The Southern Baptist Convention holds its annual meeting June 10-11 in Indianapolis, which may only rank high on the priority list of SBC members. Still, as the nation's largest Protestant denomination, it is worth noting.

Among other issues, a six-way race for the presidency has various bloggers and other observers doing on-line polls, offering their views on the best candidate or interpreting what it all means.

However, of more significance to Baptists as a whole is a recent warning from outgoing President Frank Page that unless the SBC wakes up, in the next two decades more than half its member churches could vanish.

Shrinking numbers

If convention churches don't start paying attention to reality, by 2030 they could be looking at having 20,000 Southern Baptist congregations instead of the current 44,000, Page told reporters in an interview.

"You've got massive numbers, maybe not a majority but massive numbers of evangelical churches out there," Page said. "Yes, Southern Baptists also, who are small groups of older white people holding on 'til they die."

The pastor of Taylors First Baptist Church of Taylors, S.C., has observations worth heeding regardless of denominational or associational affiliation. He says the SBC must embrace diversity if it hopes to survive and be more welcoming to ethnic groups and younger generations.

That is a positive way of approaching the issue—seeking to reach out instead of grumbling about the factors diminishing the denomination's influence. As acknowledged by Page, those include such factors as lower birthrates, aging demographics and a culture increasingly hostile to faith.

Accentuating the positive

Instead of lamenting such factors, I like the view a Northern California businessman embraces. He told me recently when I was preparing to ghostwrite his testimony for a magazine: "You've got 98 percent of the people around here that don't know God. That's a mission field. My pastor told me, 'You may be the only Christian someone in Marin County ever meets.'"

A former drug dealer who made a fortune before losing it, this man walked out of prison in 1999 after fellow inmates prayed he would be released the next day for time served. That is exactly what happened. Since then, he has wound up with interests in several businesses while being active in prison ministry and other endeavors.

That kind of story is one we all need to hear more often, to remind us that God is still alive, well and involved in rescuing people from terrible ordeals and horrible destinies.

Facing reality

Still, exciting testimonies and maintaining a positive outlook doesn't eliminate the problem of fading membership trends and attendant monetary concerns the Church in America is facing.

Another sign of such woes appeared this spring when the Presbyterian Church USA announced it had signed a contract to lease out approximately 30,000 square feet of office space at its national headquarters in Louisville, Ky.

"We are in a prime area for downtown real estate and it only makes good stewardship sense to take advantage of our location to produce additional funds for mission," said PCUSA official Joey Bailey.

In the past, I've written two stories about downsizing at this denomination, which officials have partially attributed to more churches utilizing donations for hands-on missions instead of forwarding them to the national office.

That is a classic good news-bad news scenario. More Christians getting active in missions work is something we ought to welcome, even if it means smaller national operations overseeing such activity.

The bottom line is the Church is likely to go through more shifts, changes and upheaval in years to come. We must prepare now to face change instead of resisting it, confident that the Lord who created this world knows all about the challenges ahead.