During the quiet hour in our house today, I listened to this message by evangelist Voddie Baucham. All I can think to say is, I can’t believe he got away with it. If you are pressed for time, at least listen from 25 minutes until the end. He speaks on the state of the Church and how to close the generation gap.

Citing the current American birthrate of 1.9 children per family, he tells a group of Southern Baptists pastors: The French birthrate of 1.5 children per family, for example, is not only below the replacement rate, it is overshadowed by Muslim immigrants, who average six children per family. “Which means in two generations France will be a Muslim nation by sheer numbers alone,” Baucham said. “Why? Because they want prosperity more than they want children. And it’s the same for us.”

Further on, he states that the unwritten rule among Southern Baptists and others is two children per family: “We despise children in the Southern Baptist Convention. You don’t believe me? Find a woman who has six or seven children and follow her into a Southern Baptist church and watch the way we mock her. Watch the way people who don’t even know her come up to her and say, ‘Haven’t you guys figured out how that happens yet?’”

I especially appreciated his take on the Biblical qualifications of an elder, particularly being addicted to wine and ruling one’s household: “We’ve taken one quality and raised it, and the other quality and lowered it…” He calls us to repent and adopt a Biblical view of children, youth ministry, and church leadership.