As Southern Baptists gather Tuesday for their annual summer meeting, gloom hangs over the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Perhaps it is not the utter despair wracking the “mainline” denominations — Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and others — who are in statistical freefall, according to the latest Pew Research Center religion study. Indeed, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) stands out as a large, old American denomination that is not in demographic collapse — at least not yet.
Early warning signs may indicate that such a ruinous trajectory is imminent. Last week’s annual report from the SBC’s LifeWay Research showed that multiyear declines in membership and baptisms are accelerating, even as the number of SBC congregations has grown. The SBC lost more than 200,000 members between 2013 and 2014, its largest decrease in over a century. As the 2015 SBC meeting reflects on these disturbing patterns, leaders should consider three steps that can help the SBC not only survive, but thrive.
Read Full Article »