There are 457,371 fewer members and 416 fewer churches in the SBC in 2022 compared to 2021. The difference in members is the largest single-year drop in 100 years...
Membership in the SBC has been declining since 2007.
However, giving was up by 2% and in-person worship attendance up by 16% in 2022 from the prior year.
“Much of the downward movement we are seeing in membership reflects people who stopped participating in an individual congregation years ago and the record keeping is finally catching up,”...
The issue of outdated records has unexpectedly come to the forefront when the SBC Executive Committee, which manages SBC business outside of annual meetings, voted to approve recommendations to disfellowship churches in September and February. After the votes, some of the disfellowshipped churches said they had not been active in the SBC for years.
Record-keeping is one of the most basic functions of an organization. If you fail at that, what the hell are you doing?