baptism

Last year, the SBC managed to slightly slow down its tanking baptism rate. It reminded me powerfully of something they tried some years back. Back in 2005, their top leader issued a firmly-worded Million Baptism Challenge. Today, let’s look at what that challenge involved, the context in which it was issued, and what happened at the end. And then, let’s look ahead.

The biggest Protestant denomination in the United States continues to suffer serious churn in its membership, and those of us who are rooting for its failure won’t be disappointed to hear how they’re dealing with it. I recently discovered a quiet little update to one of their most surprising task force meetings.

One group of Christians, however, is finally coming to grips with their own drop in numbers. They might have the wrong explanation for it and the most nonsensical way possible of dealing with it, but they’re at least dimly aware that their denomination is starting to falter. That group is the Southern Baptist Convention, who recently declared that their denomination is facing a “baptism drought.” Today we’ll talk about why they’re facing it, and why they think they are, because those are two different things.