BALTIMORE – A candidate to head the nation’s largest Protestant denomination has told his fellow pastors that he understands their discouragement.
The Rev. Ronnie Floyd told pastors gathering in Baltimore for this week’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention that on the way home from a busy Sunday at church he’s often ready to resign.
The pastor of Cross Church in Springdale, Arkansas, lamented the denomination’s continuing decline in baptisms and said Southern Baptist leaders need to seek “the glory of God” if they’re to lead the nation to another great awakening.
Floyd’s appeal to return to the basics of the gospel was echoed by the Rev. H.B. Charles. The pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, said too many churches offer people the same things as the world but simply dress it up in religious terms.
Charles added that some congregants are too prepared to bolt for another church if their expectations aren’t met.