Integrity In Church Membership

Integrity as defined by Websters dictionary is a firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic value. I have also heard a colloquial definition of integrity that says integrity is doing the right thing even when no one else is looking. Both of these definitions are sufficient but unfortunately neither of them can be strictly applied to the record keeping of many Southern Baptist churches.

The issue of integrity in church membership has been debated for years in small groups and behind closed doors. It has not, however, seen as much attention (for obvious reasons) like it has recently. Dr. Tom Ascol, pastor, and executive director of Founders Ministries has spearheaded a movement to discuss the issue in Southern Baptist circles. His ill-fated attempt to bring the issue to a vote at the Southern Baptist Convention this past June can be viewed by clicking on this link: SBC Integrity In Membership Video. Unfortunately, Dr. Ascol's resolution in support of church integrity was dead on arrival. Why you might ask? Good question, and frankly, I have no good answer.

What is encouraging, however, is that despite the lack of cooperation on the part of the SBC committee on resolutions, the issue is gaining steam among grassroots Southern Baptists. This issue also made its way into a feature article in the August 07 edition of Christianity Today. The CT article entitled, "Statistical Shell Game" talks about how Southern Baptists have boasted 16 million members when in fact the number is closer to 6 million. I guess we need to beef up our cooperative fund contributions to our SBC colleges for improving the math skills of our future pastors. Anyway you look at it, we need accountability. How can we expect to have a healthy church if half the members on our rolls couldn't even be found by the FBI? Its time for pastors and churches to lovingly practice church discipline and personal integrity no matter what the consequences. If we don't take this seriously then we run the risk of being relegated to the level of the charlatan hucksters that ran Enron into the ground. The time to practice integrity in membership is now!