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cleanhippie

(19,705 posts)
Sat Aug 29, 2015, 10:14 AM Aug 2015

Southern Baptist Convention Will Lay Off Hundreds of People as Part of God’s Sovereign Plan

The Southern Baptist Convention is deeply in the red, coming in $21 million under budget. That means they will have to lay off 600-800 people from its International Mission Board.

What’s striking is how they’re trying to let everyone down gently by saying this is all part of God’s Plan:

… God is not surprised by these financial realities. He has reigned sovereign over the IMB for 170 years, and He will continue to reign sovereign over the IMB for years to come. God has reigned sovereign over the direction of each personnel’s life to this point, and He will reign sovereign over these lives in the days to come. Because He is sovereign, IMB leadership encourages all of its personnel to seek Him, and ask Him how and where He is guiding each of them for the sake of His name. IMB leadership believes that, without question, God will continue to lead every one of its personnel on mission. It is expected that the 600-800 people who step aside from the IMB in the next six months will not be stepping “onto the sidelines of mission,” but instead will be moving into a new phase of involvement in mission.


That’s one way to put it.

You’re fired! But don’t take it personally. God just wants you to work from home now… without pay. Even though we might have been able to prevent this by not spending $210 million more than we had over the past six years. But Jesus didn’t come by to say no, so we figured it was cool.

I’m sure God will also wipe away the tears of everyone who’s about to be let go.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/08/28/southern-baptist-convention-will-lay-off-hundreds-of-people-as-part-of-gods-sovereign-plan/
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Southern Baptist Convention Will Lay Off Hundreds of People as Part of God’s Sovereign Plan (Original Post) cleanhippie Aug 2015 OP
Maybe a change in their attitudes may bring former attendees back into the church and they can get Thinkingabout Aug 2015 #1
They should take lessons from the RCC who have figured out how to keep the laity cleanhippie Aug 2015 #2
Wow onecaliberal Aug 2015 #3
The religion business isn't as lucrative as it once was. procon Aug 2015 #4
"the pay to pray revenue" dixiegrrrrl Aug 2015 #5
A big ol' smack from the Invisible Hand. bvf Aug 2015 #6
Maybe they fired the ones who speak in tongues... onager Aug 2015 #7

Thinkingabout

(30,058 posts)
1. Maybe a change in their attitudes may bring former attendees back into the church and they can get
Sat Aug 29, 2015, 10:22 AM
Aug 2015

the money flowing again. I am a former member of a SBC church, became tired of the knife in my belly of the ministers pushing ideas contrary to my early teachings of how Jesus loved everyone. Chase off the contributors and there is less collection in the plate.

cleanhippie

(19,705 posts)
2. They should take lessons from the RCC who have figured out how to keep the laity
Sat Aug 29, 2015, 10:24 AM
Aug 2015

giving their time and money while actively working against the equality the laity wants.

procon

(15,805 posts)
4. The religion business isn't as lucrative as it once was.
Sat Aug 29, 2015, 11:38 AM
Aug 2015

Maybe god should be more surprised that the church leadership didn't get layoff notices too, or voluntary pay cuts, and maybe get rid of some ostentatious bling to save these jobs.

No one should be surprised by their financial woes. Attendance is off, and for good reason, so its understandable that the pay to pray revenue is diminished. God didn't create their financial crisis. People are getting laid off because the church hierarchy decided to align themselves with partisan politics, writing off half the country in the process. It should come as no surprise that aggressively promoting an extreme social agenda that alienates young people, women and gays will result is a loss of revenue. These layoffs were predictable, and they are the result of greed, bigotry, hate and prejudices that is cutting into their business profit margin.


onager

(9,356 posts)
7. Maybe they fired the ones who speak in tongues...
Sun Aug 30, 2015, 04:58 PM
Aug 2015

June 2015 report from Christianity Today:

Other topics likely to be raised at the upcoming meeting include the decision to allow candidates who speak in tongues as possible missionaries. The SBC’s International Mission Board (IMB) made that change earlier this year, in order to allow more Baptists to serve overseas.

A former IMB trustee, who helped put in a place a ban on speaking in tongues more than a decade ago, questioned the new policy, saying it "implies a ‘ya’ll come,’ lowering-of-the-bar openness.”

The article notes that the SoB's lost about 200,000 members last year. Having recently relocated back to the South, I see this all around me. And as a former SoB myself and current atheist, just laugh at it.

Baptists are mostly losing out to the big non-denominational Fundie churches. I hear a lot about acrimonious splits within families. The old folks want to go to their traditional church. The kids and grandkids want to go to the mega-church because it has cooler music etc. The youngsters seem to usually win.

Adding insult to injury, the Mormons have also poached a lot of Southern Baptists in the past few years. Why's that? Dunno, I'm not a Sophisticated Theologian.

More from the CT article:

Frank S. Page, president of the SBC’s Nashville-based executive committee, said that the numbers were disappointing.

“The truth is, we have less people in our churches who are giving less money because we are winning less people to Christ, and we are not training them in the spiritual disciplines of our Lord,” he told Baptist Press...

Translation: we have to find more suckers and fleece them even harder. Otherwise we'll be trading in our Cadillacs for Kias.

The SoBs are getting some new members, ones who probably have no problem reconciling all those Biblical contradictions:

...Baptist leaders also worried about the growing number of preschoolers—those under 6—being baptized from 2005–2010, which was one of the only ages to show growth. The SBC changed its categories in 2011, but young children (those under 11) remain one of the largest groups being baptized. In 2011 and 2012, those under 11 were the largest category, followed by adults over 30.

And I've recently read, on this very board, that millennials are just FLOCKING back to church these days. So this statement must not be true:

There have also been concerns that more than half of SBC churches baptized no millennials.


http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/june/southern-baptist-decline-baptism-church-plant-sbc.html
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