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Southern Baptists Experiencing Accelerating Decline in Membership
Christian Post ^ | 06/13/2012 | Lillian Kwon

Posted on 06/14/2012 8:42:52 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Membership in the Southern Baptist Convention dropped again over the last year, according to a new report. The largest Protestant denomination in the country now counts less than 16 million members.

This marks the fifth straight year the SBC has lost members. Primary worship attendance has also dropped by 0.65 percent to around 6.16 million.

One Southern Baptist and researcher lamented that the denomination is not only experiencing decline but an acceleration of decline.

Compared to a 0.15 percent drop from 2009 to 2010, membership fell by 0.98 percent from 2010 to 2011.

"Based on the trend of annual percent change in SBC total membership, we are catching up with the Methodists, and will match their decline rate consistently by 2018," said Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, in his blog. "This trend points to a future of more and faster decline -- and it is a 60-year trend."

The Annual Church Profile, compiled by LifeWay Christian Resources, was released Tuesday ahead of the SBC's annual meeting in New Orleans. Thousands of SBC messengers, or delegates, will be converging on June 19 to fellowship, discuss resolutions, and elect new leaders. Perhaps the most anticipated event of the two-day meeting will be the likely election of an African-American as president for the first time in SBC history.

After decades of continuous growth, the SBC, established in 1845, began to see its membership plateau around 2004 as baptisms were on a slow decline. The denomination reported a drop in membership for the first time in many years in 2007. At that time, some predicted the decline would continue.

After reporting its lowest number of baptisms in decades in 2010, the SBC saw an increase in baptisms in 2011.

According to the report, baptisms increased by 0.70 percent to 333,341.

Celebrating the higher number of baptisms, Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay, said in a statement, "God's Word is being proclaimed and God's Spirit is continuing to move in the hearts of people, drawing them to repentance. This is something that should excite us as Christians who care about the Great Commission."

The SBC also added 37 more churches and now counts 45,764 churches. Still, the increase in churches is small compared to previous years, Rainer pointed out.

Despite a little uptick in a few areas, looking at the math, Stetzer says the trend is clear and the SBC needs to "stare reality in the face and fight for our future" rather than merely manage decline like many of the other Protestant denominations.


TOPICS: Current Events; Evangelical Christian; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: baptist; southernbaptist
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1 posted on 06/14/2012 8:42:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

According to revelation, there seems to be both a falling away and a revival in the end.

I now live in “babdis” territory and even attend one regularly. However, nobody has even asked me to join. A friend pastored at one for a year or so and they kicked him out. He said that some members that had been going there for decades could not tell you the difference between the old and new testament. He was trying to rectify that and the “old families” would have no part of it.


2 posted on 06/14/2012 8:47:38 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Christianity is not about numbers. It is about a relationship with your creator, with your relationship with your fellow man coming in a distant second.


3 posted on 06/14/2012 8:49:11 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is all the goal of the Progressives in power across the world. Remove the insistence upon salvation from God and attempt to improve the dependence on the government.

As socialism and communism march across most of the world, the people of the world become wards of their respective states and demand all of their fulfillment from the “mother teat.” When the mother teat attempts to pull away, they dig in their teeth and latch on.

We can’t pull off the leeches without drawing some blood, and when the people are forced back on the street with no hope for help from their precious government, then and ONLY then will the pews fill again.


4 posted on 06/14/2012 8:50:18 AM PDT by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Perhaps even more Madison Avenue-style marketing campaigns will work. /sarc
5 posted on 06/14/2012 8:51:33 AM PDT by fwdude ( You cannot compromise with that which you must defeat.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Any idea if the SBC is really losing members or they are just rebranding themselves into Evangelical megachurches? The biggest megachurch in our area preaches a message so similar to the SBC, you'd swear they were one and the same. I'm guessing SW Pennsylvania yankees just don't like being identified as southerners.

Also, hasn't the SBC been largely successful in not following the PC trendy feel good crap (gay marriage, social justice, queering the clergy, etc.) which has decimated big mainline denominations like the Methodists, ELCA, etc.?

6 posted on 06/14/2012 8:54:01 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Vigilanteman

You may have just hit the nail on the head. Hopefully it’s just a purging.


7 posted on 06/14/2012 9:04:11 AM PDT by Coldwater Creek (He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty Psalm 91:)
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To: SeekAndFind; F15Eagle; .45 Long Colt; Buddygirl; Former Fetus; Bockscar; Graybeard58; JLLH; ...

Baptist ping


8 posted on 06/14/2012 9:04:11 AM PDT by WKB (There are too many coincidences in this world...... for this world to be a coincidence.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Could it be that many of those former Baptists decided to “swim the Tiber” to join the ORIGINAL mega church, the RC Church?


9 posted on 06/14/2012 9:06:20 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Clearly they have not adopted the Democrat platform fast enough. /s


10 posted on 06/14/2012 9:06:34 AM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: rarestia

Pulling back has begun, starting last week in WI.


11 posted on 06/14/2012 9:08:10 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: Vigilanteman

A lot of Baptists have joined mega-churches. That’s not for me, too much socializing and too little gospel preaching in my experience.

However, the SBC is and organization that can grorw or shrink.

Best shrinkage it ever did was when Jimmy left it.


12 posted on 06/14/2012 9:08:10 AM PDT by chesley (God's chosen intrument - the trumpet)
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To: Vigilanteman
Pretty much all over the country, overall Christianity is holding steady. But as megachurches grow, smaller churches shrink.

Some church planting is going on, but it seems the real growth from these planted churches is to "satelite" churches of the megachurches.

Now where I think REAL growth is happening, but is undocumented, and more just my opinion, but is in home churches. I know some people are really getting tired of the megachurch scene, and want family like fellowship. Families, similar to the Duggars, that home school and want to control the environment that their family is raised in, are growing.

13 posted on 06/14/2012 9:14:03 AM PDT by mountn man (Happiness is not a destination, its a way of life.)
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To: WKB
We always get these hit pieces Convention week. My grandson and the Sounds of Liberty will be performing at the SB convention in New Orleans.
14 posted on 06/14/2012 9:16:30 AM PDT by Coldwater Creek (He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty Psalm 91:)
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To: SeekAndFind

There are sevreal problems in the church.

There are those “troublemakers” who have purchased influence from their money and many years of service to the church.

There is also the issue of pastors are not talking about the issues of today. About gender selection abortions, the lack of morals in Government leadership, spending this country into oblivion, etc.

Our church has been without a head pastor for a year because the search is bogged down by committees for this and that, etc.

Our weekly attendance is about half of what it was a year ago.

Only 63 families tithe regularly ... out of a congregation of 700.

I could go on, but am getting depressed.


15 posted on 06/14/2012 9:16:36 AM PDT by fellowgeek (To geek or not to geek.)
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To: chesley
I'm not big on megachurches for much the same reason as you. But they do put on awesome programs for Easter, Christmas and other Christian holidays.

I'll go for the pageantry just for a change of scenery. But my ideal church would be 8 or 10 people gathering in a living room or, better yet, around a campfire up in the mountains.

No knock on megachurches. They are a far better alternative than these hollowed out mainline sects who preach a PC social justice gospel. They just don't happen to be my cup of tea.

16 posted on 06/14/2012 9:19:09 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Interesting.

My wife and I were “members” of a different baptist denomination for 20 years then we moved and started attending a baptist church closer to our new home. We have been there 5 years and attend faithfully and volunteer in many different areas but have not yet “joined” in an official “membership” capacity.

This is interesting as our former church often talked about “membership” and how the younger generation wasn’t really into “membership” but for the most part attend regularly and participated in all the volunteer opportunities that “non-members” could and many wished they could also participate in “members only” opportunities.

I understand the “church discipline” aspect in relation to members/non-members so it is a fine line that churches are walking in order to engage younger “non-member” minded folks.

I agree that a lot of these non-members are very faithful God-fearing people with a deep knowledge of scripture. On the other hand there are “members” that view their church membership as another club like the Elks or other community organization.


17 posted on 06/14/2012 9:20:07 AM PDT by copaliscrossing (Progressives are Socialists)
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To: cuban leaf

AMEN to that. It is not about numbers.


18 posted on 06/14/2012 9:21:53 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: SeekAndFind
Membership in the Southern Baptist Convention dropped again over the last year, according to a new report. The largest Protestant denomination in the country now counts less than 16 million members.

This marks the fifth straight year the SBC has lost members. Primary worship attendance has also dropped by 0.65 percent to around 6.16 million.

My question is, is this a genuine loss, or are some SBC congregations cleaning the "never shows" out of the rolls?

I know some in the SBC have expressed concern about over inflated membership numbers -- folks are counted as members who walked the aisle, got dunked in the name of the triune God, and (heedless of the dire imagery of baptism) never darken the door of the local church again. The "shallow soil" folks.

19 posted on 06/14/2012 9:21:53 AM PDT by Lee N. Field ("And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" Gal 3:29)
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To: SeekAndFind

I’ll bet it’s the relatively liberal congregations that are declining. That would be in concert with the rest of American Protestantism. In 20 years there will be two kinds of Protestants remaining: Evangelical Protestants and Dead And Gone Protestants.


20 posted on 06/14/2012 9:32:20 AM PDT by cookcounty ("We're all born idiots, and we only get over that condition as we get less young." -J Goldberg)
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