Who should join a Southern Baptist church?

[The following is an excerpt from Why I Am a Baptist, Broadman & Holman, 2001, p. 196. The author of that chapter is Donald S. Whitney, an associate professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, MO.]

... One result of admitting the unregenerate to church rolls is that over time the practice tends to dilute the message and liberalize the witness of the church. This is one of the greatest dangers to Baptists today. In our well-motivated zeal to evangelize, we have too often compromised, in practice, our zeal for a regenerate church membership. The annual statistics reported by the Southern Baptist Convention indicate that two-thirds of SBC church members are not in church on a given Lord’s Day. In light of 1 John 3:14 (“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers”), we have a biblical basis for questioning the spiritual condition of the majority of our members.

While there will always be “tares among the wheat” since God alone can see into the heart, surely we need to do a better job of discerning whether those who desire baptism and church membership have truly been born again from above. If we do not, we may soon find that the pool from which leaders and teachers are chosen is filled with unbelievers. Maybe this is why so many churches have such ungodly conflicts and why hundreds of SBC ministers are forcibly terminated each month. We want as much healthy growth as God will give our churches, but not cancerous growth.

[Editorial Comment: Whitney has addressed perhaps the most critical issue facing Southern Baptists today. It really has three aspects: (1) We allow virtually anyone willing to walk an aisle, say acceptable words, and be baptized to become members of our churches. This dilutes, as Whitney said, our message and liberalizes our message. (2) Once on a church role, the only means of removal at most SBC churches are death or voluntary withdrawal ... the latter usually due to moving to another area. This allows non-participating “members” to swing the outcome when a contentious issue comes up. (3) Because we allow the unregenerate to be full members, sin abounds and pastors fear to address it. It is only the rare SBC church that exercises church discipline.

      To remedy this situation: Churches must counsel would-be members to be sure they are regenerate before they are admitted to full membership. Church rolls must be regularly purged of non- or only very occasional participants. Pastors must not shy from addressing prevalent sins, and churches must exercise loving church discipline per Matthew 18. TCP]