According to the Baptist Press, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a loosing team. The number of new members has dropped again for the third year in a row. The number of new members, registered by the number of baptisms performed, was nearly 19,000 fewer in 2007 than in 2006. This in spite of the fact that they built 473 new churches. Apparently they were simply re-arranging deck chairs on a sinking ship.

Up until a month ago I was a member of a SBC church in San Antonio, TX. I left it because, quite frankly, it was a dead church. I think it had was dead when it was formed simply to give its members a place to worship that was closer to the new neighborhoods they had moved to. The majority of the membership was over fifty years old, and their ideas of church were even older. There was no understanding of anyone born after 1955, and no attempt to reach out to anyone younger than the youngest deacon. The youth department had fewer than twenty active members, despite the fact that thousands of children lived within a two mile radius of the church. And the pastor, rather than being a leader, allowed himself to be controlled completely by the stale old traditions of the stale old membership. The entire church was like a loaf of bread that had a growing amount of mold on it.

The Church of Jesus Christ is supposed to be a living, healthy body. It should always be as fresh as a loaf of bread right out of the oven. For the Church is the body of Christ; and He is a living person. And His message is just as fresh today as it was two-thousand years ago. It is healthy, life giving nourishment food for a starving world. It should not be a stale left over from years gone by. It should not be an old, dry biscuit you throw to a spiritually hungry person just because it is what you have had in your cupboard since your father's days. What the Church presents to the world should be like the wine Jesus presented to the steward at the wedding in Cana; it should be the finest and best any man has ever tasted.

The problem the SBC and many other churches fail to recognize is that the environment they present is one of old, faded traditions, rather than an atmosphere of vibrant life. Walking into many churches is like walking into the lobby of a funeral home. The mood is somber almost to the point of being depressing. The behavior of the occupants is restrained rather than exuberant. And the sermon is an expository description of a life which has very little if any resemblance to that experienced by ordinary, modern man. There is a complete absence of the abundant life promised and practiced by Jesus.

For the church to be a living, growing body, it must be a storehouse of fresh bread of life. It must be a place where the spiritually hungry, tired, unhappy, lonely, and lost know they can go to and always find high quality food for their soul. It should be a place alive with a celebration of life; a place filled with exuberant people joyfully rejoicing and praising God for the great life He has given them. It should be a place where the occupants can't wait for the opportunity to share the bread of life with others. It should be the very real living body of Christ.

If our faith is really alive, then our expression of our faith will be truly alive. If we truly have the abundant life of Jesus in us, then we will abundantly share that life with other. If we are always refreshing and renewing our minds with the Holy Spirit, then we will always have a fresh, new message to present to those seeking to satisfy their hunger and quench their thirst. We will always have a fresh loaf of the bread of life to break with anyone who comes to His table.

May His Spirit guide you and keep you fresh.