Let’s play a game.
Peyton Manning; Reggie White; Al Wilson.
Question: What do they have in common?
Well, the answers are many. They were great and iconic football players at the University of Tennessee, and they are members of the College Football Hall of Fame. And they are quintessential “Vols for Life.”
The correct answer is all three are immortalized in giant photos outside UT’s Neyland Stadium. But would they still be Volunteer legends if they’d had access to today’s Name, Imagine and Likeness (NIL) deals and open transfer portal? Or would they have “chased that bag” to Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Ohio State, or another program offering bigger paydays?
The devotion to programs like Tennessee’s is built on the legacies of former players. Vols fans are Vols fans because of Manning, White, Wilson, Gault, Bates, Martin, Berry, Witten, Shuler, Holloway, Little, Dobbs, Hooker, Kent and Price. Vols fans know the first names.
Unfortunately, nostalgic traditions of college football have been sacrificed on the altar of personal profit. According to companies tracking athlete compensation, Division 1 college football players had access to more than $1.4 billion – billion – in NIL compensation in 2022.
According to NBC Sports, 11,000 of approximately 26,500 D1 football players entered the transfer portal during 2023-2024. With this season’s end, some players are entering “the portal” for the fourth time. Fourth time! The money, number of transfers and frequency of transferring is projected to escalate with each passing year.
What’s the point in learning player names anymore if they are here today and gone tomorrow? Where’s the player loyalty? The commitment? The perseverance? The personal growth? The idea of contributing to a cause much greater than oneself?
What about the church?
And that’s when I thought about church.
A 2022 Lifeway Research study indicated Baptist church attendance has significantly decreased over the past several years, and a 2021 Pew Research survey found that Southern Baptist church attendance was declining faster than that of other Protestant denominations, due to younger generations attending less frequently.
SBC statistics found at SBC.net and updated July 2024 report a decrease of 3.4 million members from over 16 million in 2006 to just under 12 million in 2023. That same report lists weekly church attendance at about 4 million and weekly small group attendance at 2.4 million. Stated differently, only 31% of SBC membership attends church weekly and an abysmal 18% is engaged in weekly small group Bible study.
Where’s the loyalty? The commitment? The perseverance? The personal growth? The idea of contributing to something much greater than oneself?
Of course, church attendance and membership matter far less than the command to make disciples. Those who attend church or who are non-committed members often “hit that portal” and bounce from church-to-church seeking what a church or a pastor can do for them rather than staying put and investing in a single local church. And then there are those members who “ride the bench” hanging around because they enjoy being a part of a team but don’t contribute much of anything to a cause bigger than themselves.
Get off the bench
There are certainly opportunities to get off the bench and into the game. How many unfilled opportunities are there in local churches for laypeople to invest in the nursery, preschool and children’s ministries perpetually strapped for support? Or Bible drill? Or kids’ missions organizations? Or ushers? Or Sunday School teachers? Or VBS volunteers? Or visiting widows? Virtually every church has camping on its pews the human resources to fill every ministry need, yet unengaged members sit by and watch their churches struggle.
Disciples show up, invest, persevere and take ownership of their personal growth and the growth of others for the advancement of the mission. Sadly, it is apparent that Southern Baptists have far more members than they do disciples. It’s time to own that reality and change it.
Tennessee Baptists apparently have. After two years of work groups hashing through thousands of data points harvested from countless Tennessee Baptists, discipleship needs were identified as significant priorities in the Acts 2:17 Initiative, right behind ministerial development (which begins with discipleship and church involvement). With a vison to be a collaborative network of spiritually healthy churches reaching Tennessee and beyond for Christ, Tennessee Baptists have a clear vision that compels them forward until every Tennessean hears the gospel.
And God willing, with loyalty, commitment and perseverance, they will be a part of something far greater than themselves.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Chris Turner and originally published by Baptist and Reflector.
