April 15, 2002
More missions involvement
highlights otherwise hard year
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___Fewer churches affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas in 2001 than the previous year, and total membership dropped from 2.68 million to 2.46 million members. But a greater number of those members participated in missions projects, according to a statistical analysis by the BGCT's research and information services office.
___Clay Price, research and information services manager, recently completed a study comparing reported totals from the 2000 and 2001 Annual Church Profiles.
___The comparison revealed that from 2000 to 2001, the BGCT added 346 congregations and dropped 632,for a net loss of 286.
See a comparison of BGCT statistics from 1990 to 2001.
Viewable with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, available here.
___Based on available information, 447 of those leaving the BGCT became uniquely aligned with the rival Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Another 94 disbanded, 29 became inactive, 36 merged and 26 withdrew or became "independent."
___The number of self-supporting churches dropped 9 percent, from 4,805 in 2000 to 4,373 in 2001. But the number of mission congregations grew 12.3 percent, from 1,189 to 1,335.
___Price noted that the addition of 346 congregations in a single year--"almost one per day"--was groundbreaking.
___"This may be only the second time in modern history when we have added more than 300 congregations during one year," he said, pointing out that the highest absolute gain was 358 in 1996.
___Nearly every other category on the report showed a decrease from 2000 to 2001. Price attributed that primarily--but not exclusively--to the decline in the number of churches related to the BGCT.
___The reported decline in baptisms was nearly 18 percent, from 64,943 in 2000 to 53,364 in 2001. But comparing only those affiliated churches reporting through the BGCT each of those two years, the decline was only 6 percent.
___Two areas that showed increases were enrollment in Texas Baptist Men (designated "Brotherhood" on the Annual Church Profiles) and involvement in missions projects.
___Texas Baptist Men enrollment grew 24 percent last year, from 53,743 to 66,680.
___The number of people involved in mission projects grew from 160,350 in 2000 to 175,083 in 2001. Broken down according to projects in the community, elsewhere in Texas, in other states or outside the United States, the greatest increase was in the number of people involved in mission projects outside the U.S., growing from 19,875 in 2000 to 23,893 in 2001.
___The comparative study showed a 9.2 percent decline in resident membership, from 1,755,453 in 2000 to 1,593,252 in 2001, and an 8.3 percent loss in total membership, from 2,685,307 in 2000 to 2,462,155 in 2001.
___While most church program areas showed decreases roughly proportionate to the loss of membership, one showed a more marked drop. Reported enrollment in Woman's Missionary Union declined 31.7 percent, from 117,911 in 2000 to 80,541 in 2001.
___"These figures are a blunt reminder that missions education in the church is losing ground and perhaps not a priority as it once was," said Carolyn Porterfield, executive director-treasurer of Woman's Missionary Union of Texas.
___"In the days ahead, Texas WMU is redoubling her efforts to communicate the biblical basis of missions, to encourage hands-on missions involvement, to provide relevant missions education to diverse audiences, to develop missions leadership, and to become a spiritually vibrant organization."
___Both enrollment and average attendance at Sunday School declined 7.7 percent from 2000 to 2001, with enrollment dropping from 1.43 million to 1.32 million and attendance declining from 641,405 to 592,062. Discipleship Training involvement fell 12.7 percent, from 347,456 to 303,391. Music ministry enrollment dropped 7.4 percent, from 227,034 to 210,174. Reported worship attendance declined 8 percent, from 864,799 to 795,922.
___Total reported receipts fell 6.8 percent, from $1.4 billion in 2000 to $1.3 billion in 2001. Undesignated receipts dropped 9 percent, from $978 million to $889 million. Designated receipts declined 8.1 percent, from $310 million to $285 million.
___Total reported mission expenditures declined 2 percent, from $152 million to $149 million.
___Price also completed a comparison of statistical information from 1990 to 2001. That analysis showed the population of Texas increased 25.5 percent in 11 years, from 17 million in 1990 to 21 million last year. The state's population grew 2.3 percent from 2000 to 2001.
___During that same 11-year period, resident membership in BGCT-related churches increased only 1 percent and total membership declined 3 percent. Sunday School enrollment from 1990 to 2001 declined 1.8 percent, Bible study attendance declined 1.4 percent, and music ministry enrollment dropped 19.2 percent.
___The total number of reported baptisms dropped 17.6 percent from 1990 to 2001. But Price pointed out that Texas Baptists have baptized 751,853 people since 1990--equivalent to 4 percent of the current population in the state.
___Total congregations affiliated with the BGCT increased 8.7 percent during the 11-year period, from 5,249 in 1990 to 5,708 in 2001. While the number of self-supporting churches grew only 1 percent, the number of mission congregations grew 45.3 percent.
___The 2000 data was based on 3,882 reporting churches and 616 reporting missions, plus 605 churches and 292 missions with data carried over from the previous year. The 2001 data was based on 3,437 reporting churches and 572 reporting missions, plus 645 churches and 342 missions with data carried over from 2000.
___"A larger than usual number of churches did not report in 2001," Price noted.
___He pointed out that 2001 marked the first time that data was collected by way of the Internet, using the Southern Baptist Directory Service website. Price speculated that the change in the reporting process, coupled with denominational politics, may have accounted for much of the increase in non-reporting churches.
___He added that most of the non-reporting churches were in metropolitan areas where there is the greatest concentration of non-Anglo congregations, suggesting that language and culture also may have been a factor.
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