Developing a Missiology for the Bible Belt (the South)

I have been thinking a little about this lately. What does a proper missiology look like in the Bible Belt? Missiology is basically defined as the study of the mandate, message, and mission of the church as it relates to and proclaims the gospel among varying cultures, tribes, peoples, and nations.  Church attendance and participation is falling in the South. Churches are dying. Less people are claiming to be Christian every year. It seems that many in the South have been innoculated against the real gospel because they have just had a taste and they think that what they have experienced is all that there is. Southern Baptist leaders are calling for a Great Commission Resurgence, but much of the rhetoric so far has been a call to try harder and do more evangelism. Considering that fact that the church is having less and less influence in the South and the South is a fairly distinct culture in the United States, what would an appropriate missiology look like for this part of the country?  How do we make full-blown disciples of Christ in a Southern context?

Some questions come to mind:

• Do Christians in the South see our own land as a mission field? Are we aware of our own culture and the barriers and bridges to the gospel that exist in the South? What is unique about the South and it's culture, both good and bad?
• Do we understand the gospel and how to relate the gospel to this culture in a way that produces disciples of Christ and not just cultural Christians?
• How has the gospel that has been preached in the South been different from the gospel preached elsewhere and what were the causes/effects of that difference?
• How has the history of the South affected the churches and the message?
• What affect has the division caused by the sin of racism had on the abiltiy of the church (both white and black) to reach the South for Christ?  How can we address that both theologically and practically? What would it take to begin to see multicultural missional churches spring up all over the South?
• What role have the twin idols of personal preference and consumerism had on the church and the spread of the gospel in the South?
• What does cultural Christianity look like in the South and how has the church fallen captive to it? What have the results been?
• How will the church in the South pass on a vital faith to future generations and reach the native population of this land with the gospel in the future, especially with the widening gap between the Biblical church and culture?

I am surprised that this is not being talked about in our Southern Baptist seminaries or Bible colleges. It seems that our theologians and missiologists do little actual thinking in regard to our current context and how the church is to propel the gospel forward right here at home. I am afraid that the church in the South (the SBC in particular) is facing some difficult days. Are we even thinking about it? Are we giving thought to what it might take to reach a new generation? Are we exegeting our own culture?  In a short amount of time, relatively speaking, we are going to see a great exodus from our churches as the generation that is keeping them open begins to die off. With the South holding the largest concentration of Southern Baptists, what does this mean for our national presence and global missions?

I am convinced that God is speaking to us if we will but listen. There is always hope for a people that truly turns to Him. We must first look within at our own hearts and strengthen what remains. Then, we must come to understand what the gospel really is and what it is actually saying about God, humanity, sin, and redemption. We must take a look at the church and our mission. We must discern critically the culture in which we live. We need to learn to think like missionaries and join God where He is working. It isn't impossible. But, the question remains: have be so bought in to the lies of our culture that we are unable to extricate ourselves from its grip and speak prophetically to it? 

So I ask you: What would a missiology for the South that makes true disciples of Christ and plants missional churches look like?  What would we need to change? 

Comments

[mike]

wow, excellent post with some great questions! did you grow up in the south? i grew up in central arkansas and didn't become a serious christian until about age 19 or so.

it's an entirely different dynamic in the south. everyone thinks they know about Jesus. lost people in schools and at work think they know about him and think they know who've they've rejected. churches are full of people who also know Jesus, yet go to church on sundays and fellowships and stuff, which distinguishes them from everyone else. that ends up being ENOUGH of a distinction - simply going to church.

i'm not saying every church is like that - too the contrary, there are great, evangelistic, authentic churches all over the south. but the culturally-christian churches perpetuate the discontent and misperceptions of the unchurched.

the south has it's own dynamics and is in desperate need of missional strategy and helpful ideas of how to get the Jesus of the bible back in some churches and to the lost.

[Bob Cleveland]

I'm only familiar with one SBC church, to any real degree, but it strikes me that the church is just so programmed out, that people don't see any personal responsibility in all this. They'll take part in a program if it interests them, but as far as educating folks as to their personal responsibility to be a part of the body, and ACT LIKE IT, I just haven't seen enough of that to grow the work when the programs get old.

I don't know whether I'm happy or sad that I'm not a pastor.

[Les Puryear]

Your question is similar to my post about what would an indigenous church plant look like in the USA. (http://lesliepuryear.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-would-indigenous-church-plant-look.html). I would love for someone to develop this Southern indigenous church plant idea from a missional perspective. I think it's important.

Les

[Rick Boyne]

Do we want to continue to call it the "Bible Belt" or should be start to describe it more accurately as the "Religious Belt"? (I think I got that from Kevin Bussey, but I don't remember for sure)

[Bryan Riley]

Rick asks a great question. I think we need to put the focus back on Jesus and dump all the religious trappings we've wrapped ourselves in. We need to remember who Jesus is and what He has called us to. We need to be made disciples, and make disciples, of Jesus, the Jesus we see in the gospels, not the Jesus our culture, whether it is the consumerist America or the bible belt culture, has created.

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