Five Alabama Baptist churches are in the 100 top-attended churches in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), according to a list released by LifeWay Christian Resources President Thom S. Rainer on his blog Aug. 3.
Topping the list for Alabama was The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, with an average worship attendance of 4,000. It came in at No. 52 on Rainer’s list.
Following it were Gardendale First Baptist Church with an average attendance of 3,750 (No. 56); Hunter Street Baptist Church, Hoover, with 3,122 (No. 72); Willowbrook Baptist Church, Huntsville, with 2,884 (No. 89); and Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, Birmingham, with 2,850 (No. 92).
Twenty-two other Alabama Baptist churches also made Rainer’s list of the 595 SBC churches with an average weekly attendance of 1,000 or more. The churches listed make up 1.3 percent of the SBC’s 46,000 churches.
“If you believe a church should be on the list but is not, the most likely explanation is that the church failed to report or chose not to report data,” Rainer wrote.
Churches failing to report data is not an uncommon occurrence, said Jim Swedenburg, director of the office of Cooperative Program and stewardship development for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
“We have been hearing the last decade that Southern Baptists are declining in baptisms and in membership,” Swedenburg said. “At the same time, we have been declining in another critical category, and almost without mention. Fewer of our churches are reporting their numbers or statistical information.”
Last year, the number of nonreporting churches in Alabama grew from 457 to 573 — a 25 percent drop in a single year, he said. And still more send incomplete reports.
It’s a “sobering fact,” Swedenburg said. “When churches do not send a report, they are not counted. As a result, we do not get the full picture.”
And though the worship attendance numbers of the churches that made the list are estimates and not as “systematic” a metric as Sunday School attendance numbers, “these are all wonderful churches attempting great things for the Lord,” Swedenburg said.
Other Alabama Baptist churches that made Rainer’s list were:
No. 120 — First Baptist Church, Opelika — 2,491
No. 135 — Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills — 2,323
No. 175 — Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, Birmingham — 2,000
No. 204 — First Baptist Church, Montgomery — 1,892
No. 230 — Church on the Eastern Shore, Fairhope — 1,760
No. 249 First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa — 1,650
No. 254 — Ridgecrest Baptist Church, Dothan — 1,643
No. 258 — Whitesburg Baptist Church, Huntsville — 1,615
No. 362 — CrossPoint Church, Trussville — 1,309
No. 367 — Hill Crest Baptist Church, Anniston — 1,300
No. 383 — Westwood Baptist Church, Alabaster — 1,296
No. 399 — Lakeview Baptist Church, Auburn — 1,260
No. 403 — First Baptist Church, Dothan — 1,250
No. 411 — First Baptist Church, Prattville — 1,243
No. 415 — Calvary Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa — 1,228
No. 419 — Golden Acres Baptist Church, Phenix City — 1,212
No. 445 — Vaughn Forest Church, Montgomery — 1,175
No. 447 — First Baptist Church, Pelham — 1,170
No. 450 — First Baptist Church, North Mobile, in Saraland — 1,164
No. 473 — NorthPark Baptist Church, Trussville — 1,141
No. 479 — Dayspring Baptist Church, Mobile — 1,121
No. 488 — Mount Zion Baptist Church, Huntsville — 1,100
For more information, visit www.thomrainer.com.
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