Hunt: Growth, change in future for Southern Baptist Convention

Underwood - Church growth and other planned changes are on the way for the Southern Baptist denomination, according to Johnny Hunt, president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Hunt was in the Shoals on Wednesday night at Underwood Baptist Church. He was the guest speaker on the final night of the church's annual Bible conference. The event began Sunday.

Jason Moore, associate pastor at Underwood, said Hunt was invited because his message would coincide with the challenges faced not just at Underwood but at other churches.

"Each speaker we've had since Sunday has challenged us as a church to refocus our priorities, and that is to put Christ first and to reach the lost," Moore said. "These are things we're called to do in the community, and (Hunt's) message is a culmination of that as a call to action for Christ."

Hunt was elected for his second term as president at the Southern Baptist Convention in June. The convention is held every other year. Hunt is the pastor at the First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., just outside of Atlanta.

Southern Baptists are among the most numerous in the Protestant Christian faith in the United States and the Shoals.

During his tenure as president and even before, he said he's seen the denomination become stagnant, with dips not just in membership but in actual number of Southern Baptist churches.

"We need to get serious about planned church growth in our major metropolitan cities," Hunt said. "One hundred years ago, most of the population was in rural areas; the denomination is 145 years old. We've stayed where we are, but the people have moved away. We've got to get back to the people and where they are."

He said one of his goals as president is to establish more churches in the 100 largest cities in America.

Hunt also said more of the denomination's money needs to be dedicated to mission work abroad. One of the goals of Southern Baptists is to do missionary work, which often includes establishing churches and baptizing individuals into the faith.

"We've got a lot of missionaries ready to go, but there's not a lot of money to send them, and it's not because of the economy," he said. "Fifty-eight percent of every dollar given to the state's cooperative organizations stays in the state, and that's too much in my

opinion."

Despite recent surveys from the Pew Forum for Research on Religion and the Public Life that indicate more and more Americans don't identify with an organized religion, Hunt said Christians, especially Southern Baptists, just need to do a better job of preaching the word of God.

"Indications I'm hearing show that more Americans are desirous of hearing the message than churches are there to tell," he said.

Hunt will be back in Alabama in November to be the guest speaker at the state's pastor's conference at Lindsay Lane Baptist Church in Athens.

Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or michelle.eubanks@TimesDaily.com.