Southern Baptists are adding more churches but serving fewer members who are giving fewer dollars, 2014 data compiled by LifeWay Christian Resources shows.
Alabama Baptists are following a similar trend except they also are declining in the number of churches.
The number of cooperating churches within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) rose for the 15th consecutive year, but the churches lost more than 200,000 members, the biggest one-year decline since 1881, according to the Annual Church Profile (ACP) compiled by LifeWay in cooperation with Baptist state conventions. Average attendance, baptisms and giving also declined.
Alabama reports decline
In Alabama the number of churches decreased by 14 and baptisms dropped by 342 from the previous year.
Giving decreased by nearly $70 million.
One of the biggest declines in 2014 was Southern Baptist church membership, which fell 1.5 percent to 15.5 million — still the largest Protestant denomination in the nation by far, but at the lowest level since 1993. Weekly worship attendance declined 2.75 percent to 5.67 million Sunday worshippers.
Baptisms declined for the third year in a row and have fallen eight of the last 10 years, with 2014 having the lowest total since 1947.
Total and undesignated church receipts according to ACP data also declined in 2014, 0.49 percent and 0.24 percent respectively.
Total missions expenditures decreased 4.98 percent to $1.2 billion, but the report shows three Baptist state conventions did not report this data — California, Georgia and Oklahoma.
Denominational giving
While Great Commission Giving, which reports total SBC giving, increased in 2013, it was down 18 percent in 2014 to $637 million. Four state conventions — Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma — did not ask churches for that data.
Giving through Southern Baptists’ Cooperative Program (CP) missions initiative is not included in the ACP annual report. Instead totals are reported by the SBC Executive Committee (EC).
Gifts to causes on rise
Total CP gifts for SBC causes in fiscal year 2014 were 0.76 percent below the previous year.
However, year-to-date contributions for 2015 are 2.09 percent ahead of the same period in 2014 and 2.57 percent above the year-to-date budget projections.
Frank S. Page, president of the SBC EC, said the statistics are the result of “winning less people to Christ and … not training them in the spiritual disciplines of our Lord.”
Statistics for the national ACP are reported by individual churches to their local association and/or state convention. National totals are compiled and released when all cooperating state conventions have reported.
The Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) and LifeWay use different formulas and a different schedule to report each year’s total numbers.
The Alabama numbers provided by SBOM were used in this story.
(BP, TAB)
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