LOUISVILLE, Ky. (June 20, 2009)--Southern Baptist messengers head to Louisville, Ky., for an annual meeting next week that will seek to reverse the denomination's decline.

Southern Baptist churches baptized fewer people in 2008 for the fourth year in a row, and membership in America's largest Protestant denomination fell slightly as well.

The Rev. Ed Stetzer, who heads the Southern Baptists' LifeWay Research division, says in a culture that's become more hostile to the Gospel, some churches have come to view their neighbors as adversaries rather than people who need to be loved.

Stetzer, who'll speak to pastors Monday, says, "I don't think you can simultaneously bury your head in the sand and have your heart in the mission."

Messengers will also vote on a resolution submitted by the Rev. Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, that celebrates the inauguration of President Barack Obama "as a significant contribution to the ongoing cause of racial reconciliation in the United States."

SBC President Johnny Hunt has voiced support for the resolution.

"I think it is certainly a great thing to do, to celebrate the election of an African American," Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Ga., told One News Now, a media outlet affiliated with the American Family Association.

"That was a great day in our country," Hunt said.

"We celebrate it as a country, and I think, [as] Southern Baptists, we can do that."