I have also appreciated greatly and worked well with associational, state convention, and national convention leaders. I love the work of the SBC, but all of us must be open to honest assessment.

I am reminded of the words of Anna Quindlen, Newsweek columnist who recently announced her last column for that magazine. Her reflections about the United States are telling, particularly regarding our approach to change:

Throughout the country there seems to be an understanding that this is and ought to be a time of reinvention, in the economy, in education, in the office. But no one seems eager to reinvent on an individual level.

It is that last sentence that caught my attention. America knows that change is needed, but individual Americans do not want to change personally. Southern Baptists must think differently about change in our convention if we intend to be again a Great Commission people.  Together, we must live out the biblical truths for which we have stood so strongly — even if the changes necessary to get there are personally uncomfortable.

I recently read a book by a mainline pastor who longs for the churches of his denomination to grow again.  Comparing those churches to growing churches, he hinted throughout the book at what he could not bring himself to say forthrightly: growing churches are usually characterized by conservative theology. 

This finding is not new.  As long ago as the early 1970s, Dean Kelley showed in his book Why Conservative Churches Are Growing that congregations with a clear belief system were more likely to grow.  Kelley’s work spoke of “strong” beliefs more than conservative doctrines and included “churches” that are hardly orthodox, but he did show that belief matters. 

Thom Rainer’s works, including Effective Evangelistic Churches, later confirmed that finding.  In fact, Rainer’s studies have shown that churches that grow by reaching non-believers have a theology that is best described as conservative and orthodox.  The bottom line is this: theology really does matter if we want to grow biblical, healthy churches. 

We conservatives know this truth, and we are quick to remind others of this fact.  What we are not so quick to acknowledge is the focus of this blog: we do a poor job of teaching the very theology that we claim is so important.  We think that our church members understand and believe our basic doctrine, even while those same members are learning their theology from TV talk show hosts, popular television preachers, or the latest religious novel.  Do an anonymous survey of your congregation’s beliefs, and see what you learn.  If the majority knows and believes basic biblical doctrine, your church is more an exception than the norm. 

Consider these guidelines for teaching theology to your church:

Do not assume that your church members don’t care about beliefs.  Too many church leaders give up on teaching theology before they even try.  “Nobody cares about theology any more,” they think.  Not only does this thinking ultimately question the power of the Word, but it also denies reality.  It is precisely because people do care about beliefs that they turn to places and people other than the church for their belief system.  Where the church fails, somebody else fills the void.

Realize that attending worship and small groups does not automatically lead to doctrinal fidelity.  Here, I am NOT arguing that preaching and Bible study are unimportant to teaching doctrine; indeed, good doctrinal training does not happen apart from preaching and teaching the Word.  I am simply arguing that our church members do not typically hear our teaching and then automatically connect the dots to form a biblical theology.  Teaching good theology must happen intentionally. 

Include basic theology in a required membership class.  In some ways, the best time to teach the basics is when a person first follows Christ or first joins the church - when he or she is most focused on a Christian commitment.  Capitalize on that enthusiasm by teaching early the inerrancy and authority of the Bible. Show why the exclusivity of Christ is non-negotiable.  Talk about the necessity of the death of Christ.  Lay the theological foundation early, and lay it well.   

Take advantage of doctrine studies.  Some denominations teach annual doctrine studies.  Case in point, my own denomination (the Southern Baptist Convention) is promoting studies entitled The Baptist Faith and Message (2008) and Vibrant Church: Becoming a Healthy Church in the 21st Century (2009).  If we believe that theology matters, why not take advantage of already-prepared material and teach the proposed study?  Plan extensively, promote well, and prioritize this type of study.   

Raise the bar for small group leaders who teach the Word.  These leaders have a great opportunity-perhaps one of the best in the church-to influence lives through teaching small group members.  Few other leaders have such a ready hearing.  For that reason, we must hold group leaders accountable to holy living, sound doctrine, and good teaching.  We should not be surprised when members view doctrine as boring after lackluster teachers have taught it.  There is simply no excuse for allowing untrained, unfaithful, or boring teachers to drain the life out of Bible studies.  

Begin in the home.  Teach parents biblical doctrine, and then help them to teach their own children accordingly.  Because Deuteronomy 6:7 and Ephesians 6:4 demand nothing less from believing parents, our churches should work in cooperation with them-not replace them-in teaching theology to the next generation.  Provide good resources that teach basic truths at a child’s level without compromising scriptural teachings, but expect parents to do the teaching.    

Be willing to start with the few.  Just as Jesus did, focus on the few rather than the many.  For example, invite a few men to join you in studying theology one morning each week.  Give them the Bible and a basic theology textbook, and challenge them to study the week’s lesson.  If you prepare and teach well, you will likely be surprised at how interested the men are.  Those men and their families will be stronger because they are learning the Word.

And in the end, your congregation will be more poised for biblical church growth.