The Southern Baptist Convention has long been the largest, most powerful force for right-wing religion in the United States, but are signs of decline beginning to show? Perhaps — both the numbers of Southern Baptists as well as the numbers of new baptisms have dropped. The declines aren't huge, but the Southern Baptist Convention has been used to nearly uninterrupted growth over the past decades, so any shift is perceived as significant.
Baptisms dropped just over one percent to 342,198 last year, compared with 345,941 in 2007, according to an annual report released Thursday by LifeWay Christian Resources, the Southern Baptist Convention's publishing arm.
Total membership of Southern Baptist churches was 16,228,438 last year, down nearly 38,400 from 2007.
The continued decline in the number of followers reflects a trend in other mainline Protestant churches. Non-denominational churches are gaining and the ranks of those unaffiliated with a church are growing. ...
While baptisms and membership were down in 2008, the number of Southern Baptist churches grew from 44,696 to 44,848 and worship attendance increased slightly to 6.18 million, according to the report.
Source: Yahoo! News
So even though the numbers of Southern Baptists may be starting to slip, it sounds like the active commitment of those who remains is growing — thus the increase in churches and worship attendance. Is it just a coincidence that this sounds like a parallel to the Republican Party: a decline in overall support, but an increase in zealous commitment among those who remain? The fortunes of the two groups, Republicans and Southern Baptists, have been linked for quite a while now so it wouldn't surprise me if there were a connection.
Is there any reason to think that these recent numbers are just the starting point of a long-term decline, or is it instead just a temporary blip?
I would like to think you are right, but I suspect this shift is more apparent than real.
Here south of the Mason-Dixon line, the old Baptist churches have lost members to “non-denominational” mega-churches, but in my opinion the newer churches are actually just Baptist churches with with a better grasp of PR and marketing, able to put forward a slicker image.
When I talk to their members, I have not been able to identify any important points of distinction between them and regular old Baptists. I think they are Baptists who are image-conscious enough to want to be something cooler.