Several people

Scott Slayton
Joe Thorn

have taken the latest Baptist Press article [LINK] and asked if our “shallow approach to the new birth (Scott Slayton)” has attributed to the fact that on 37% of our SBC church members can be found in church.

It is facinating that almost 10 million SBC members on SBC church membership roles don’t set foot in the church. In addition to what the above bloggers have posted, I think part of the issue is that we have turned salvation into an event and not a process. I also think we have turned salvation into an intellectual exercise. We don’t help people get into a community of people who embody Christ - either pre or post conversion - so they can experience Christ. We place them in a class where ineffective materials seek to give them an intellectual understanding of Christ. The intellect is not to be dismissed, don’t misunderstand me. But intellectual knowledge is only a part of the equation. We must experience Christ, and part of that experience is within a community of people who embody Christ.

I just got my July/August 2005 Facts & Trends from Lifeway and in it is the 2004 SBC Statistical Summary and I think it points to some interesting issues.

First, the number of churches in the SBC increased by 441, from 43,024 to 43,465, a 1.03% increase. Membership increased by 0.39% from 16, 205,050 to 16,267,494 or by 62, 444. This would mean that on average, there are 374.27 members per church. Primary worship attendance rose from 5,873,880 to 6,024,289. This is a net gain of 150,409 or 2.56% So each church has 374 members but average 138.6 per week.

But let’s examine something and since we don’t have the specifics we can’t make more scientific assumptions that would produce better results. But let’s just imagine the possibilities, which I think can be conservative estimates:

If 441 new churces came into the SBC and with 62,444 new members in the SBC, that would mean that if each new church brought in 141.6 members, that would equal the total increase in SBC membership rise. Let’s also say that each new church only brought in 50 new members (22,050 members), that would leave 40,396 new members attributed to 43,365 churches. That’s less than 1 new member per church in a year. That’s disturbing.

Also, the information shows that baptisms were at 387,947, up 2.81% (10,590) from the previous year. Let’s figure that those new churches, 441 in number which would include church plants, each had 5 baptisms last year. That is 2205. That would mean that of the 8385 increase in baptisms, each church of the 43,365 increased their baptisms by .19, meaning that if they baptized 5 people in 2003, they baptised 5.19 in 2004. At least the number went up.

One more thought. Assume again that our 441 new churches brought in with them 50 members per church. Let’s also assume they have 50 in worship. The SBC had an increase in Primary worship attendance of 150,409. But 22,050 of that came from new churches. That leaves an increase of 128,359 people in worship attributed to 43,365 churches or 2.96 new attenders in worship for each church over the previous year. Again, it’s good that the numbers are positive, but we have some real issues when we are only netting 3 new people per year to attend.

One thing to consider is this would include the numbers of churches like Fellowship Church in Dallas and Saddleback.

So what does this tell us?

Here are some possibilities:

Any others?