Southern Baptist Church Attendance Hits 30-Year Low

While there has been an unexpected resurgence in giving, the Southern Baptists are hemorrhaging church members, culminating in 30-year low attendance numbers. 

According to the denomination’s Annual Church Profile, membership tumbled down to 14.8 million in 2018 — which is the first time it has dipped below 15 million since 1989. Though the overall giving elevated to a healthy $11.8 billion, the SBC is rightly concerned by the latest figures, which indicate a sizeable exodus of members.

“Facts are our friends, even when the facts themselves are unfriendly,” tweetedSouthwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President, Adam Greenway. “Heartbreaking to see these ACP declines. We must do better as Southern Baptists. God help us.”

For the past decade or so, the number of people baptized in the Southern Baptist denomination has also been falling steadily – down to 246,000 baptisms a year. Shockingly, that number is about the same as was recorded back in the 1940s when the SBC was a fraction of its current size.

“Like many, I am discouraged to see 7,000 less baptisms this year,” the president of the SBC, J. D. Greear, told Christianity Today. “It is the Lord who saves, but this information should spur us on even more to be intentional in evangelism.”

Though the baptism numbers are disappointing for a denomination that is centered around seeing lives transformed by…