Cooperative Program. Ethnic Participation

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1 Cooperative Program 1. Please give a description of your entity s efforts to promote the Cooperative Program and the expected outcome of these efforts that would be suitable for use in a Baptist Press or SBC LIFE article about the value the Cooperative Program brings to our SBC entities and our entity leaders belief in and support of the CP. We are grateful for God s provision through the Cooperative Program (CP) and for Southern Baptist generosity. NAMB promotes and communicates the importance of CP in various ways with our partners and church planters. Each church mobilized through our process experiences a closer view of the Cooperative Program in action through interactions with church planters and other missionaries. As a partner in the project they see how the plant s budget is impacted by CP support though NAMB and often the local state Baptist convention as well. We communicate through verbal and written expression that CP is a significant part of making this all possible. We believe, and our data suggests, that these tangible interactions with planters are resulting in increased giving to all SBC missions causes by churches. We promote the Cooperative Program to every church planter who is approved and partners with NAMB. They receive a firsthand look at the value of CP and are required to participate in giving through their plant at least 6% of undesignated receipts to CP. Beginning in 2015 every Send North America City Planter will attend an orientation where they will be educated on all things NAMB and SBC, including CP. Ethnic Participation 2. Given this context, and using last year s submission to this question as a model, please give a robust descriptive report of ethnic participation, including active involvement of ethnic churches and church leaders, across all levels and aspects of NAMB ministry such things as board of trustees composition, senior administrative staff, other professional staff, support staff, missionaries under appointment, and ethnic church and church leader composition of sending and supporting churches, churches assisted through revitalization efforts, church planting catalysts, church planters, apprentices, interns, and student missionaries, as well as any external advisory groups demonstrating progress, if any, in ethnic participation over the past two decades ( ), giving special attention to progress over the past five years ( ). Ethnic involvement and participation is broadly integrated throughout NAMB in everything we do. The presence of ethnic leaders among our senior staff helps ensure that this remains a top priority. By definition, reaching our cities means that we must include a diverse group of ethnicities in our church planting efforts. Our focus on church planting includes ethnic Page 1 of 16

2 representation at the foundational levels. Each of our 32 Send City plans includes plans for multiple ethnic church plants reflecting that cities needs and demographics. In 2014 we developed national maps indicating plans for Hispanic, Korean and Chinese church plants throughout North America. Each of these ethnic groups also has a Church Planting Catalyst (CPC) assigned to help foster efforts for church planting among that specific group. In our Send Cities, of the 526 plants reported this year, 56% (293 of 526) were non-anglo. Of missionaries who reported ethnicity, 19 percent were non-anglo, 8 percent did not identify an ethnicity and 72 percent identified as Anglo. This mirrors the overall ethnic makeup of the SBC with 20 percent of SBC congregations reported as non-anglo. NAMB helped sponsor and had a strong staff presence at the annual Black Church Week at Ridgecrest Conference Center. We sponsored the ethnic Many Faces of the SBC exhibit at the Southern Baptist Convention in Baltimore. Promotion of our upcoming Send North American Conference in Aug includes a strong emphasis on ethnic pastors, church planters and laypeople. Mental Health Resource 3. What has NAMB implemented to assist Southern Baptist churches in equipping and ministering to people with mental health challenges, and how will they continue to seek ways to work in cooperation with SBC entities and others to address the severe challenges imposed by mental illness? NAMB s LoveLoud mercy ministry initiative has begun connecting experienced church-based practitioners with churches currently involved in ministering to families and individuals struggling with mental health challenges. In conjunction with several influential Southern Baptist churches and denominational leaders, LoveLoud is presenting a collection of established and simple pathways for churches to begin ministries to families and individuals struggling with mental health challenges. LoveLoud led a breakfast gathering at the 2014 Southern Baptist Convention to raise awareness of families and individuals struggling with mental health challenges. LoveLoud is participating in a conference with The Summit in January piloting an approach to equip local practitioners for working with families and individuals struggling with mental health challenges. NAMB Chaplaincy Executive Director Doug Carver is a participant in the Executive Committee workgroup on mental health. Church Planting. 4. In your opinion, what is the most reliable metric indicating future accomplishments of or challenges to NAMB, and why is that metric the one you think is most important to watch? The most important metric to watch is the number of churches and individuals that become directly involved in our Mobilize Me and Farm System process. We must have larger numbers of sending and supporting churches that will engage in hands-on church planting efforts. In addition, we must have more individuals who answer the call to become church planters and church planting team members. Send North America church planting efforts hinge on these two areas more than anything else. Page 2 of 16

3 Evangelism 5. Briefly describe Send North America s strategies which are currently in place to accomplish NAMB s ministry assignment for church planting, and evangelism. Send North America is NAMB s primary strategy for pushing back lostness in North America, so evangelism is its foundational reason for existence. Since more than 80 percent of North Americans live in and around cities, this strategy is built around 32 Send North America cities. Each Send City has a locally-developed City Plan that outlines what types of new churches are needed across the urban area and where they should be located. The ethnic make-up of each of the areas identified is considered in this process as well as the number of church plants needed. Each Send City has a NAMB missionary responsible for coordinating the work of church planting to accomplish planting the new churches identified in the City Plan. Working in conjunction with the Send City Missionaries or Church Planting Catalysts. There are CPC s in or near almost every Send City and throughout North America. These missionaries are key in the strategy of church planting in every part of North America, not only our Send Cities. Their role is to find and develop church planters and partners to plant on average four evangelistic, reproducing churches per year in their assigned area. We are working toward having once CPC for every million residents in every non-south state. NAMB has a strategy for mobilizing individuals and partner churches needed to plant these churches. NAMB creates awareness of the needs and challenges communicated to both churches and individuals in a number of ways including events (Send North America Experience Tour), media, personal recruiting on seminary and college campuses, etc. Our missionary Farm System is an intentional effort to raise-up the next generation of church planters. The Farm System utilizes NAMB short-term missionary assignments as a way to expose and develop future church planting team members. This includes the categories of Student, Intern, Apprentice and Church Planting Team member. Each Farm System missionary experiences a similar process with the elements of assessment, development, coaching and care. The result is a better-prepared missionary and more effective church planting team. Churches partner in planting as either Supporting or Sending churches as they are led. They fill a vital role in the life and nurture of each new plant supplying prayer support, hands-on help, mentoring, etc. All of this takes place in addition to our partnership with and funding to Southern Baptist state convention partners. NAMB sent $41 million to state convention partners in in the 2013/2014 fiscal year. Much of this money is spent on church planting and can be spent wherever the state convention deems it necessary. This represents a very large amount of Southern Baptist funding available each year for church plants in and outside of major North American cities. 6. Is NAMB's goal of planting 15,000 new churches in a ten year period of time, and with an understanding of "exponential" growth in the latter years, still a realistic goal? Please give an update. We believe Southern Baptists are on track to see this 10-year goal met. As a reminder, Page 3 of 16

4 church plants are the result of partnerships and efforts starting with churches, associations, state Baptist conventions and NAMB. In 2010 we developed a more stringent process for counting and tracking new church plants. This resulted in a drop in the total number of plants counted each year. Gradually this number is beginning to increase as our Send North America strategy gains momentum. In 2013 there were 936 new SBC church plants that received SBC ID numbers. An additional 169 churches affiliated with the SBC for a total of 1,105 additions. Our tracking indicates that church plants are surviving at a high rate 90 percent and they are growing in attendance, have healthy baptism ratios and are giving to SBC missions causes. However there are at least two things must happen in order for the long-term church planting goals to be met: 1. There must be an increase in the pipeline of missionaries that will provide future church planters. 2. NAMB must continue to raise the bar on the quality of planters through a stringent application process, assessments, training and accountability. 7. Please describe the church planting partnerships between NAMB and Baptist state conventions: NAMB s strategic church planting partnerships with state Baptist conventions are multifaceted. It is NAMB s privilege to serve with state conventions to assist with funding, assessments and by providing tools to help conventions help churches plant churches. In many cases there is a joint funding relationship with state conventions. In many non-south state conventions NAMB provides 100 percent church planting funding, working with them through their systems and strategies to undergird church planting efforts. In most of the southern conventions, NAMB provides grants up to $300,000 a year for church planting, if the state executive director so chooses. At this point, by 2016, 14 of the 15 South conventions will be on a grant system to assist with church planting needs. Florida is the only South convention still on a joint-funding relationship, with a ratio of 50/50. In the budget year, NAMB sent more than $41 million to state convention partners for these purposes. NAMB also brings additional missionaries and resources to assist conventions where Send North America cities are located. NAMB provides assistance in recruiting partnering churches to plant churches in Send cities, as well as advocating for, and assisting with, identifying new church planters for those cities. City Plans developed in partnership with a local strategy team in each city determine church plant locations by demographic, language, ethnicity and people groups needs. State convention and associational partners are at the local strategy team table for planning and decision-making. While NAMB s emphasis is on the most populated, under-served, unreached cities, NAMB still assists convention partners and churches to plant churches in every segment of North America, whether it be urban, rural, metropolis and megalopolis. 8. Please give a brief update on the SEND Cities Initiative, including an update on new church plants in each city. The Send City initiative is demonstrating its effectiveness in several ways. It has proven to be very popular among Southern Baptists. In 2014 our Send City missionaries hosted dozens of Catch the Vision tours hosting hundreds of pastors and church members. In the last three years these efforts have led to hundreds of partnerships between established churches and Page 4 of 16

5 church plants in our Send Cities. In addition, 42 churches have committed to being Lead Partners, each taking on significant, big-picture responsibilities in a Send City (A city can have more than one Lead Partner church). Send Cities reported a total of 526 new church plants in Here are the numbers by region: Canada 37 Northeast 102 Midwest 145 South 119 West What are the requirements or guidelines for Lead Churches or Sponsoring Churches re: Cooperative Program giving? Are these church- planting partners encouraged to continue their current levels of Cooperative Program giving? In order to be a Lead or Sending church through our Send North America strategy an SBC church must be eligible to seat messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention under SBC Executive Committee guidelines. From the beginning days of our Send North America strategy we believed that churches and church members who become involved in hands-on efforts to plant churches will become more committed to other mission endeavors as well. As a church becomes involved in our mobilization process, we emphasize that any financial investment they make in a church plant should be in addition to what they are currently giving to the Cooperative Program. When we recently compared Cooperative Program and Annie Armstrong Easter Offering giving among Lead Partner churches we found that as a group they are giving $1 million more now to the Cooperative Program than they were before they became lead partners. Similarly, their giving to the Annie Armstrong Offering is up $400,000. While not true in all cases, generally speaking, greater involvement is leading to greater giving. 10. Does NAMB verify that each of its church planters understands the value of the Cooperative Program for funding SBC missions and ministries as a process of their training? Please see question #1 above. In addition to this, beginning in January 2015 all planters receiving support from NAMB must complete a budget plan using the Church Planting Growth Projector tool (plantingprojector.com). This online tool is unprecedented in SBC church planting in terms of having a mechanism for all partners participating in a planting project being able to see and sign-off on all financial support going to a plant. The tool also requires that the plant give no less than 6 percent to the Cooperative Program and an additional 4 percent to other SBC mission causes. This provides for accountability as well as the church plant progresses. 11. How many churches were planted, or in process, in 2014, in SEND cities (in conjunction with SBC partners) and what is the ethnic breakdown of those churches Total Send City Church Plants: 526. Percentage that are non-anglo: 56% (293 of 526). 12. How does MyMobilezMe work? Mobilize Me is the process used to connect churches and individuals interested in participating in the Send North America strategy with the appropriate opportunity. Page 5 of 16

6 Interested individuals access Mobilize Me through the namb.net website. There they can explore ways for individuals and churches to be involved and register their interest in a particular area of North America or one of the Send cities. A NAMB mobilizer then connects with them to discuss their next steps and helps shepherd them through the process of connecting with the missionary where they desire to serve. If in one of the Send cities this would be the Send City Missionary and if outside of the Send city one of our state Baptist convention partners. Those interested in chaplaincy, disaster relief, volunteer mission projects and LoveLoud mercy missions can also begin at Mobilize Me. 13. Please explain NAMB s Farm System, including the process of becoming a summer missionary, church planter, intern or apprentice. The NAMB Missionary Farm System is an intentional effort to raise-up the next generation of SBC church planters. The Farm System utilizes NAMB short-term missionary assignments as a way to expose and develop future church planting team members. This includes the categories of Student, Intern, Apprentice and Church Planting Team. Each missionary serving in these categories experiences a similar process with the elements of application, assessment, approval, development, coaching and care. Missionaries who complete a term of service in a satisfactory manner and believe God is leading them to the next step are able to move through the Farm System as long as a suitable request is in place. The result is a better-prepared missionary and more effective church planting team. he process for deploying a missionary in any of these categories is similar in sequence with varying levels of depth according to the category of service. All require a missionary request generated by the field and an approved missionary who has gone through the steps mentioned in the previous paragraph. 14. What are NAMB s projections on the number of people, and the rate at which people will enter NAMB s Farm System, and eventually fill the number of ministry positions which are needed to accomplish long range church planting goals?. NAMB projects the next five years for Farm System participation as follows: : Apprentices 116, Interns 220, Students 1, : Apprentices 116, Interns 330, Students 2, : Apprentices 116, Interns 385, Students 2, : Apprentices 116, Interns 450, Students 3, In resourcing the Farm System, what will be the costs to NAMB s operating budget in the budget year(s): 2014, 2015 and 2016? These projections are based on our best estimate but could change significantly. These projections include students, interns and apprentices (not church planters): FY14: $8,366,000 FY15: $10,352,000 FY16: $11,404, In fulfillment of NAMB s ministry assignment for church planting, for budget years 2013, 2014 and 2015, what percentage of NAMB s operating budget was dedicated to church planting? Page 6 of 16

7 % % 17. Is there an expectation for church planters to focus upon church planting and evangelism in their new church? Is this reinforced through training, mentoring, coaching, formal training, or through other means? Are evangelistic goals set and monitored for new church plans? Please explain. Yes. One of the foundational elements beginning with Student Missionaries and all the way through the Farm System is healthy discipleship and healthy church planting, all aimed at developing reproducing disciples and reproducing churches. Every Farm System category has strong evangelism training and accountability. The idea is evangelism results in disciples and new churches. Church plants and evangelism are monitored closely by the local Church Planting Catalyst (CPC), partner churches, etc. Church Revitalization 18. Please explain NAMB s evangelism strategies, currently in place, or in the process of implementation. Leading people to Christ remains one of NAMB s primary objectives. As NAMB works with churches, associations and conventions to push back lostness in North America, it serves the expanding church (church plants) and the existing church. In 2014, NAMB presented a new tool for Southern Baptist churches in the 3 Circles: Life Conversation Guide. This tool is designed to assist pastors in training their congregations in personal evangelism by beginning gospel conversations. Since its debut at the 2014 SBC, 1 million print copies were ordered by Southern Baptist churches and approximately 24,000 downloads of the app to mobile devices were recorded. NAMB has received consistent positive feedback from pastors, congregations and other individuals using this resource in tremendous ways to share the gospel across the country. In cooperation with LifeWay in November 2014, NAMB introduced a Life On Mission five-week Bible study. On January 1, 2015 NAMB introduced the Spanish translation of 3 Circles (3 Circulos: Guia Para Conversar Sobre La Vida) and made free copies available to pastors for six months. NAMB also continues to emphasize personal and church evangelism through initiatives like GPS: God s Plan for Sharing, LoveLoud (Ministry Evangelism), Chaplaincy Evangelism, Disaster Relief, Collegiate Evangelism, Evangelism Response Center, Church Revitalization and Evangelism Networks. NAMB promotes biannual campaigns through GPS. In 2014, NAMB launched a two-year campaign Serving Across North America. NAMB assisted Baptist partners as they connected churches to this ministry evangelism emphasis by providing networks and resources churches utilized to reach their communities for Christ. Page 7 of 16

8 NAMB s LoveLoud ministry is connecting networks of churches that are seeking to meet significant human need while sharing Christ. Hundreds of churches are discovering the LoveLoud call to action to serve their communities and share Christ. Chaplaincy evangelism continues to report high numbers professions of faith and baptisms. Chaplains from every institutional setting report an increase in professions of faith and strong discipleship programs in their ministries. Collegiate evangelism led the way in challenging Southern Baptist pastors and local churches to take part in the Engage24 evangelism initiative, a field-generated strategy that emerged from SBC collegiate ministries. Based on the strategy, individuals from Baptist Collegiate Ministries (BCMs), three SBC seminaries and local church from around the North America set aside October 14, 2014 to share the gospel individually with at least one person in their sphere of influence. By advocating Engage24, NAMB responded well to the challenge of the Baptism Decline taskforce by providing pastors 1) a clear pathway to engage in personal evangelism, and 2) a collective opportunity to train their churches in using the 3 Circles: Life Conversations Guide. Also, in 2014, NAMB collaborated with multiplying collegiate ministers nationally to create the College Collective website ( designed to resource and equip college leaders in evangelism, disciple making and church planting. The Evangelism Response Center gave support to a variety of one-time or long-term evangelistic campaigns, which invited lost people to seek spiritual counsel via phone or Web, with intentional referrals to local churches for follow-up. For example, NAMB gave significant decision counseling support to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association s My Hope with Billy Graham. Church revitalization continues to challenge churches to be externally focused. NAMB has implemented one-day revitalization conferences to help churches identify new directions. These conferences challenge pastors to renew their commitment evangelism and local mission engagement. The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Ministry s strategy centers around partnering with SBC churches, associations and state conventions to minister to bring help, healing and hope to people in times of crisis by meeting real needs with physical help and sharing the ultimate hope found only in a personal relationship with Christ. This team provides emphasis and ongoing training in chaplaincy, evangelism and crisis counseling. During every response NAMB emphasize to volunteers that sharing the gospel in words and deeds is the main mission. NAMB is also developing a strategy called, Survivor Care, designed to ensure that new believers, led to Christ by SBDR teams, get connected to some type of ongoing discipleship process in either an existing church, missional community or church plant. 19. Please describe the "evangelism" partnership between NAM 19. B and Baptist state conventions: NAMB s Evangelism Networks Team is in regular communication with State Directors of Evangelism (SDOE) to work toward collaborative efforts. For example, NAMB facilitated Page 8 of 16

9 conference calls with Ronnie Floyd to discuss national evangelism initiatives along with a monthly SDOE conference call to share best practices and evangelism initiatives. NAMB s Chaplaincy Team partners with all 42 state conventions to help facilitate chaplaincy ministries within the state. This past year, the Chaplaincy Team attended and spoke at six state conventions and served as consultants to others. The biggest draw, at the state convention level for chaplaincy, is Disaster Relief and volunteer first responder-type chaplaincies. The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team works directly with state convention leadership to coordinate responses in times of disaster. Emphasis is always placed on volunteers and teams sharing the hope of Christ as they provide physical help. The LoveLoud team met with several conventions and associations to prepare for the Serving Across North America emphasis. Additionally, this team spoke at several state evangelism conferences. Also, this team led NAMB s contribution to the Global Hunger Relief fund in collaboration meetings. NAMB s Church Revitalization team contacted state conventions to discuss each state s specific revitalization strategies. Over the past year, almost 4,000 people attended NAMB s church revitalization conferences. These conferences were conducted as a partnership between NAMB and the state conventions. In the non-south convention areas, NAMB either jointly funds evangelism personnel or provides nonmatching funds to assist with funding evangelism positions for the conventions. NAMB provides matching funds for evangelism in some non-south conventions and Florida, where matching funding ratios for cooperative budgets exist. In many non-south conventions, NAMB provides evangelism funds at 100 percent, non-matching. The evangelism partnership with conventions is based on either matching formulas and/or 100 percent funding. NAMB has also set up a number of free, Web-based best practices for a variety of evangelism strategic opportunities for conventions. The list of Web-based helps continue to be developed and provided. 20. Please explain the GPS grants that are given to each Baptist state convention. What accountability mechanism is in place for these grants? Please give examples of how the GPS grants are being used by Baptist state conventions. GPS grants are given to state evangelism efforts for each two-year emphasis. State Directors of Evangelism are sent a request for funds . They submit a strategy and fund request for the upcoming emphasis. The Serving Across North America emphasis just concluded. The Sharing Across North America emphasis cycle begins now. Page 9 of 16

10 Some GPS grant strategies Sharing Across North America highlights include: Alabama has a goal of 75 percent of their associations and churches being personally introduced to the emphasis and receiving their commitment to partner with NAMB and the Alabama state convention to train Alabama Baptists to share their faith using 3 Circles, My Hope with Billy Graham or Casting the Net. Alaska s strategy revolves around the five major hubs of Alaskan life. The goal is to train 300-plus church members in 3 Circles materials for personal evangelism and to establish regional coordinators to continue training. Pastors will also be enlisted to follow up on the two-year emphasis. Florida is leading every association (49) to host an associational-wide pastors Soul-winning Training Seminar leading to every pastor in Florida hosting a one-day Soul-winning workshop in 2016/17. Missouri s goal is to train 1,700-plus pastors and 22,700 Sunday School attenders in personal evangelism specifically among 2.3 million lost people in five counties in St. Louis and Kansas City resulting in 50,000 baptisms during the GPS campaign. Ohio currently has about 100,000 active members attending an SBC church on any given Sunday. The goal is to engage 50 percent of those churches to offer personal evangelism training and then to train approximately 10 percent of active members. 21. What has been the response to NAMB's evangelistic resource, 3 Circles: Life Conversation Guide? In 2014, NAMB presented a new tool for Southern Baptist churches called 3 Circles: Life Conversation Guide. This tool is designed to assist pastors in training their congregations in personal evangelism by beginning gospel conversations. Since its debut at the 2014 SBC, 1 million print copies were ordered by Southern Baptist pastors and approximately 24,000 downloads of the app have been recorded from Google Play and itunes to mobile devices. NAMB has received consistent positive feedback from pastors, congregations and other individuals using this resource in tremendous ways to share the gospel across North America. In cooperation with LifeWay in November 2014, NAMB introduced a Life On Mission five-week Bible study for pastors to train small groups to practically and intentionally share the gospel. On January 1, 2015 NAMB introduced the Spanish translation of 3 Circles (3 Circulos: Guia Para Conversar Sobre La Vida) and made free copies available to pastors for six months. 22. Given shifting demographics and changes in culture, are programs such as FAITH, CWT, or Evangelism Explosion, relevant evangelistic resources for churches? Please explain how churches should offer evangelistic training for their membership. Page 10 of 16

11 All of the above will continue to be used as programs in local churches. The Pastors Task Force on Evangelistic Impact and Declining Baptisms discussed these questions at length. The conclusion focused on pastoral leadership with the challenge: As pastors, we must intentionally model and prioritize personal evangelism while providing clear pathways for our congregations to follow. NAMB has confidence that the 3 Circles resource suite, produced in conjunction with LifeWay Christian Resources, is an excellent way for pastors to train their churches in personal evangelism. This resource suite will enable Southern Baptists to rediscover the joy found in sharing their faith in Christ. Additionally, NAMB encourages pastors to continue training their congregations in other ways to explain and defend the gospel. 23. What evangelism resources are currently in place or in production for churches to use in their evangelistic strategies? In addition to the 3 Circles: Life Conversation Guide and its accompanying resources, NAMB continues to provide various evangelism tools. These include tracts, new believer discipleship, apologetics/interfaith and other training materials. NAMB also provides links to other evangelism strategies and tools. NAMB has discovered that various state conventions often determine evangelism strategies that fit their specific context. NAMB provides ways for them to share these strategies with each other and encourages them by providing connections to other great commission initiatives, such as My Hope with Billy Graham. 24. Please provide and explain findings relative to declining baptisms from your Pastor s Task Force report completed in How can Southern Baptists overcome declining baptisms in the coming years? A Pastors Task Force was enlisted to assess and respond to stark patterns of decline in Southern Baptist evangelism and baptisms. NAMB selected pastors from a variety of geographic regions, ministry approaches and ethnic backgrounds and a few denominational leaders were asked to come alongside these pastors to assist this process. The goals of the Task Force were simple: seek ways to help Southern Baptists own the problems and offer suggestions on how to address the problem. I. Assessing the Problem (1) Baptism Rates Are Sliding Down From the Plateau: SBC baptisms reached a plateau in the 1950s, peaked in the 1970s, and have stayed fairly constant since that time. However, the last 6 years show a downward trend in both SBC church membership and baptisms. The problem is even greater than these numbers indicate. Considering how the North American population has increased substantially between the 1950 s baptism peak and today, these figures indicate how much ground we have lost and are losing. (2) Problems with Reporting: More of our SBC churches in recent years fail to see the value of the annual reporting of statistics (Annual Church Profile). Although it would be convenient to Page 11 of 16

12 blame declining baptisms on declining reporting, our statisticians concluded that we still have a steady decline in baptisms even when a lack of reporting is factored into the equation. (3) Recent Insights from the Annual Church Profile (ACP): According to churches reporting in the 2012 ACP: 25% of Southern Baptist churches reported 0 baptisms 60% reported no youth baptisms (age bracket) 80% reported 0-1 young adult baptisms (age bracket) The only consistently growing age group in baptisms is age five and under. II. Owning the Problem and Seizing the Opportunity As pastors and members of this Task Force, we encourage our fellow SBC pastors to join us in owning this problem. Together, we can seize this opportunity to lead our churches and be part of the solution. Each one of us must search our own hearts, reflect on our own leadership, and evaluate our congregations. We must acknowledge this problem through repentance and prayer. We acknowledge: We have a Spiritual Problem. Many of our SBC pastors and churches are not effectively engaged in sharing the gospel and yet continue business as usual. We need a sense of brokenness and repentance over the spiritual climate of our churches and our nation. We have a Leadership Problem. Many pastors have confessed to being overwhelmed in the operation and ministries of the church to the neglect of being involved in regular personal evangelism. This lack of leading by example is negatively impacting our church members engagement in personal evangelism. We have a Discipleship Problem. Many pastors have confessed to focusing on attendance while giving little attention to reproducing fruit-bearing disciples who are involved in intentional evangelism. We have a Next Generation Problem. Although our churches have increasingly provided programs for children, students and young adults, we are not being effective in winning and discipling the next generation to follow Christ. Page 12 of 16

13 We have a Celebration Problem. Many of our churches have chosen to celebrate other things as a measure of their success rather than new believers following Christ in baptism. We have drifted into a loss of expectation. III. Addressing the Problem The Task Force members submit the following recommendations to address the problem. 1. Pray for Spiritual Awakening. With urgency, we must join together in fervent and effective prayer for spiritual awakening in our churches and our nation. 2. Model Personal Evangelism and Provide Pathways. As pastors we must intentionally model and prioritize personal evangelism while providing clear pathways* for our congregations to follow. 3. Create a Disciple-Making Culture. As pastors we must create a disciple-making culture focusing on multiplying disciples who know how to grow in Christ and lead others to Christ. 4. Serve the Next Generation. As pastors we must leverage our influence, activity, and resources to reach and make disciples of the Next Generation. We must renew our focus on equipping parents and church leaders challenging them to make the claims of Christ clear to the Next Generation. 5. Celebrate Evangelism and Baptism. As pastors we must celebrate new life in Christ as people publicly profess their faith through baptism. We must establish an ethos of joy that celebrates the practice of personal evangelism and its fruit. 6. Provide a Clear Pathway: Every pastor must find a way to train their congregation in personal evangelism. We encourage pastors to consider the new evangelism tool NAMB is introducing at the SBC as a way to get started. IV. Renewing Our Commitment As members of this Pastors Task Force, we understand that we personally carry responsibility both for the problem and for the solution to our lack of evangelistic impact. Therefore, we as a group commit to the following actions and invite other pastors and church leaders to join us. Page 13 of 16

14 1. Prayer: We will pray for spiritual awakening in our churches and culture. 2. Personal evangelism: We will share the gospel regularly and provide pathways for our congregations to follow. 3. Discipleship: We will spend time regularly making disciples who know how to share their faith. 4. Next Generation: We will intensify our efforts to reach and disciple the next generation. 5. Celebration: We will emphasize the celebration of baptism and rejoice with those who share their faith. 25. In fulfillment of NAMB s ministry assignment for Evangelism, what is an appropriate percentage allotment of NAMB's total annual budget for Evangelism? What percentage of NAMB's total annual budget was dedicated to Evangelism for budget year(s) 2012, 2013, 2014, and proposed for 2015? General Introducing people to Christ is the ultimate goal of everything we do at NAMB so it is impossible to separate our Evangelism budget from our Church Planting budget because the purpose of a church plant is to reach people for Christ. That s why we can t say what an appropriate allotment for evangelism would be because that implies it is separated out from the rest of what we do. We do have a group at NAMB that focuses on specific areas of Evangelism. Recent budgets for that group: $11,219,000; $11,743,000; $11,845, What new strategies will NAMB undertake to do about SBC churches which have reached a plateau, or find themselves in decline? Please describe the partnership between NAMB and Baptist state conventions to help support churches at risk across the SBC. Over 75 percent of Southern Baptist churches are plateaued or declining, some of which are at risk of closing in the near future. This overwhelming challenge requires a strong partnership between NAMB and state conventions. NAMB considers state conventions best postured to address church health in their specific settings. NAMB s Church Revitalization team contacted state conventions to discuss each state s specific revitalization strategies and conducted church revitalization conferences as a partnership between NAMB and several of these state conventions. Over the past year, almost 4,000 people attended these conferences. While NAMB does not have the formal ministry assignment for church revitalization (that lies with LifeWay Christian Resources), NAMB s vision for church revitalization is a key component to reaching the goal of starting 15,000 churches in North America over the next 10 years. The only way this can happen is to decrease the death rate of our churches while increasing the birth rate of new churches. NAMB believes that as churches engage in proactive missions they will be reactivated and revitalized. Statistics conclude that 72 percent of the churches in the SBC are plateaued or declining. Most state Page 14 of 16

15 conventions are developing plans to serve these churches by addressing issues that encourage church health and leadership training. NAMB is seeking to come alongside our conventions to create an environment of sharing ideas, best practices and networks. Additionally, NAMB offers to serve the churches that have declined to the point that they will soon need to close their doors. In these cases NAMB is offering to provide a path to a Legacy Church plant that envisions a new kind of ministry in the community for the church near death, which could be termed a restart where appropriate. 27. Who, or which division is on point at NAMB for Church Revitalization? Do plateaued or declining churches provide an option for church planters and church planting strategies? Church revitalization is assigned to the Evangelism Group. Chris Emery is on point to discuss the complex issue of church property and revitalization. Some at risk churches desire to reassign or repurpose their property and others desire their property to be used for church plant. John Mark Clifton is on point for the legacy church planting movement. His work includes consulting and coaching two groups legacy church planters and churches that desire to participate in the legacy church planting movement. 28. Are NAMB s church planting strategies and church revitalization strategies surmounting the perennial attrition rates commonly experienced in the SBC? NAMB s Church Revitalization and Legacy Church initiatives are new and there has not been sufficient time to assess their impact on declining church rates. NAMB is confident these strategies, in conjunction with the effective work of state convention partners, will help decrease the death rate among SBC congregations. 29. In NAMB s revitalization conferences, or workshops, what is the expected outcome for the participants? What useful and effective resources and/or tools will participants take home with them, after attending these conferences and workshops? The Revitalization conference outcomes include: 1. The creation of a safe environment in which pastors and leaders can request help with issues of revitalization. 2. Removing the stigma associated with revitalization, so men are less reluctant to acknowledge their need of help. 3. Providing meaningful tools to help pastors learn to work with people of multi generations, overcome financial and relationship obstacles, develop volunteers, serve their community and make disciples who make disciples that result in community transformation. 4. Providing pastors and leaders with much-needed networking, encouragement and relationships that will continue after the conference has concluded. Page 15 of 16

16 5. Giving pastors a better understanding of how to interpret their community, how to develop their own leadership, how to engage that leadership in serving the community. All of this with the desired outcome of making disciples who make disciples that result in community transformation. 6. Exposing participants to a wide variety of models of revitalization and replanting. These models served to encourage and to equip them in their own setting. 7. Illustrating the fact that the primary cause of church decline and death is spiritual warfare. These conferences raise this issue and help us focus on the need for prayer and repentance as foundational to revitalization. 8. Helping pastors and churches remove themselves from the isolation that the adversary desires to use against them as they battle through revitalizing churches. There is great benefit in coming together to pray for and support each other in the midst of such difficult spiritual warfare when partners are replanting and revitalizing churches. Page 16 of 16