Southern Baptists, the largest Protestant tradition in the United States, are in decline. They have lost nearly 1 million members over the last decade yielding a membership of just under 16 million.
Conversion has always been an essential reason for growth in this Evangelical denomination. Since peaking in 1999, the number of baptisms conducted each year has declined by 25%.
So What?
Emma Green, associate editor for The Atlantic and author of the article I linked to above, raises an important question I hope you will attempt to answer: “Did Southern Baptists start losing members because they stopped performing as many baptisms, or did they stop performing as many baptisms because of broader cultural issues facing the denomination?”