My blog for this week deals with my seventh point. It reads:

“I will seek to address the current perception by many young Baptist leaders and future Baptist leaders that participating in the creation and structure of the policies of the Southern Baptist Convention and Seminaries will offer an understanding of why current practices exist within the SBC, practical courses on the policies of the Southern Baptist Convention, and even a forum wherein they have a voice for initiating change. Motivating and training a new generation of leaders ready to advance the Kingdom of God with the understanding that the SBC can be a world-changing movement is critical for the future of the denomination,”

I must admit that I received help in writing this point. I gathered some young potential leaders together and we discussed what needed to be done. The result was the development of the above point. Young leaders feel left out of the governance of the SBC. They see “The Old Guard” running the convention and fail to see much change taking place. Development of future leaders is critical. We have been told that the average age of those who attend the convention is getting older each year. The youth of our convention have simply decided that it is not worth their time and energy to attend.

Our younger pastors and laypeople who are between the ages of 25 to 45 have great ideas and are ready to work for the building of the Kingdom of God. We as Southern Baptists have truly been blessed with a great crop of creative young minds. We must find ways to bring them into positions of leadership.

Just this last week, it was announced that the convention for the first time ever decreased in membership, and for the third straight year the number of baptisms decreased. One newspaper asked me to make some comments on what we, as Southern Baptists, need to do to change this downward direction. My answer is simple. Look at my points numbered 2,3,7,9, and 10. Here are some practical ways that we can put new life into the convention and put us on an upward spiral again. It should be noticed that I included point number 7. This is what we are now discussing.

How do we get the younger generation active? Here are three suggestions:

1. Make an effort to talk with them using their own means of communication. The internet is one of the best ways. Let our leadership begin to use the internet to communicate. We as a convention are light-years behind in this modern use of technology.
2. Appoint more young leaders to the Boards. There is value in having older mature people on the Boards, but I feel that the present makeup is loaded too much in favor of age and not enough towards youth.
3. Have courses in our Universities and Seminaries that help students understand the inner workings of the convention. Even thought I have been involved at several layers of responsibilities in the life of the convention, I still do not fully understand how it functions. A course would have been helpful to me. Younger people need to have this knowledge.

If I am elected president I will make every effort to create new forms of communication with our younger leaders. I will also encourage our schools to create new courses of study that motivate younger people to become involved. Let’s bring younger men and women into the decision making apparatus of the Southern Baptist Convention.