SBC membership drops to its lowest number in 50 years. But baptisms are on the rise.
“The Southern Baptist Convention lost 259,090 members in 2024, with its total membership now at 12.7 million, according to the denomination’s Annual Church Profile report, released Wednesday (April 30).” - RNS
More…
- Southern Baptists’ membership decline continues amid other areas of growth - Baptist Press
- Southern Baptist Membership Lowest in 50 Years - CToday
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Membership is 12.7M, but weekly attendance is 4.3M (which would presumably include non-member visitors). What this tells me is that much of the SBC numbers are of individuals who do not attend regularly. This might not be too surprising as a lot of SBC members are also quite old. The fact that weekly attendance is up should be celebrated over an absolute number of membership.
That makes sense to me.
Maybe they should launch a campaign to encourage SBC churches to purge their membership rolls of inactive members. That might result in a one time dramatic drop in total members but a steadier count for some years after.
Or it might not have an impact at all.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
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