EDITORIAL: Changing Texas, changing churches

A Texas Baptist called the other day, seeking help for a new pastor in his community. Just a few years ago, the pastor’s church burst at the seams with members and bustled with activity. Then the neighborhood changed. Anglos began to die off or move away. Yet the church remained distinctively Anglo. So, the Hispanics who bought or rented the vacated homes have shown little or no interest in the once-booming, now-struggling Baptist church.

Is it a church with persistent, perplexing problems, or is it one with plentiful, promising possibilities? The answer depends upon how the members respond and how their new neighbors react.

One thing is certain, though: This congregation sits at the crossroads of Texas. It’s smack in the middle of a demographic intersection, and the barreling traffic of humanity won’t slow for years.

Ironically, Texas Baptists are proportionately—and perhaps psychologically—much better suited to come alongside this church than we were just a decade and a half ago. The Baptist General Convention of Texas’ changing ethnicity highlights research conducted by BGCT information analyst Clay Price and profiled in this edition of the Baptist Standard.

In 1995, the BGCT was 75% Anglo, 14% Hispanic, 7% African-American, 3% Asian and 1% other. By last year, the convention was 57% Anglo, 20% Hispanic, 15% African-American, 3% Asian, 2% Western heritage and 3% other.

Part of the shift can be attributed to the loss of 1,069 congregations—the vast majority of them overwhelmingly white—to a competing convention. But the other part of the trend is racial and ethnic increases, such as gains of 452 African-American and 318 Hispanic churches.

“The compund effect of starting new BGCT non-Anglo churches and losing about 1,000 Anglo churches to the other convention has helped create a very large, ethnically diverse and culturally rich state convention,” Price explained. “The need to continue this trend is evident in demographics. Anglo children and youth in Texas are now declining in number as Hispanic children and youth skyrocket. Baptist churches that once had many baptisms of persons under age 18 are now challeged to reach more Anglo adults as well as turning their attention to children and youth who are non-Anglo.”

Many Texas Baptists may study Price’s numbers with alarm. After all, many older churches and Anglo churches are stagnant or declining. This can be dispiriting, especially if it’s your church.

But we must embrace the reality of demographic shifts and, more importantly, embrace all our neighbors as people created in God’s image. Sure, we want all churches to grow, but we can’t be so concerned that they remain a particular kind of church as they grow. The more tightly we grip what once was, the more surely we strangle what will be.

Now is the time to make sure Texas Baptists look like Texas, not to mention the kingdom of God. And that means doing everything we can to help all our churches mirror their neighborhoods, even when those neighborhoods are very different from what they were not long ago.

The implications are myriad. We must:

• Welcome newcomers of all races and ethnicities into our churches and modify worship to meet the needs of changing communities, while honoring longtime members whose churches have changed before their eyes.

• Equip some churches to become truly multicultural and others to transition from one ethnicity to another.

• Make sure young people of all races and ethnicities get an education through college—and, in the case of ministers, seminary—to ensure trained leadership far into the future.

• Integrate new leadership through every sphere of church and denominational life.

Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard. Visit his FaithWorks Blog.