The majority of Baptist churches in Alabama — 60 percent — have fewer than 100 attenders in Sunday morning worship services.
But this 60 percent accounts for 25 percent of all 1,131,854 Alabama Baptist church members, according to Mickey Crawford, statistical consultant with the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM). He said more than 70 percent of Alabama Baptist church members belong to churches with 100 or more in Sunday worship attendance.
Among Alabama’s 3,233 Southern Baptist churches, 1,946 have Sunday morning attendance below 100, while 36 have attendance of 1,000 or more, according to the Annual Church Profile (ACP).
Barna Research Group found similar results on a national scale. Barna shows 60 percent of Protestant churches in the nation have less than 100 people attending on a typical weekend, while fewer than 2 percent have 1,000 or more attending.
“Small churches play an important and valuable role in the religious landscape of America,” said George Barna, director of the study. “They reach millions of young adults who have no interest in a larger church setting. They have tremendous potential for building strong community, as well as spiritual foundations.”
In the 2003 ACP nine churches in Alabama reported five or fewer people attending, while five churches reported 2,000 or more attending, according to Crawford.
Cleveland Brown, director of missions for Conecuh Baptist Association, said all but two of the association’s 25 churches have fewer than 100 members.
“As far as the normal (operating budget) expenses and things, we don’t have to help them — they do OK. The way we have helped them at times is that we have money from The Baptist Foundation of Alabama, and we take the interest off that to help our churches when they have construction they don’t have the money to complete, or would have to go deeply in debt to finish, for instance. We could give up to $5,000 during a four-year period,” he said.
But the size of a church does not measure its financial stability, said Edwin Jenkins, director of the office of leadership/church growth of the SBOM.
“In some cases giving is a challenge in smaller churches, but in some cases smaller churches have a better financial statement than larger ones. Biblical stewardship needs to be taught in church, regardless of its size,” Jenkins said.
“What keeps small churches small can vary widely,” he added, noting population and economic conditions of their communities, or lack of vision by church leaders. Another possibility is that the small church is a new church start or a mission church.
“There’s not a ‘one size fits all’ approach to church,” Jenkins said. “Every church must be regarded as a living organism — the body of Christ in a given locality. The key to effectiveness is finding out what God’s desire, design and direction is for a particular local church, whether large or small.
“A very dynamic and visionary leader can come in and lead a church to larger numbers, whereas someone of lesser vision can come in and not,” he said. “Some churches remain small and have excellent leadership. A larger church is not necessarily a healthier church. There’s lots of ways to regard churches other than numbers.”
Barna’s national research shows that 25 percent of baby boomers (born 1946–1964) attend churches with 500 or more people, while 17 percent of the younger baby busters (born 1965–1976) do.
He says the study shows boomers tend to equate success with growth and larger-scale operations, while busters seek smaller churches.
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