I am not a Southern Baptist and have never been part of that Protestant denomination. I am, however, someone who has lived most of my life in Texas and who has followed the macro changes within American Protestantism. Since the Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting was held in Dallas this summer, I’ve been drawn into more conversations than usual about what is happening in this denomination. Finally, as the largest Protestant denomination in America, long-term changes in membership in the SBC are particularly noteworthy.
Decades of Decline
Just a few weeks before this year’s big SBC gathering, Sam Rainer wrote a lengthy blog post titled “How the Decline of Denominations Is Reshaping American Christianity: Lessons from the Southern Baptist Convention.” For readers outside the Baptist world it is important to know that Sam Rainer is a Southern Baptist Pastor who writes and speaks about issues in his denomination for a broad audience. He’s also President of Church Answers and Lead Pastor of West Bradenton Baptist Church.
In this post, Rainer mentions that after sixty years of growth, the SBC plateaued then its membership began to decline. More specifically, it has declined every year since 2006. To visually portray that loss I’ve created the chart below showing the decline using data available from the SBC Annuals.
Rainer Reality Check
Rainer concludes his overview of the numeric decline with the following summation: “Perhaps the most sobering comparison is this: the membership losses the SBC has experienced in recent years are equivalent in size to entire mid-sized denominations. It’s not just a few churches closing; it’s a structural hemorrhage.”
So What?
As someone who has lived my entire life as a Mainline Protestant, I’ve long understood that while Mainline decline started first, decline has since spread to encompass nearly every Protestant denomination. Despite this knowledge, I was not aware that the SBC decline was this dramatic.
Over the last 18 years (2006-2024), SBC membership has declined by more than 3.5 million members (dropping from 16,306,246 to 12,722,266).
For some perspective, the 3.5 million members the SBC has lost in the last 18 years is a number that exceeds the current total membership of six of the seven Mainline Protestant denominations (only the United Methodist Church is larger).
To learn more of the story of the decline in the three Mainline denominations I’ve spent most of my life in, check out
- The ELCA is Missing 4 Million People!
- The PC(USA) is Missing 2.6 Million People!
- The UCC is Missing 1.3 Million People!
Additionally, My Religion is Dying: A Deep Dive into Mainline Decline offers links to more than 50 posts I’ve written about this trend.