Southern Baptist Convention Continues to Lose Members

The Southern Baptist Convention ("SBC") seems to be in a competition with the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy in terms of who can be the most virulently anti-gay (the Mormon Church has seemingly dropped out of the competition given its support of the Boy Scouts of America's policy change that allows openly ay scouts until they reach age 18 and then are unceremoniously thrown out.)   And like the Catholic Church in America, the SBC is steadily losing membership, although the full extent of the losses are hidden since, like the Catholic Church, individuals are kept on membership rolls even if they have not attended services in decades (I was only removed from the Catholic Church membership only after I contacted the local bishop's office and asked that I be purged from all membership rolls).  A story in Baptist Press looks at the SBC's growing problems.  What's amazing are some of the lunatic reasons given for the decline that blame everything but the denomination's increasing insanity.  Here are some highlights:

Annual baptisms in Southern Baptist churches have declined by 100,000 in the last 12 years, last year dropping to the smallest number in 64 years.

LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention released figures June 5 reporting 314,959 baptisms in 2012, down 18,385 – or 5.5 percent – from 2011.

Total membership of 15,872,404 marked the sixth straight year of statistical decline for the nation’s second-largest faith group behind Roman Catholics. Membership dropped by 105,000 – two-thirds of a percent. Weekly worship attendance, meanwhile, fell below 6 million to 5,966,735, down 3 percent.


Concerned leaders offer various explanations for the trend, which experts say began in the 1960s.


Ed Stetzer, head of LifeWay Research, has suggested that the “conservative resurgence,” while affirming the convention’s commitment to the Bible’s truthfulness, failed when it comes to evangelism.

"Satan has used our incessant bickering over non-essentials to promote his last great mission on earth -- to keep lost people lost," Stetzer wrote on his blog in 2008. "The communities in which we live simply do not want to hear what we have to say when we cannot speak kindly to one another."

Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, contends in his new book I Am a Church Member that evangelicals have shifted toward a “me first” rather than “others first” attitude, viewing church membership as something similar to joining a country club that caters to their needs. 

While most key metrics in 2012 showed decline, there was a modest increase in the number of churches – up 270 from the previous year to a total of 46,034 – and church-type missions, which increased by 40 to 4,992. 

Rather than blaming Satan, the gay-hating, anti-modernity modern day Pharisee leaders of the SBC need to take a good look at themselves in the mirror.  Like the Catholic Church hierarchy, they are destroying the Christian brand.