Editor’s note: See related story about laymen’s importance in the SBC here.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Laymen serve in their churches as deacons and elders, Sunday School teachers, committee members, disaster relief volunteers and in various boards and committees of the Southern Baptist Convention and 40-plus state Baptist conventions.
SBC bylaws, in fact, stipulate that at least one-third of trustees of the convention’s entities “be those who are not church or denominational employees.”
Yet the history of laymen in Southern Baptist life once included the Brotherhood Commission in Memphis, Tenn., which closed in 1997 as part of the SBC’s Covenant for a New Century restructuring when the North American Mission Board was created in a merger of the Home Mission Board, Radio and Television Commission and Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood Commission, founded in 1907, had focused on missions education and involvement among men and boys – once marked each year by Layman’s Day, adopted by the convention in 1932 “to have every pulpit in the Convention occupied by a layman, who shall speak on Missions.”
A new podcast, the “Brotherhood Remnant,” is now sharing memories of the Brotherhood Commission and a flickering hope for renewed lay involvement in the SBC.
Its creator, Tim Yarbrough, with co-host Rob Carr, aims to “connect current and former employees, state leaders and friends of the Brotherhood Commission by sharing stories and interviews recounting its significant work and rich history.”
Yarbrough served as men’s editor of Brotherhood’s World Mission Journal from 1989-1995 and was a member of the launch team for the former Brotherhood-initiated World Changers student community service program. Yarbrough later served as NAMB’s church relations director from 2002-2010 and editor of the Arkansas Baptist News journal from 2011-2020.
Carr was on state Brotherhood staffs in Illinois and Kentucky from 1982-1998 and worked at NAMB in mission education for men and boys from 1998-2010.
Among interviewees on the podcast: Jack Childs, Brotherhood’s longest-serving employee at 36 years who was vice president for support services when it closed in 1997. Childs wrote a paper for a 2009 research class he took at the University of Memphis titled, “Whatever Happened to the Brotherhood Commission? A Brief History and Examination of the Mechanics, Causes and Effects of Its Demise.”
Over its 90-year existence, Carr described the Brotherhood Commission as “a presence and a voice for hundreds of thousands of laymen who got connected to the overall mission of the SBC and the cause of Christ.”
“The Brotherhood Commission gave laymen vision, objectives and resources for missions and ministry,” he said in an interview via email. “It valued ‘churchmanship’ beyond just sitting in the pew and passively listening to Sunday messages. … Brotherhood challenged men to mentor boys and young men to show that following Christ was something a man could do.”
In churches where it gained a foothold – though far from a majority in the SBC – Brotherhood typically entailed a monthly Baptist Men’s breakfast on Saturdays with a guest speaker and a midweek curriculum-based Royal Ambassadors program for boys in grades one through six focused on missions.
Printed materials included magazines for men and boys, teachers’ guides, leadership manuals and promotional materials. Regional rallies, training events and outdoor camps were held. Some churches extended their reach to boys in grades seven through 12 through Brotherhood’s Challengers program.
(RAs now resides with its 1908 originator, Woman’s Missionary Union. It was transferred back to WMU in 2011 from the North American Mission Board, which had conducted the program after the Brotherhood Commission’s closure in the SBC restructuring.)
Brotherhood men pioneered Southern Baptist disaster relief work, now a national leader in aiding communities struck by such traumas as hurricanes, tornadoes and flooding. And Brotherhood initiated the coed World Changers program, which was transferred to Lifeway Christian Resources after the SBC restructuring. World Changers ended in 2020 amid COVID-19, having involved more than 400,000 students and adults in its 30-year history.
More than 750,000 men and boys were participating in Brotherhood programs in their churches, according to SBC records for 1995-1996 before its closure.
Brotherhood, Yarbrough said, gave laymen “a larger, overarching purpose within the work of the local church.”
“It reinforced Southern Baptist knowledge, heritage and missionaries among men and boys, and ingrained the importance of churchmanship, stewardship, service and prayer for the work of Southern Baptists,” Yarbrough said via email. “Through Brotherhood programs, Baptist Men regularly and systematically mentored boys to live godly lives and learn important skills for life. (Its programs) also were instrumental in reaching unchurched boys and young men.”
‘Unintended consequence’
Whether on a global or local scale, men want to be engaged in “activities they believe matter and contribute to the success of the organization,” said Lloyd Harsch, professor of church history and Baptist studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. “They will gladly serve if there is a purpose to what they are doing.”
After World War II, Harsch noted, most Southern Baptists attended churches with fewer than 200 people. “Apart from the pastor, the only other employee would be a part-time secretary or janitor. The majority of ministry positions were filled by volunteer laypersons.
“Today, more and more Southern Baptists worship in larger congregations with staff having specialized responsibilities,” Harsch said via email. “Larger churches have the advantage of having greater financial resources and the ability to offer more specialized programs for families. In addition, Southern Baptists have moved up the economic scale. Where once we expected laypeople to assume ministry leadership, we now look to hire someone.
“The unintended consequence is that church life has become more professionalized, resulting in fewer opportunities for laypersons to serve in leadership in many churches. In addition, when they compare themselves to paid staff, laity can feel inadequate for leadership since they have no formal training.”
Alongside the demise of Sunday evening services and its tandem Training Union or Discipleship Training hour, Rex Butler, recently retired professor of church history and patristics at NOBTS, observed, “Many nominally Christian families have become less churched. They are less interested in church activities beyond Sunday morning worship and have opted instead for a myriad of other options for their time, most famously, sports and various extracurricular activities for their kids. And of course, the growing demographic in most communities are the ‘nones’ or unchurched families.”
Yet, for active Christians wanting to grow in their knowledge and experience of Christ, discipleship can still occur, Butler said via email. He calls one possible approach “taking the classroom to the church” by seminary professors in person and by Zoom. Among the courses he has taught for churches: “Being Baptist,” “American Christianity” and “Turning Points in Church History.”
“Our church folks are eager to learn from a variety of disciplines – theology, apologetics, philosophy, ethics, Old and New Testament studies as well as practical subjects like evangelism and missions,” Butler said. “My colleagues at NOBTS as well as educators from other Southern Baptist seminaries and Baptist universities have connected with thousands of churches to share their expertise with eager learners.”
Contact the president or provost of one of the SBC’s seminaries to explore the possibilities, Butler suggested.
In missions education, Woman’s Missionary Union offers a program for boys in grades seven through 12 called Challengers in addition Royal Ambassadors for grades one through six. And there’s the coed Youth on Mission for grades six through 12. Each church-based program comes with a magazine-type resource for participants and teaching helps for adult leaders.
For girls, WMU’s longstanding programs are Girls in Action (GA) for grades one through six and Acteens for grades seven through 12. For church-wide use, there’s myMISSION for collegiate and young women; Women on Mission; and Adults on Mission. For more information, go to wmu.org.
As for boys and men specifically, Carr stated, “The uniqueness of the Brotherhoods nationally, in the states, associations and the churches was they listened to men who had an idea, and those men were willing to stake their time, resources and themselves towards that idea. It was a bottom-up as well as a top-down system. It was where laymen could be free to express their passion for sharing the Gospel in their way.
“But when you tell men, ‘Thanks but no thanks,’ their resources go with them. Brotherhood as an organization is dead, but amid death comes life,” Carr said, citing Jesus’ words in John 12:24: “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
The Brotherhood Remnant podcast, with “men telling their Brotherhood stories to others who are listening [may be] the spark that will call younger men to aspire to combine evangelism, stewardship, worship, education, ministry and mission into an organization that will rise into a movement once again,” Carr said. “I believe this kind of motivation and inspiration is out there waiting to be born into the next generation of men, young men and boys.”
SOURCE NOTES
“A Million Men for Christ: A History of the Brotherhood Commission,” Archie E. Brown, Convention Press, 1956.
“A Historical Analysis of the Southern Baptist Brotherhood Commission as a Layman’s Movement,” John Malcolm Adkins, Dissertation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, May 1989.
