December 3, 2001
ANALYSIS:
Rival state convention draws heavily from East Texas
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___The typical church lost from the Baptist General Convention of Texas to the rival Southern Baptists of Texas Convention averages 60 people in Sunday School attendance and is located in either a small town or rural community, most likely east of I-45 or north of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
___The size of the typical church lost to the SBTC closely parallels the typical size of a BGCT church.
___The median average Sunday School attendance of uniquely aligned SBTC churches is exactly the same as found in BGCT churches statewide. The median average attendance in morning worship for uniquely aligned SBTC churches is 83, compared to 85 in BGCT churches.
CLICK ON MAPS to view larger views. Map on left shows SBTC churches. Map on right shows BGCT churches. Images open as pdf files with free Acrobat Reader.
___A major distinguishing factor between churches remaining with the BGCT and those switching to the SBTC is geographic location.
___Among findings of an analysis conducted by the Baptist Standard with assistance from Clay Price of the BGCT research office:
___The BGCT has a larger concentration of churches in the major urban centers of the state than does the SBTC.
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___Among the state's major metropolitan areas, Houston has the largest number of churches that have left the BGCT for unique alignment with the SBTC. As of Oct. 31, 37 churches with Houston mailing addresses had switched alignments and another 16 had become dually aligned with the SBTC and BGCT.
___That is by far the largest concentration of SBTC churches in any Texas city. But the proportionate impact on a city of Houston's size isn't nearly as great as what is seen elsewhere.
___For Houston proper, that's 37 churches and missions out of 350, slightly more than 10 percent. But in the East Texas town of DeKalb (population 2,000), three out of six churches that were aligned with the BGCT in 1998 now are aligned with the SBTC. The town now has a total of four SBTC churches and missions, compared to three BGCT churches.
___Another example is Atlanta (population 6,000), where the SBTC has five uniquely aligned churches and one dually aligned church. That's six out of 12 churches.
___Statewide, while more than 100 uniquely aligned SBTC churches are the First Baptist churches of their communities, the new convention has not claimed many county-seat First Baptists, congregations often viewed as highly influential in their regions because of their heritage and visibility. A few county-seat First Baptists are dually aligned.
___That's not to say the SBTC hasn't attracted some of the state's larger or better-known churches.
___The largest former BGCT churches declaring unique alignment with the SBTC include Castle Hills First Baptist Church of San Antonio, Lakeland Baptist Church of Lewisville, Sagamore Hill Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Sagemont Baptist Church of Houston and San Jacinto Baptist Church of Amarillo.
___Some other high-profile churches have maintained some ties with the BGCT by declaring dual alignment with the SBTC. These include First Baptist Church of Dallas, Prestonwood Baptist Church of Plano, First Baptist Church of Euless and First Baptist Church of Houston.
___About 4 percent of the SBTC's uniquely aligned churches report average Sunday School attendance of 500 or more, compared to 5 percent of BGCT churches.
___In raw numbers, however, those percentages still give the BGCT a heavy advantage. Four percent of 700 is less than 30, while 5 percent of 5,730 is nearly 300.
___In addition to Houston, a large concentration of uniquely aligned SBTC churches is found in Dallas.
___While 13 uniquely aligned SBTC churches and four dually aligned churches are located within the city of Dallas, the nearby city of Fort Worth has only four uniquely aligned SBTC churches and two dually aligned churches.
___Arlington, which lies midway between Dallas and Fort Worth, has 14 uniquely aligned SBTC churches, one more than in Dallas.
___And while Houston has been fertile ground for the SBTC, the rival state convention has not faired as well in other major cities such as Austin, San Antonio and Corpus Christi.
___In West Texas, uniquely aligned SBTC churches are few and far between. Only about two dozen are to be found anywhere west of Abilene.
___By the end of October, 702 churches statewide were reported to be in unique alignment with the SBTC. Of those, 552 were confirmed to have notified the BGCT of their change.
___However, 39 other BGCT churches listed as in unique alignment with SBTC had not told the BGCT they were leaving. And another 111 of the churches uniquely aligned with the SBTC did not appear ever to have been BGCT churches.
___The latter group could include missions started by SBTC churches and formerly independent churches. Sufficient data was not immediately available to determine the background of these churches.
___Identification of these 111 churches, which represent 16 percent of the SBTC's uniquely aligned congregations, may explain the gap that has existed in reports given by the SBTC and BGCT. The number of uniquely affiliated churches reported by the SBTC routinely has been larger than the number of churches reported to have left the BGCT.
___The Baptist Standard's analysis also revealed, however, that 62 churches have told the BGCT they are leaving the state convention but have not yet appeared on the published roster of uniquely aligned SBTC churches. Some of those churches apparently have not aligned with any state convention.
___The overall impact of churches leaving the BGCT for unique alignment with the SBTC is less than the reports published by SBTC would indicate. This is because 16 percent of the churches affiliating with the SBTC appear to have come from somewhere other than the BGCT and because the BGCT is starting new churches at a rapid pace.
___For the 10 months ending Oct. 31, the BGCT had lost 551 churches and missions for all reasons, including removal to the SBTC, disbandment or merger. During the same period, 271 new churches affiliated with the BGCT.
___That gave the BGCT a total of 5,730 churches and missions, a net loss of 209 congregations from the 5,939 affiliated with the BGCT in 1998, the year of the SBTC's formation.
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