Baptism rates follow cycles, Texas Baptist statistician says

DALLAS—Dropping baptism statistics tend to refocus Baptists on evangelism, which results in growing God’s kingdom, according to Clay Price, Baptist General Convention of Texas statistician.

Historically, the number of baptisms has risen and declined in a cyclical pattern, Price said. When Baptists see a decrease in baptisms, they typically put more emphasis on outreach and examine ways they can be more effective.

The number of baptisms taking place in Baptist churches was high in the 1950s, promoted highly through the “A Million More in ’54” campaign. Baptisms dropped in the mid-1960s, but rebounded in 1972. They dropped again toward the end of that decade but rose again in the 1980s.

Baptisms dropped in the early 1990s, but increased through the Texas 2000 evangelistic emphasis. Recently-elected BGCT Executive Director Randel Everett was launching Texas Hope 2010, an effort to share the gospel with every non-Christian in Texas by Easter 2010, before the latest statistics were released that indicated baptisms across the Southern Baptist Convention are down.

Having noted the cyclical nature of baptisms statistics, Price said the recent downturn in baptisms by Southern Baptists must be taken seriously. Perhaps the most telling statistic, he said, is that baptisms in churches that consistently report were down 24 percent.

Despite a gap in reporting, LifeWay’s statistics indicate a drop in baptisms for the third year in a row, down to lows not seen since 1970, said Ed Stetzer, LifeWay’s director of research.

Membership decline

The total membership of Southern Baptist churches also has declined.

“For now, Southern Baptists are a denomination in decline. Some of you were born into an SBC church; others of us chose it of our own accord,” Stetzer wrote on his blog. “Either way, it is dear to us all. Our responsibility before God is, then, to urgently consider how we should respond. Yes, most of our response should be personal and lived out in our local churches—this is a local-church issue. But if we are choosing to partner in this network of churches, and the network is faltering, it will also take some joint action.”

Stetzer noted areas that need to be addressed within Southern Baptist life—the lack of young and ethnic leaders, public infighting within the denomination and a need to focus on the gospel, which he noted is the most serious concern.

“The third, and most important, issue is our loss of focus on the gospel,” he wrote.

“I find it difficult to even say such a thing, but, I believe it to be true. We must recover a gospel centrality and cooperate in proclaiming that gospel locally and globally.”