The Dwingling of the Baptists?
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Not Really.
ARE SOUTHERN BAPTISTS "dwindling"? Recent headlines about the annual meeting of the 16.27 million member Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) refer to its ostensible struggles with membership decline. Having lost 40,000 members last year, America's second biggest religious body was described as "dwindling" by a Washington Post headline, which other media echoed.
In contrast to Mainline Protestant denominations like Episcopalians and Presbyterians, the SBC is overwhelmingly conservative. During the 1980s, conservative Baptists, derided as "fundamentalists" by critics, were alarmed by liberal inroads and solidified their governance of church agencies and seminaries. Southern Baptist and other evangelical churches have enjoyed almost unfettered growth in recent decades, while the once dominant Mainline denominations are now in their fifth decade of decline.
In fairness to the Post, a subsequent article reported that besides last year and 1998, the SBC hasn't suffered a year of membership loss since 1926. By comparison, the once dominant United Methodist Church was surpassed in membership by Southern Baptists 40 years ago and is now outnumbered 2 to 1. Still, the SBC's once surging growth has certainly flattened, and at their annual meeting, the 9,500 SBC delegates fretted about the decline in baptisms and other ill omens.
ARE SOUTHERN BAPTISTS "dwindling"? Recent headlines about the annual meeting of the 16.27 million member Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) refer to its ostensible struggles with membership decline. Having lost 40,000 members last year, America's second biggest religious body was described as "dwindling" by a Washington Post headline, which other media echoed.
In contrast to Mainline Protestant denominations like Episcopalians and Presbyterians, the SBC is overwhelmingly conservative. During the 1980s, conservative Baptists, derided as "fundamentalists" by critics, were alarmed by liberal inroads and solidified their governance of church agencies and seminaries. Southern Baptist and other evangelical churches have enjoyed almost unfettered growth in recent decades, while the once dominant Mainline denominations are now in their fifth decade of decline.
In fairness to the Post, a subsequent article reported that besides last year and 1998, the SBC hasn't suffered a year of membership loss since 1926. By comparison, the once dominant United Methodist Church was surpassed in membership by Southern Baptists 40 years ago and is now outnumbered 2 to 1. Still, the SBC's once surging growth has certainly flattened, and at their annual meeting, the 9,500 SBC delegates fretted about the decline in baptisms and other ill omens.
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