With over 16 million members, the Southern Baptist Convention remains America's largest Protestant denomination and continues to grow even as more liberal Protestant groups decline. But as the SBC ended its annual meeting, some leaders said the denomination appears to be stagnating.
The Rev. Jimmy Draper, president of the SBC publishing house, reminded the 8,500 church representatives Wednesday of a decline in new member baptisms in each of the past four years. He said it reflects "a denomination that's lost its focus."
The SBC's newly elected president, the Rev. Bobby Welch of Daytona Beach, Fla., said at a news conference it would be a compliment to say the SBC has "plateaued."
In fact, he said, baptism figures show "we are declining."
Associated Baptist Press, operated by moderates who oppose the SBC's conservative leadership, reported that statistics show a slowdown since the denomination began its rightward swing in 1979.
The article said SBC membership increased by 22 percent since 1979 but by 64 percent during the quarter-century before 1979.
In 1954, the SBC posted one baptism per 22 current church members compared with one per 43 last year. And the SBC statistician said the constituency is aging as fewer children under 12 attend Sunday School.
The Rev. Paige Patterson, a prime strategist in the 1979 campaign and now president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas, acknowledged the article in a speech, but contended the numbers would be far worse if moderates and liberals had continued to control the SBC.
The warnings came even as the SBC adopted a resolution that the rightward shift it began 25 years ago strengthened its churches and re-energized mission efforts.