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Posted

Now it’s Tony Evan’s’ time in the barrel. He’s stepping “away”because of “sin.”

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/dallas-county/oak-cliff-bible-fellowship-church-senior-pastor-tony-evans-stepping-away/287-2a83f54a-870c-4df3-acda-045cfd2c54e1

 

DALLAS — Tony Evans, who has served as the senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church for nearly 50 years, announced at services on Sunday he would be stepping away from his duties. 

In a statement, the church said this decision was made after multiple meetings between Evans and the church elders. 
 

The elder board is obligated to govern the church in accordance with the scriptures," the statement reads. "Dr. Evans and the elders agree that when any elder or pastor falls short of the high standards of scripture, the elders are responsible for providing accountability and maintaining integrity in the church."

In a written statement to the church, Evans said the foundation of the church has been its commitment to the word of God as the absolute supreme standard of truth to which they are to conform their lives.

"When we fall short of that standard due to sin, we are required to repent and restore our relationship with God," Evans wrote. "A number of years ago, I fell short of that standard."

Evans said that, while he hadn't committed any crime, he hadn't used righteous judgment in his actions. 

Evans added that Pastor Bobby Gibson and church leadership would keep its members informed on how things will continue moving forward. 

"I have never loved you more than I love you right now, and I’m trusting God to walk me through this valley," Evans concluded. "Thank you for your love, prayers, support, and forgiveness as I continue my spiritual healing journey."

 

 

Posted
  On 6/11/2024 at 6:28 PM, BeardIP said:

Could mean anything, right? "Not illegal, but sinful". That's literally anything and a weird vague "confession".

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“ That Rascal Satan found a toe hold in my faith, and the next thing I knew I was fapping to old wonder woman episodes while dressed like Barbara Bush…with the window blinds open and the children’s choir able to see me.   Let this be a lesson to you, never watch Harry Potter movies! God Bless.”

Posted
  On 6/11/2024 at 6:28 PM, BeardIP said:

Could mean anything, right? "Not illegal, but sinful". That's literally anything and a weird vague "confession".

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He’s either under some serious conviction to come clean, or he’s trying to get ahead of a breaking story in order to control the narrative. His church is known for publicly sin shaming recalcitrant congregants who can’t follow church imposed correction and discipline. The irony is thick here.

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Posted

This matches what I’ve seen in my wife’s former church, and I can flip on their Sunday morning livestreams and see that attendance has been declining for years.  We still receive a few free publications from various Baptist groups and they’ve turned to trying to fundraise a lot more, which correlates with a declining population - gotta get more money out of the remain memebrs,

In 2016, the Southern Baptists:

  • Baptized 271K folks
  • Lost 33K members

In 2022:

  • Baptized 180K folks
  • Lost 457K members

In 2023:

  1. Baptized 227K folks
  2. Lost 241K members

Since 2019:

  • Lost 1.8 million members
  • Baptized 921K
Posted

These numbers make me very happy, having grown up a southern Baptist.  Love seeing people join my club.  Hopefully they aren't losing their members to the crazier parts of Christianity and this is indicative of people coming to their senses.

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Posted
  On 6/12/2024 at 6:51 PM, bolverk said:

Curious how many of those lost members were from deaths by Covid.

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Would love to see those stats.

My uncle from the SB side of the family died of heart failure in his 60s. He refused all treatment stating God had a plan for him, as he would stuff his maw with fried chicken and cheese.

Well you're dead now, so shut up.

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Posted
  On 6/12/2024 at 7:00 PM, Dahobbs said:

I did not realize that Southern Baptist churches could not have women pastors. It is insane that such thought it is still prevalent. 

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I guess…let’s be honest, that’s probably not top five, for me at least, in weird practices among the Baptists.  

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Posted
  On 6/12/2024 at 7:03 PM, LCHorn said:

I guess…let’s be honest, that’s probably not top five, for me at least, in weird practices among the Baptists.  

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I also know next to nothing about Baptists apparently. 

Posted
  On 6/12/2024 at 7:00 PM, Dahobbs said:

I did not realize that Southern Baptist churches could not have women pastors. It is insane that such thought it is still prevalent. 

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  On 6/12/2024 at 7:03 PM, LCHorn said:

I guess…let’s be honest, that’s probably not top five, for me at least, in weird practices among the Baptists.  

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I liked the old pastor at my wife’s old church - solid education, spoke multiple languages, etc., but they ruined the children’s programs, and they even had a guest pastor who went on about child sex trafficking that was the final straw for some, because there kids in the service and parents were hauling them out of there as quickly as possible,

Posted
  On 6/12/2024 at 7:00 PM, Dahobbs said:

I did not realize that Southern Baptist churches could not have women pastors. It is insane that such thought it is still prevalent. 

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Not only is it prevalent, but they're fighting tooth and nail to keep it that way. Think they're voting on it this week. 

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Posted
  On 6/12/2024 at 7:20 PM, atomheartbevo said:

I liked the old pastor at my wife’s old church - solid education, spoke multiple languages, etc., but they ruined the children’s programs, and they even had a guest pastor who went on about child sex trafficking that was the final straw for some, because there kids in the service and parents were hauling them out of there as quickly as possible,

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I grew up in a small town and probably 75% of everyone I knew was Baptist or non-denominational but in congregation that had broken off from a more traditional Baptist church.  
 

There was definitely good people and pastors that cared, so I don’t want to paint with an overly broad brush.  That said, talking in tongues, proposing that the rapture is imminent, anti-Christ lives among us now, etc., it’s all just bananas.  Plus my experience was 20-30 years ago and the world should have (by their predictions) should have ended 5 or 6 times by now.  
 

I’m mostly just amazed that it’s taken this long for membership to fall because membership amongst pretty much ALL organized groups have declined over the past 20 years, and it’s at least correlated with the increase of online activity.  

Posted

My maternal grandfather gave me two pieces of advice when I was young. Never trust a Baptist minister, and it’s not wrong to kill someone who needs to be killed. 
 

Kinda thought the two were related, but he died before I could confirm. 

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Posted
  On 6/12/2024 at 7:28 PM, LCHorn said:

I’m mostly just amazed that it’s taken this long for membership to fall because membership amongst pretty much ALL organized groups have declined over the past 20 years, and it’s at least correlated with the increase of online activity.  

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It's a whole lot of white hairs and young MAGA family types who probably watch that trad wife shit on YouTube.

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Posted
  On 6/12/2024 at 6:31 PM, NameAlreadyInUse said:

These numbers make me very happy, having grown up a southern Baptist.  Love seeing people join my club.  Hopefully they aren't losing their members to the crazier parts of Christianity and this is indicative of people coming to their senses.

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It’s probably a combo of leaving all together, some olds dying including COVID and further radicalization. Unfortunately my way out was to go deeper into the cult first before coming out (pun intended). And before that’s dismissed as a LGBTQ phenomenon, there were hundreds of former SBC members (presumably straight/cisgender) in the charismatic / Pentecostal movement when I was in it. So I think it’s an all of the above situation here. 

Posted
  On 6/12/2024 at 6:31 PM, NameAlreadyInUse said:

These numbers make me very happy, having grown up a southern Baptist.  Love seeing people join my club.  Hopefully they aren't losing their members to the crazier parts of Christianity and this is indicative of people coming to their senses.

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I bet it's a 3 way split: Came to their senses / went full blown cult (Cowboy Church, etc.)/ went prosperity preacher.

Posted
  On 6/12/2024 at 6:54 PM, MissingInAction said:

Would love to see those stats.

My uncle from the SB side of the family died of heart failure in his 60s. He refused all treatment stating God had a plan for him, as he would stuff his maw with fried chicken and cheese.

Well you're dead now, so shut up.

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Well, he wasn’t wrong. 

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Posted (edited)
  On 6/12/2024 at 7:28 PM, LCHorn said:

I’m mostly just amazed that it’s taken this long for membership to fall because membership amongst pretty much ALL organized groups have declined over the past 20 years, and it’s at least correlated with the increase of online activity.  

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It has been falling for 20 years.

 

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Edited by SimonBolivar
Posted

You were saying?

 

https://apple.news/A9KjfvFirSd2WEpOcOuqFeg

The Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday approved a measure opposing in vitro fertilization as “dehumanizing” and asking “the government to restrain” the practice, a sign of the broadening effort by conservative evangelicals and the antiabortion movement since the fall of Roe v. Wade.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Posted
  On 6/13/2024 at 2:11 PM, SimonBolivar said:

It has been falling for 20 years.

 

image.thumb.png.5e46c16d4d9ee27be4c82729248e948f.png

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It seems that is a problematic graph without population context. Quick google says:

1950: 7.08/152.30=4.6%
1978: 13.2/222.6=5.9%
2006: 16.3/298.4=5.5%
2022: 13.2/333.3=4.0%

So they actually peaked in the late 70's, the pure number of congregants likely hid the true falling numbers.

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Posted

The continued decentralization of Christianity is not a "good" thing from the perspective of the loony to non-loony ratio among believers. As the membership in mainline protestant churches decline, their power to prevent the proliferation of heresies such as Trump=messiah dissipates. It may not be long before even the social gospel churches have to turn to full-on fundamentalism to survive.

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Posted
  On 6/13/2024 at 4:27 PM, Sawbonz said:

I think he’s saying dropping SBC rolls doesn’t necessarily mean fewer loonies

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I wonder, what is the number of adherents who left the SBC because they thought it was too liberal, or “woke,” in the contemporary parlance?

Posted
  On 6/13/2024 at 5:07 PM, Bozo_Casanova said:

I wonder, what is the number of adherents who left the SBC because they thought it was too liberal, or “woke,” in the contemporary parlance?

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I don't know, but we need to invest many billions of dollars into finding and sterilizing them for the good of humanity.

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Posted
  On 6/13/2024 at 5:07 PM, Bozo_Casanova said:

I wonder, what is the number of adherents who left the SBC because they thought it was too liberal, or “woke,” in the contemporary parlance?

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Anecdotal, but my parents fall into the former SBC now non-denom camp and they didn't really move for any particular theological or political reason but rather they're in their 60s and all the people at the FBC are in their 80s and their friends go to/run non-denom pop ups now so they do too. There is no real difference outside of the structure of the SBC church missing, ironically.

Posted
  On 6/13/2024 at 5:17 PM, SimonBolivar said:

Anecdotal, but my parents fall into the former SBC now non-denom camp and they didn't really move for any particular theological or political reason but rather they're in their 60s and all the people at the FBC are in their 80s and their friends go to/run non-denom pop ups now so they do too. There is no real difference outside of the structure of the SBC church missing, ironically.

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I'm sure with less structure even more kids are getting molested. 

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Posted
  On 6/13/2024 at 5:22 PM, Bozo_Casanova said:

I feel like the pastor jeans are more sparkly

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Their church has the gall to allow a couple as co-preachers. They'll probably end up in hell with a woman preaching to them every Sunday.

 

I did notice that when I was being raised, we were strictly a Sunday School and Sunday morning service family and that was it as far as our church lives. Now they're much more about small group meetings and skip out on Sundays. Maybe they're swingers for Jesus now or something? I try not to think about it.

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Posted
  On 6/12/2024 at 7:03 PM, LCHorn said:

I guess…let’s be honest, that’s probably not top five, for me at least, in weird practices among the Baptists.  

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At my grandmother's 80th birthday, which was held at the church, I gave her a birthday card.

It was one of those which played music as it was opened.

As soon as she opened it and the music played the Beatles Happy Birthday, one of her congregation snatched it up and threw it outside.

Only the gospel is to be sung.. Ever!

That and women aren't allowed to wear pants.

It is a truly fucked up segment of society. If any group needs to be rounded up and deported it's these lunatics.

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Posted
  On 6/13/2024 at 3:34 PM, Saint Austin said:

Southern Baptist numbers aren't dropping, they're just rebranding. So many are now just joining non-denominational churches that are Baptist in every way but their name.

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100% but as a % of the overall population they are dropping as religious pluralism continues to grow in the US, which is annoying as it feels that they have more power than they've had in decades. 

image.thumb.png.dfafe763e4dfb073a564ee8fd312fa04.png

 

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Posted
  On 6/13/2024 at 5:48 PM, BeardIP said:

Going to church once a week as a compulsory event to check the box, but then never reading the word or growing in your faith during the week, is the epitome of what is wrong with the culture of Christianity in America and has begat a lot of the "Christianity" that non-Christians and Christians alike find to be tragic and unacceptable and ultimately an abomination.

But yea, a whole generation was raised primarily with that type of programming. These people are honestly probably better off not even going that once a week out of obligation/legalism. Going to church doesn't save anyone, as they say.

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They've upgraded to it being a potluck once a week as the obligation, which is better than your weekly Krispy Kreme or Shipley. Also I'm sure small group is probably shorter than sunday school + sermon, but you do lose the smug feeling at McAllister's/Luby's/Picadilly afterwards when you see people not in church clothes.

Posted

Sex abuse = not an issue 

wokeness = a problem that must be eliminated 

fuck the sbc, double fuck sbc members, triple fuck anyone still giving the sbc $$$. May all sbc enablers be sexually abused by your pastor 

 

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Posted
  On 6/13/2024 at 5:31 PM, SimonBolivar said:

100% but as a % of the overall population they are dropping as religious pluralism continues to grow in the US, which is annoying as it feels that they have more power than they've had in decades. 

image.thumb.png.dfafe763e4dfb073a564ee8fd312fa04.png

 

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The media plays it up how evangelicals now blindly support Trump and have stopped caring about family values in their politicians. Perhaps that has always been the case with the remaining evangelicals but they've run off the more righteous believers who have left the church.

Posted

How is it that Norway, which has an actual state religion, has a population that does not give a shit about religion?

My family visited some friends of ours over there a couple of years ago. After a few hugs and greetings it was like: "So America, what the fuck are you guys doing?"

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Posted
  On 6/13/2024 at 5:48 PM, BeardIP said:

Going to church once a week as a compulsory event to check the box, but then never reading the word or growing in your faith during the week, is the epitome of what is wrong with the culture of Christianity in America and has begat a lot of the "Christianity" that non-Christians and Christians alike find to be tragic and unacceptable and ultimately an abomination.

But yea, a whole generation was raised primarily with that type of programming. These people are honestly probably better off not even going that once a week out of obligation/legalism. Going to church doesn't save anyone, as they say.

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This was me every sunday at 12:01, leaving my First Baptist Church.

 

 

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Posted

So, spent a fair amount of time growing up with half of my extended family attending rural SBC-type churches, another part of my youth spent around the Church of Christ etc. . So my question is, what happened to the major issue of demon-possessed music artists making music with subliminal devil messages that you can play backwards on a record player??? Like, the technology actually exists now where you could easily produce music with nefarious hidden messages, but you hear nothing about it. We used to play the Beatles and Blue Oyster Cult backwards and be like, "Holy shit, that's some spooky stuff!".   Record players (largely) went away, but still it seems like they could revive that one. 

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