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Southern Baptist Convention Sees Sharp Decline in Membership

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has suffered its most serious decline in membership for over 100 years, Christianity Today reports. According to the SBC’s 2019 Annual Church profile published by Thursday, the denomination saw a loss of 288,000 church members last year.

Factoring in the loss figure for 2019, the SBC now has 14.5 million members: this is a reduction from the SBC’s highest membership level of 16.3 million in 2006.

Published by LifeWay Christian Resources, the Annual Church profile also reported that some state conventions recorded an increase in baptisms and church growth. Executive Director of LifeWay Research Scott McConnell said in a statement: “[The membership loss] numbers are not able to tell the story of all the evangelistic efforts that many individuals and churches have put in this past year.”

Nevertheless, McConnell said: “[The numbers] do indicate, however, that the efforts of the same number of people in a congregation on average are seeing fewer people come to Christ and being baptized.” Considering causes for loss of membership, McConnell added: “The Southern Baptist Convention is not immune to the increasing secularization among Americans that is seen in more of our children and our neighbors not having interest in coming to Jesus.”

In a tweet responding to the Annual profile, Adam Greenway, president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary said: “We have much work to do as Southern Baptists to fulfill the Great Commission in our time.”