Southern Baptists Decline in Baptisms, Make Evangelism First Priority
A new report on the Southern Baptist Convention gave a wake up call to members of the largest U.S. Protestant denomination to get its churches refocused back to the basics of evangelism.
Correction appended
A new report on the Southern Baptist Convention gave a wake up call to members of the largest Protestant denomination in the United States to get its churches refocused back to the basics of evangelism.
In the Annual Church Profile (ACP), Lifeway Christian Resources showed a decline in the number of baptisms this past year by 4.15 percent, a number that had rebounded last year after a four-year decline, according to Lifeway President and CEO Thom S. Rainer. Baptisms in 2005 numbered 371,850.
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Dr. Kenyn Cureton, vice president of convention relations for the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, expressed disappointment in the plummet but noted the profile as just a "snapshot" of the denomination's annual numbers.
Not all of the denomination’s 43,000 member churches provide their church profiles or answers to every question each year.
"The truth is that thousands of churches don't turn in their church profiles on an annual basis," explained Cureton.
Although the statistics are not based on a centralized database, Cureton, who called it "inexact science," agreed with Rainer's comment that this should be a "wake up call."
"We could've had a decline in annual baptisms and we may not have," he said. "But we've reported a decline.
"When you see numbers like that, you're disappointed even though our total membership did go up slightly, baptisms went down significantly."
Membership rose by 0.02 percent and the number of churches increase by 0.54 percent.
Lower numbers were also seen in enrollment for Sunday School, the Women's Missionary Union and men/boys mission education.
Lifeway's report, however, indicated a significant increase in total offerings. Receipts totaled more than $10.72 billion compared to the previous year's $10.17 billion. Donations to relief efforts for the recent hurricanes and tsunami may have caused a sharp rise in collected funds, noted Cureton.
"We've done a lot of good."
Southern Baptists disaster relief ministries have provided unprecedented aid to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the South Asia tsunami. Cureton said $21 million were given to hurricane relief efforts alone.
The hurricanes may also have affected the churches participating in the annual report. Although uncertain, churches in hurricane-affected states that have not met for a while may have had some impact on the 2005 statistics, Cureton noted.
In any case, Southern Baptists are going back to the basics to focus on reaching the lost. SBC President Bobby Welch launched a yearlong campaign – the "Everyone Can" Kingdom Challenge – last October, looking toward baptizing one million people.
"We're in the middle of a campaign that actually addresses the decline in baptisms," said Cureton. "We're hoping to get people refocused on that primary mission.
“Evangelism needs to be priority one again."
While specific baptism numbers are yet undetermined, Cureton mentioned anecdotal reports they have received from churches that have been "very promising."
The Southern Baptist Convention recently saw the resignation of its missions agency head, Dr. Bob Reccord, as president of the North American Mission Board. Cureton briefly commented, "We're much in prayer for his successor."
Correction: Saturday, April 22, 2006:
An article on Thursday, Apr. 20, 2006, about a new report by Lifeway Christian Resources on the Southern Baptist Convention rendered a phrase incorrectly in a quotation in which Dr. Kenyn Cureton, vice president of convention relations for the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, made note of Dr. Bob Reccord's resignation as president of the North American Mission Board. Commenting briefly, Cureton said, "We're much in prayer for his successor." He did not say, "We're much in prayer for his success."
