http://www.movements.net/2008/06/12/are-the-southern-baptists-headed-south.html The companion website to the new book by Steve Addison Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:18:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 http://www.movements.net/2008/06/12/are-the-southern-baptists-headed-south.html/comment-page-1#comment-166322 Southern Baptist plateau? Maybe. » Steve Addison’s blog » World Changers Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:55:51 +0000 http://www.steveaddison.net/?p=1217#comment-166322 [...] Congregational size is inversely related to converting new members, activating the existing membership, and maintaining high membership standards. Small churches are more effective in generating commitment and conformity within a movement.Formal theological training is a secularizing force and feeds the trend towards religious bureaucracy and religious doubt.A fully paid professional clergy is a financial hinderance to the survival of small churches and new church starts.For all of the above reasons, it was the upstart Methodists and Baptists that captured the US frontier, not the resource rich and highly educated Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Congregationalists.Long ago the Methodists surrendered to the temptation of respectability. Will the Southern Baptists follow suit? Are the Southern Baptists headed south? [...] [...] Congregational size is inversely related to converting new members, activating the existing membership, and maintaining high membership standards. Small churches are more effective in generating commitment and conformity within a movement.Formal theological training is a secularizing force and feeds the trend towards religious bureaucracy and religious doubt.A fully paid professional clergy is a financial hinderance to the survival of small churches and new church starts.For all of the above reasons, it was the upstart Methodists and Baptists that captured the US frontier, not the resource rich and highly educated Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Congregationalists.Long ago the Methodists surrendered to the temptation of respectability. Will the Southern Baptists follow suit? Are the Southern Baptists headed south? [...]

]]> http://www.movements.net/2008/06/12/are-the-southern-baptists-headed-south.html/comment-page-1#comment-120142 Momentum Magazine | More on SBC changes Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:56:15 +0000 http://www.steveaddison.net/?p=1217#comment-120142 [...] Steve Addison has two graphs up which are quite revealing. The first shows the growth of SBC membership over time, but note the slowing in growth from 1995 to 2005. This means Baptists are still growing but not as fast as before. Look at the second chart carefully: its not charting declines in membership but declines in annual growth rates. This means that Baptists are still growing, but not as fast as the overall population of the USA, and so while they are gaining members they are losing their “share” of the population. Ed Stetzer has more. Tags: baptists, denomination, membership [...] [...] Steve Addison has two graphs up which are quite revealing. The first shows the growth of SBC membership over time, but note the slowing in growth from 1995 to 2005. This means Baptists are still growing but not as fast as before. Look at the second chart carefully: its not charting declines in membership but declines in annual growth rates. This means that Baptists are still growing, but not as fast as the overall population of the USA, and so while they are gaining members they are losing their “share” of the population. Ed Stetzer has more. Tags: baptists, denomination, membership [...]

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