Evangelism Statistics in Southern Baptist Convention « Provocations & Pantings

From Timmy Brister’s Blog: Evangelism, Calvinism, and the SBC « Provocations & Pantings 

According the 2006 Annual Church Profile (ACP), there are 44,223 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention.

10,449 churches baptized NO ONE
3,312 churches baptized ONE PERSON
13,760 churches baptized 1-5 PEOPLE

A total of 27,521 churches in the SBC baptized less than FIVE people for an entire year, which comes to 62% of all SBC churches.

Furthermore, at least three out of four churches are plateaued or declining.. . . . . .
Should we not be lamenting over the nearly 10,500 churches who are practically dead?
Should we not be lamenting over the fact that over 75% of our churches are experiencing no conversion growth?

As an outsider (meaning I’m not a Baptist), I lament with Brister about the evidence of evangelistic growth. 

The Presbyterian Church (USA) counts active membership by profession of faith as their evidence of growth.  The PCUSA Evangelism Statistics for 2006 paints a similar picture.

Let me ask you this?

Does your reaction to these statistics fuel you to prayer?  What impact does this have on your passion for evangelism?

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