Trevin Wax is in the midst of posting text from an interview he did with Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Here is a link to part 2 of the interview, where Akin answers the following questions:
- When you look our over the horizon of the Southern Baptist Convention, what do you see as the biggest challenge we are facing?
- What do you think are the major reasons for the declining number of baptisms and our shrinking membership?
- Some have said that one of the best ways to evangelize the next generation is to give birth to it and to raise it up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. What should pastors do to encourage people to embrace that vision of having children or adopting children all for the glory of God?
More than anyone else I know among his peers, Akin has his finger on — and openly expresses his opinion on — why young leaders in the SBC — particularly guys that hold to reformed theology — may choose to leave the convention in the next 5-10 years (and why potential young leaders may choose to go elsewhere instead of taking the SBC road).
Akin identifies the biggest challenge facing the SBC as apathy, including apathy in the younger generation:
With the younger generation, I observe apathy in that they do not see why they should buy into the vision of the SBC. They are not too excited about the mechanics of the SBC. They resonate with the fact that the SBC says we exist to take the gospel to the nations, plant churches across North America, and provide good healthy theological education. My observation is that people in their twenties, thirties, and even forties resonate with this vision.
The problem is that they do not see the SBC pursuing those three agendas with laser-beam passion and the kind of focus that they themselves aspire to have. As a result, there are many guys your age that are asking the question, “Why should I be a part of this big behemoth that I feel is wasting way too much money and seems too top heavy and bureaucratic to be worth expending effort and energy. We can just simply take our money, and we can do church planting and missions on our own apart from the SBC.”
I understand that unhappiness, and I understand that dissatisfaction. That is why I, along with a number of others, and in particular the current president of the SBC – that is why we are working very hard to try to steer the SBC in a new fresh direction that would cause young men like yourself and like my own sons to say, “It’s not perfect (of course nothing perfect exists this side of heaven), but it’s the best thing going. I can see why I would be a wise and good steward to invest in what the SBC is trying to accomplish.”