I don’t know if any SBC leader would dispute the title here and I appreciate the timely article from Baptist Press on the subject. I’ve been looking for it:
Southern Baptists report growth among ethnic minorities despite declines in broader SBC
Minority ethnic fellowships comprised 22.3 percent of the 51,538 Southern Baptist congregations included in the report regarding 2018, the most recent year studied, using data from LifeWay Research and the North American Mission Board (NAMB).
This isn’t news in a sense. NAMB has long been active and aggressive in this area, as have many state conventions and associations. Seminaries actively seek students from all of these groups.
No one would accuse the sprawling SBC, entities and the like, of making it easy to obtain comparable data but the figure of 22.3 percent of all SBC congregations is more than I expected, though not by much.
More than one in five, approaching one in four of all SBC churches and missions is “minority ethnic.” That is a proportion that would astonish many outsiders and totals over 11,000 congregations. To be sure, many of these are dually affiliated and maintain a relationship with other networks or groups, standard for our day.
Just for comparison, the estimated 1.5 million members in these ethnic minority SBC churches is a size larger than the entire American Baptist Church and perhaps double the membership of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Again, dual affiliations would need to be considered here but I don’t know of any source for that.
But, if the future of the SBC is like the demographic future of the United States, less white, more ethnic minority, the question of how well the SBC and all of our entities are appealing to ethnic minorities is acutely relevant. Judging from the numbers here, I think the answer to that at least shows a positive trend.
All the more reason to be pleased with the direction of the Southern Baptist Convention these days.
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On the local church level, the church I attend is heavily majority white but notably multi-ethnic. I see this all the time in SBC churches. Not to say that the vast majority of SBC churches are not totally white. I’m sure they still are.
The most notable hard number about the SBC that concerns race is the one for SBC entity leaders, CEOs. There has never been a non-white CEO for any of the seminaries, mission boards, LifeWay, ERLC, or Guidestone.
Photo above is from the Baptist Press article linked.
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Offending comma and miscreant adjective is summarily excised. Good lesson in why any conversation that touches on race and ethnicity is difficult.
It’s true; Even thought I am minority group, I wish and support English-Americans ( White ) are to be the most populate peoples, leaders and influences political and social with justice and fair in the United States of America. Hope, they will martian. God blessed. Thank you.
Not trying to be divisive William, but this goes back to the conversation about who holds Power in the SBC. A very select few. If the Power Brokers want “diversity”, it will happen at the Convention Level, otherwise it won’t. However, as for the churches, I pastor in an urban area where the demographics are from multiple backgrounds. I’m becoming more concerned that the church is taking the language of the culture and believing it has to comply with that language. There is no difference in the believers in our fellowship because we are no longer living under the classifications… Read more »
I’m not sure what you mean by “comply with that language.” The church evolves with culture and language, which is why a church in Northern California is different than one in Dallas, Texas or one in rural South Carolina. It’s why we have different translations. It’s why we don’t speak in King James or Elizabethan English. We are routinely adjusting language to reach different cultures so what do you mean?
What I mean by that is the church wanting to identify and inadvertently signalling that the church segregates/identifies by culture and language. For example, if I say, “I have many African-American believers in the fellowship”, or “I have many Vietnamese believers in our fellowship,” that implies (in my opinion) we have reached out or “integrated.” The body of Christ is His bride, we are a new creation in Christ where there is neither Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for all are one in Christ. If the church wants to continue to identify its fellowships by the… Read more »
I can’t say Baptist Press is wrong on the SBC trajectory. I’ve been reading this blog for years and decided now is as good a time as any to jump into the discussion. If we as the SBC are embracing minorities and the new complexity that comes with this decision, then what does that require of us? Are we committed enough to “being all things to all men in order that we may win some”? When do we take “Southern” out of our name in recognition that we are not a regional denomination; in fact, are diminishing as members in… Read more »
This is slightly different from William’s point, but this report is still pretty depressing.
It took about five reads to figure out the accounting: the overall number of minority congregations decreased, too. The ones we call churches increased, and garnered the headline, while the ones we call “mission congregations” decreased. When you add them together, the number went down. Most people speaking normal English would say the number of churches fell.
Memberships in those churches did rise, but baptisms fell. People are moving around, not converting. So regardless of race, this picture is bleak.
Re “people are moving around, not converting” — I hear this lament a lot on SBCV. My impression (which may be a /total/ load of hooey) is that: A) conversions are rare; B) most of the new-convert pie is, at the moment, being eaten by charismatic and non-denominational churches (if you read this and went, “no, that’s totally wrong,” please do speak up. I have almost no empirical backing for this statement; it’s based largely on gut feelings and half-remembered old data, so I’m VERY aware that it could be garbage); and C) many — perhaps most? — SBC baptisms… Read more »
Great questions! (a) True. (b) Generally, I don’t know. I don’t have the numbers handy. But we can compare the SBC stats to prior SBC stats. That’s what this report claims to do. So we know the minority congregations are down, and baptisms (conversions) are down. They do have more members, though. And in Baptist life, that means a transfer from somewhere else. (c) Yes, there’s probably been a little tightening on age in some churches. It used to be the norm to baptize very young children. Mark Dever and others recommend waiting for baptism. But, statistically, that should’t hurt… Read more »
Note to commenters on Lottie. This may be a future topic and no one is more keen on it here than I, but I’d rather wait than start a deep comment thread on the subject. The comments that have approached this are not objectionable and we appreciate them but not now. Thanks.
The future is an interesting thought……churches are experiencing mandated closings while the streets are full of socialist….which by the way condemn belief in God. James states “whoever therefore will a friend of the world is the enemy of God”. Troubling times…..predicted nonetheless.
I am an SBC leader who has a massive problem with the title. Based on the more nuanced use of the term “ethnic” in the article verses the racist use of the term in the title, I am guessing the author was smarter than the editor. “More ethnic”? What does that mean? What is implied here is more non-white. That is, “ethnic”= non-white. So ethnicity is something that is an attribute of the others. “We” (white people) don’t have ethnicity. We may appreciate it’s novelty, the cute garb and exotic spices, but we are beyond ethnic… We are white. What… Read more »
I reject that the title is racist and white supremacist even when a self-described SBC leader says it is. “Ethnic minority fellowships” is how Baptist Press referred to the data groupings, rather unwieldy but understandable, seems to me. I don’t think any SBC leader would argue that the future is not less white in this country and, concomitantly, in the SBC. Ethnic minority immigration, lower birth rates, etc., etc.
Please take an aspirin for your massive problem. Inexact and colloquial use of language is rampant among us. Your comment provides several good examples of that.
I just stumbled into this conversation. Tone aside (on William, Dave and Cody’s part), I believe Cody has a point. If we leave “racist” aside (due to semantic overload), and just stick to the clear meaning of the words in the title, as well as their juxtaposition, they do seem to strongly represent a traditional ethnocentric and paternalistic approach to “others” from a white American and European perspective. While the content (and tone) of the piece seems fine, a more appropriate title might be “The future SBC is more ethnically diverse”.
I’m okay with subbing out ethnocentric except it would presuppose that the ethnocentric party is aware that they have ethnicity. Since the title more than implies that white people are not “ethnics” the author leaves us with only the implied term “race” and thus it’s derivative “racist” as our choice to deliver critique. Paternal certainly checks out.
Tone? We’ll this was me trying to let the author off the hook in assuming he wasn’t responsible for the title. Editors have certainly made less than smart choices in applying titles to my published pieces.
Cody, if you spend your time looking for offense like that, you will generally find it.
Decaf?
Why the decaf statement? I have made the same historic, missiological argument as Heibert, Winter, Yamamori, and McGavran. As one who has planted dozens of churches among immigrants and refugees, I know well that they find this use (i.e. ethnic = non-white) as offensive and racist. As an academic, I know that such usage is historically born out of a white supremacist, colonial worldview. The usage in the title is etymologically, anthropologically, and missiologically incorrect and should be corrected. Decaf? I can only imagine that what you imply here is that being passionate about this is inherently abnormal and maladjusted… Read more »
I’m with Cody. Good work.
Are we not all sons and daughters of Adam? And are we not all sinners who’ve fallen short of the glory of God? And is not the penalty for sin death? There’s way too much emphasis on race these days and not nearly enough emphasis on leading souls to Chirst. There are only two kinds of people. Those who have saying faith in Christ and those who don’t. Our calling is to lead people to Christ. What does skin color have to do with that? Nothing. Let the world be concerned over racial matters. I’m not concerned over what ethnic… Read more »
So this gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed as a testimony to panta ta ethne and then the end will come is not a Bible verse you feel is relevant to world evangelism?
The Lord’s point is that the gospel should be spread to the ends of the world, meaning all people of all nations–“ethne.” Human definitions of ethnicity only build false walls around world evangelism. By the modern definition “ethne” would mean we only evangelize black people in South America or brown people in Brazil rather than all people of all races in all nations. So no, I don’t think the modern definition of ethnic applies to evangelism at all. Whether we’re going into a nation, a city, or a neighborhood, people still fall into two categories, children of light or children… Read more »
You do know that Brazil is in South America correct? And the koine Greek of ethne means ethnolinguistic people groups not nation states. It has nothing to do with geography.
SBC Voices?! Are we not teaching this anymore?
“I’m not concerned over what ethnic groups my brothers and sisters come from” is a shocking statement in light of Gen. 12:1-3; Ps. 96:3-4; Mt. 24:14; Mt. 28:18-20; Rev. 5:9; Rev. 7:9 and many others. The entire story of Scripture and redemptive history is one of a glorious God who desires and deserves to be known and worshipped by representatives from all ethnic groups.
Indeed.
Okay. You guys go out and evangelize ethnic groups while the rest of us try to win souls for Christ regardless of ethnicity. I’ve studied the Greek and I understand the geography. But it seems you’re trying to tell me God cares more about a man’s skin color than the condition of his soul. I’ll ask you again. What does a person’s ethnicity have to do with his salvation? The answer is NOTHING. And as long as we keep pointing to my Black brother or my Hispanic brother, or my Asian brother… Then we are indeed racists and we’ve destroyed… Read more »
You don’t understand the topic. Please spend some time on the Joshua Project website. Please understand what is meant by an “unreached people group”. Sign up for a Perspectives course so you can understand. Get to where you can understand why when the gospel moved among the S’gaw Karen after the pioneering work of Judson that it encountered a barrier of language and cultural acceptance when it met the Kareni or the Po and then required a new effort to contextualize and translate the message. Spend some time on the Wycliffe website and understand what a Bibleless people group is.… Read more »
And you’re misunderstanding the point completely. I never said there are not various, God designed nations, races, languages… “People groups” if that’s your preferred term. I never said we aren’t to reach those groups. I never said language. Isn’t a barrier to sharing the Gospel. I don’t deny the training it takes to be an Evangelist and I’m glad men like you are called to that work. But I’m called to be a humble pastor. And the article we are discussing regards ethnicity within the church… after salvation, post-evangalized people who are within the body of Christ and among them… Read more »
Sorry if I’m stirring something that you want to put to rest, but you quote Gal 3:28, “There is no Jew or Greek.” That verse also says “There is no Male and Female.” But do you have ministries that are for men and for women? Do you recognize gender as a meaningful experience in the world that shapes how you speak to people, minister to them, and think about your work as a pastor? I suspect you do. At the same time, there is to be no *hierarchy* in categories such as male and female (gender category), slave and free… Read more »
Word.
Very glad to see the SBC thinking through, and writing about, the changes in our nation, how that shapes our churches, and thinking about what God might be doing in the midst of this. After “nondenominational,” SBC remains the largest denomination where Wheaton College students come from (where I teach.) So we care very much about the spiritual formation of our future students! I do agree with Cody (see post below) that it is problematic to use the word “ethnic” as code for “non-white.” “Ethnic minority” is definitely more precise, but even then, at some points in this article there’s… Read more »
Book going on the list.
It’s a good thing that within the SBC over a fifth of the churches have predominant percentages of ethnic members or made up of different racial backgrounds other than white. What’s the percentage of racial and ethnic minority makeup of state convention and SBC boards and committees? How many churches are there in the SBC where the congregation is blended to the point where there is no “predominant” ethnic or white presence in the membership? That might take some research, since I don’t think there’s a way to report that on the ACP. And outside of those that identify as… Read more »
Please note the way Mr. Matthews uses the term “ethnic” to mean “not white”. The author of this article must acknowledge his complicity in fostering this kind of thinking. When “white people” see “ethnicity” as something belonging only to the other, they are (perhaps benevolently so) perpetuating systemic racism.
No, I said “ethnic members or made up of different racial backgrounds other than white. Ethnic means of a cultural group not native to this specific country. Racial groups, like African Americans, Asians or Native Americans, most of whom are native to this country, means something different. Many of the churches classified as “ethnic” in the SBC are Caucasians, including most Hispanics and Eastern European groups.
Great to see the church increasingly paying attention to ethnic minorities in some areas. Widening the ability to do so is a positive move in bearing witness to Christ to non-believers who may not have a very positive view of the convention in this area. There is a lot to learn. One way to be more welcoming is to reflect on how we talk about things can be perceived in a way that we may not mean. For instance the title of the article diminishes ethnic minorities by simply refering to them as ethnic as opposed to ‘whites’. From our… Read more »
Amen.
Okay, but you know Caucasian is an ethnicity though, right? So this title contradicts itself. May want to fix that. Ignoring that fact is in itself a pretty racist trope- it’s basically assuming white culture isn’t real. Maybe use ethnically diverse instead?
I’m open to a way to state that the future of the SBC is more ethnic minority and less [something].
Thanks for the change and be willing to do so if it makes some sense. I am glad that you can do that without feeling you have lost or compromised. Much respect.
Respect for listening to the conversation and changing the title. Your “take an aspirin” comment still offends however and seems to be a swipe at at the expense of those who find help for mental illness through medication.
I think you should apologize for that as the SBC has long used mental illness as a means of declaring women and men of God unfit for ministry and missions.
While the word ethnic can mean any racial grouping, it can also be properly used to refer to minority groups with a common culture. It is not a pejorative either way. An internet search of the word usually produces the latter definition although Webster’s has both.
It is pejorative if used as a synonym for “not white”. But the title has now been changed. Moving on.
Thanks William for your article on the percentage of ethnic churches in the SBC. It would be good to see at least 25% of our boards, agencies and entities headed by Blacks, Asians and Hispanics. Let’s continue to work toward this goal.
51%
Late for the topic but,
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-population-growth-has-been-driven-exclusively-by-minorities/ar-BB16kTl6
“Bloomberg) — U.S. racial and ethnic minorities accounted for all of the nation’s population growth during the last decade, according to new Census Bureau estimates.Bloomberg) — U.S. racial and ethnic minorities accounted for all of the nation’s population growth during the last decade, according to new Census Bureau estimates.”
The future of the SBC is…