In answer to Ashley s question, our church (FBC Rincon, GA *#586 above) planted the Baptist Church a

On occasion I will write a blogpost specifically related hawaii travel tourism to my denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention. hawaii travel tourism I am aware that a large number of my readers are not a part of the SBC. Thanks for your willingness to "listen in" as I write about my denominational family, the largest Protestant denomination in the world.
We now have the most recent data on the churches of the SBC. In this post I simply note the largest churches, those with an attendance of 1,000 and above. My purpose is simply to inform, not to make qualitative comments, at least at this point.
There are 603 reported churches in the SBC with a worship attendance hawaii travel tourism of 1,000 or more. With approximately 46,000 churches in the denomination, only 1.3% of the churches are this large. Inversely stated, hawaii travel tourism 98.7% of the churches in the SBC have an attendance under 1,000.
There are 190 reported churches in the SBC with a worship attendance of 2,000 or more. With approximately 46,000 churches in the denomination, only 0.4% of the churches are this large. Inversely stated, 99.6% of the churches in the SBC have an attendance under 2,000.
Is there a link somewhere to a more detailed list? For example, I would like to know where all these FBC s are that have no geographic designation. For that matter, hawaii travel tourism I would like to see the states for all churches to get a feel for distribution. Also, would like to see the numbers.
I ve been in the Southern Baptist Convention for 58 years since I was in the Beginners Dept. in Sunday school. I m weary about hearing about numbers! I remember hearing about A Million More in 54 when I was a teenager, thinking that Southern Baptists were only concerned with dipping them (members) and dropping them with little or no discipleship. As an aging Boomer, I now know this not to be true, but the perception persists, especially among we much smaller SBC congregations.
The average-sized SBC church has about 300 members on roll. We active laymen know that that means that of those members, half attend regularly hawaii travel tourism and only half of those who go frequently, give tithes and offerings, not to mention those who never give to Annie Armstrong or Lottie Moon.
Here s a shout out to all churches regardless of size that are exercising obedience to God and have an outward focus to share the gospel. You may be smaller than some churches, but you are faithful and God will give you victories along the way.
In answer to Ashley s question, our church (FBC Rincon, GA *#586 above) planted the Baptist Church at Ebenezer in Rincon a few years ago, and we are currently sponsoring Rincon Hispanic Baptist Mission as a new church plant.
Its understandable that the traditionally Southern states would have more than the rest, but I was intrigued that they seem to group in the East Coast and Texas, with a relatively large number hawaii travel tourism in California and Tennessee. Is this simply a factor of the size of the cities or is there another reason why the east coast, Texas, hawaii travel tourism and Tennessee attract large churches (and possibly California given its not a traditionally Southern area)?
William, more than anything you will find high concentrations of large churches in large metroploitan areas. Dallas/Ft Worth is the 4th largest metro area in the country, Houston is 5th, and Atlanta is 9th. You will find over 25% of SBC megachurches just in these three areas. When Miami is added (8th largest), those four areas will account for about 30%. California is not a traditional SBC stronghold, but there are about 38 million people there, so..
Good morning, Thom. Thank you for the report. When I came to First Baptist Arnold in 1997, I began getting Lifeway reports for top 200 churches in worship, Bible Study , baptisms and budgets, I always got the report at or near the end of April each year. When Jimmy Draper left Lifeway, for some reason the requested hawaii travel tourism reports stopped coming. 1- Is it possible for me to get those reports? 2- If so, when? 3- If not, why? Thanks for the excellent job you are doing at Lifeway. Your brother, Brad East, senior associate pastor, First Baptist Church Arnold.
I am not familiar with those reports. I have not found anyone at LifeWay that has recollection of them either. I am in my eighth year at LifeWay, so there is obviously an information gap. Do you have some old reports you can send me?
Do you know what fraction of SBC people attend the big churches? While it s true that only 1.3% of churches are above 1,000 in attendance, my guess is that they make up a large fraction of attendance. It would be fun to get into that data and ask it some interesting hawaii travel tourism questions (says the nerdy economist).
Less than one-half of one percent of SBC churches report an average worship attendance of 2,000 or more, but 12.6% of the total attendance of the denomination is now concentrated in these relatively few churches.
Thanks for sharing this information. In response to some of the replies above, I find it interesting that the first reaction of some in the SBC to information like this is to be suspicious and to attempt to discredit these churches. Why raise the issue of CP giving? Why ask if these churches are planting other churches or just focusing on getting bigger, as if seeking to reach as many people as possible for Christ with the gospel was a negative thing.
This information was not posted to denigrate smaller churches. God has a purpose in his kingdom work for churches hawaii travel tourism of all sizes and styles and strategies. Why not just accept that and rejoice in what God is doing?
Pride comes in many forms. And if a large church is proud of its size, while a smaller hawaii travel tourism church is proud of its CP giving, etc., isn t God dishonored and displeased in either case? Envy or jealousy is sin too. If you feel compelled to cast suspicion on larger churches, that says more about you than it does about those churches.
Some large churches may be shallow and led by egotistical leaders (some small churches are as well maybe that s why few attend). Some large churches are gospel-centered, with rich discipleship and equipping ministries to go along with effective evangelism. Some small churches are effective in reaching their community with the gospel, and make sacrificial contributions to the cause of global mission. Some small churches are insular, bound by their traditions, uncaring about those around hawaii travel tourism them and ineffective in reaching their communities. And some of those churches give lots of money to CP.
In the end, why not be gracious and loving toward all churches, especially all of these churches all across the SBC that none of us can really know much about? Love believes hawaii travel tourism all things (1 Cor 13:7). It isn t suspicious. Let s stop passing judgment on one another let s make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification we re all servants who will stand or fall before our Master. (Rom 14).
Both large, medium and small congregations hawaii travel tourism are needed in the Kingdom of God. We need not compete, hawaii travel tourism but complement one another. hawaii travel tourism We smaller SBC churches may need the resources (both spiritual hawaii travel tourism and financial) of our larger sister churches from time to time at some level to advance the Kingdom. On a socio-economic level, some of our poor congregations in poor neighborhoods are rich spiritually! Amen?
It would be interesting to see the time series on this data, is it a recent phenomenon that 1/3 of the attendance comes from the top 4.4% of churches? Robert Frank wrote the winner take all society about the factors hawaii travel tourism that caused the top performers in a field to claim a larger and larger share of resources; it would be interesting to look at ACP data through that lens. This is especially true as technology allows us to have multiple campuses.
It would also be interesting to look and see the impact of larger churches on growth patterns of the smaller churches in their region. hawaii travel tourism I think the Beyond Megachurch Myths book looked at some of that, but it s been a while since I looked in that area, and I lost my copy of that book quite a while ago
I think it s pretty cool to realize that in a town with just a little more than 50,000 population, two of its churches make the top 100 Hendersonville, hawaii travel tourism TN has Long Hollow Baptist (5,844 and this number is outdated by now) and FBC H ville (2,795)! I m a member of LHBC and, to answer one of the questions somebody asked above, yes, we re planting churches all over the place! We have satellite churches in Nashville, Springfield, Madison, hawaii travel tourism Gallatin, and plan to open another one soon. We also have built an orphanage compound in Jeremie, Haiti consisting of a church, kitchen, school, and housing for (I believe) 300 children; have another one in the works in Uganda, one in the planning hawaii travel tourism stages for the Philippines and I think a 4th someplace hawaii travel tourism else; and our members go on dozens of mission trips all over the world every year!!! This past Sunday, with a visiting evangelist, dozens of folks (I think a more accurate estimate would be hundreds, but I don t know about any service but the one I was in and I m sure well over 100 in ours) made professions of faith!!! I agree that a big, mega-church hawaii travel tourism is not for everybody, since it s really hard to have the close fellowship we used to have when we were much smaller, and some other things are just impossible when a church hawaii travel tourism becomes so enormous. However, it s really hard to find too much fault when the people continue flooding through the doors and so many are being so blessed! As an older member now, I might not like everything as much as most of the younger ones, but to see all the lives that were changed Sunday was worth it all!!!
Why does the amount hawaii travel tourism given to the local Baptist association equate to where the rubber meets the road ? I thought that terminology should be attributed to what the church is doing to further the Kingdom of God? Last time I checked, you could do that apart from the local Baptist association. Give me a break.
I have a question. What does the churches on the list have to do in order to be considered Southern Baptist? I know of two churches on the list that pr