SBC experiences biggest membership drop in 100 years, churches depart over liberal shift.

Record Decline in Southern Baptist Convention Membership

The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, has witnessed the largest single-year decline in at least a century. Membership decreased from 13.7 million members in 2021 to 13.2 million members in 2022, a decrease of more than 3%. This decline continues the trajectory seen over the last three years, according to data released by Lifeway Research, a provider of church business services for the Southern Baptist Convention.

Reasons for the Decline

Lockdown mandates have contributed to a broader decline of religiosity in the United States as many congregants never returned to traditional worship services. Church attendance has fallen to 85% of pre-lockdown levels in Protestant denominations even after nearly every church in the country resumed normal operations, according to another study from Lifeway Research.

Those who continued to profess Christianity became increasingly theologically liberal in their beliefs. A survey from Ligonier Ministries found that the share of self-identified evangelicals who believe “gender identity is a matter of choice” rose from 22% to 37% between 2020 and 2022, while the share who believe “the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn’t apply today” more than doubled from 11% to 28% over the same time horizon.

Record decline in Southern Baptist Convention membership occurs as hundreds of pastors throughout the country notice the liberal direction of the denomination. The trend is perhaps most palpable at the institutional level: Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber and other leaders have faced criticism for neglecting to rebuke the dozens of churches which have installed female pastors, a practice denounced in the Baptist Faith and Message.

Concerned Pastors

The Daily Wire reviewed several emails from concerned former Southern Baptist Convention pastors sent to Mike Law, a minister at Arlington Baptist Church in Virginia, who had contacted thousands of pastors to garner support for his efforts to address the female pastor phenomenon. Many of the churches represented by the pastors have left the denomination in recent months.

• “You can take our church off your mailing list,” one pastor replied. “We do not support the socialist movement that has infiltrated the convention and are no longer a member.”
• “Our congregation is no longer in the SBC because of their liberal stances on this and their support in fighting an abolition bill in Louisiana,” another minister said. “I pray along with you that the SBC leadership would be convicted by your efforts and the many churches like us who are stepping away,” added a third pastor.
• “We truly appreciate your efforts to uphold the Bible. I’m just letting you know that our church voted to leave the SBC this past summer,” commented a fourth. “We felt that this issue was just one that should have been addressed in 2022. There were other issues, so we chose to become non-denominational and break from the SBC.”

Controversy over the ordination of women in the Southern Baptist Convention emerged last year as Rick Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in California, selected a husband and wife team to replace him at the megachurch after his retirement, drawing rebukes from veteran conservative ministers. The congregation was disfellowshipped from the denomination earlier this year, a move which Warren will be permitted to appeal next month.

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