Changing culture leads to decline in Baptist revivalism, historians say
ATLANTA (ABP) -- The real culprit behind declining baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention might be youth soccer, says historian Bill Leonard.
Because of nightly requirements for church-going families -- including children's sports -- week-long and two-week revivals that were once a mainstay of Baptist life are becoming a thing of the past, Leonard says in the summer/fall 2010 issue of the journal Baptist History and Heritage.
Leonard, professor of church history at Wake Forest University Divinity School, says revival movements of the 19th and 20th centuries not only propelled Baptists from a small sectarian community to America's second-largest denomination but also had an impact on Sunday mornings....
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Because of nightly requirements for church-going families -- including children's sports -- week-long and two-week revivals that were once a mainstay of Baptist life are becoming a thing of the past, Leonard says in the summer/fall 2010 issue of the journal Baptist History and Heritage.
Leonard, professor of church history at Wake Forest University Divinity School, says revival movements of the 19th and 20th centuries not only propelled Baptists from a small sectarian community to America's second-largest denomination but also had an impact on Sunday mornings....