[Update: I erred in not reading the footnote that said that the Florida state convention included numbers from their partnership with Haiti. This means that FBC’s figures are not comparable to the other states. My mistake.]
Baptisms are the currency of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Baptize many and you will be praised, honored, and feted. You will almost certainly be in line for a larger church and higher pay. You will doubtlessly get asked more often for advice and will receive more invitations to speak at conferences and events. Generally, you will be looked to as what a Southern Baptist pastor ought to be. But…baptize few and you will be ignored, criticized, and generally looked at askance.
Yeah, I am aware of the limitations of the figure: baptisms are self-reported; our SBC ministerial colleagues have differing standards for baptizing, some areas are difficult, some are not so difficult; some populations are hard, some are less so. Add as many caveats, provisos, and addenda as needed to make you comfortable with the numbers.
Here are the top ten state conventions in baptisms reported for the calendar year 2014:
1. Florida 58,401
2. BGC Texas 32,214
3. Georgia 27,742
4. SB Texas 23,435
5. Tennessee 22,986
6. NC 18,655
7. SC 17,464
8. Alabama 17,355
9. Kentucky 14,180
10. California 12,496
Sure, Texas, Florida, Georgia and the other southern states have more churches, larger populations and naturally baptize more.
So, how about the ratio of baptisms to church members that I’ve heard state and denominational employees toss out for decades.
Here are the top ten conventions in baptism ratio:
Number of members per baptism:
1. New York 14
2. Penn-S Jersey 15
3. Montana 17
4. New England 17
5. Florida 19
6. HI-Pacific 19
7. Iowa 19
8. Puerto Rico-VI 20
9. Colorado 23
10. Alaska 24
The newer, smaller state conventions outside the south dominate the list. These are smaller, have less of the natural accretion of inactive or perpheral members on their rolls. I suspect that churches in these states are less complacent and more aggressive. I would note that the top state, New York, has the lowest ratio of all. I would note that it is the home of a Southern Baptist (though not CP funded) seminary, Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, that is known for evangelistic fervor.
But, how about the legacy states, larger states, the ones with most of the SBC churches and members?
Here are the top ten conventions with a minimum of 500,000 in total membership, by baptism ratio :
1. Florida 19
2. SBC Va 33
3. SC 38
4. Arkansas 44
5. Tennessee 46
6. Louisiana 49
7. SB Texas 49
8. Georgia 50
9. Kentucky 50
10. Alabama 58
What is it in Florida that makes their baptism ratio so much better than all of the larger states? I don’t know. [Now I know…see update above.]
The conventions that have the worst baptism/member ratio are the BGA Virginia (76), the BGC Texas (67), and Missouri (66) but there’s not much to brag about in the 40-60 range either. I understand, anecdotally, that the newer conventions in Texas and Virginia are likely composed of churches that may be more evangelistic.
I don’t have any numbers that compare the baptisms of churches led by Calvinistic and non-Calvinistic pastors other than what was given some years ago: their ratios are about about the same.
If you don’t like my numbers then get some and crunch your own.
