Southern Baptists See Largest Drop in 100 Years

Not all statistics are in and some may not be reliable, but it now appears the largest drop in Southern Baptist Convention membership in 100 years happened in 2019. Southern Baptists are the largest Protestant denomination. 

When we first moved to Fargo many decades ago a Southern Baptist preacher asked if he could visit with us. His purpose was, of course, to recruit us to his church which was in our neighborhood. I ask him how a Southern Baptist congregation came to be located as far north as one can go in the U.S. He said probably it was in Fargo originally because of military families from the South. Southern Baptist churches are all over the U.S. 

Southern Baptists go through various periods of purification. One happened about ten years ago. Out were leaders trying to present the denomination as contemporary and relevant. In were backward looking out of date buffoons. While the denomination had reluctantly accommodated racial desegregation it had never really left the old South. Regulation of marriage, sexual orientation male domination are still to be found in Southern Baptists.

The best thing that could happen to Christianity would be the death of the Southern Baptist Convention. In fact, the death of every denomination which bars women from the pulpit and preaches that homosexuality is a sin would help the faith. It replace ideas from the Middle Ages with modern concepts of equality and tolerance. 

The problem Christianity faces is an inability to deal with change in our society. The average person sitting in the pews may be satisfied with what their denomination stands for. That average person does not care really about the long term survival of the denomination--only wants his/her own church to keep doing things as it has always done them. 

This is way Southern Baptists continue to decline.