“Statistics have become so dire in terms of membership and baptisms…that they’re really having to revisit who they are and what they’re going to be and do,”

As members of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination ready for their annual meeting next week in Orlando, Fla., statistics loom large in their plans to chart a new direction after years of malaise.

“In 2008 we baptized only 75,000 teenagers,” reads a new Southern Baptist report, Penetrating the Lostness. “In 1970 we baptized 140,000. Why? … Churches in America are losing ground with each successive generation.”

Why are Southern Baptists so focused on statistics? Simply put, they view them as a tangible way of tracking how well they are reaching those they call the “lost” — people without Jesus Christ.

“I think the hand-wringing is driven by an angst of do we want to join so many other denominations in decline?” said Ed Stetzer, president of SBC-affiliated LifeWay Research, which compiles and analyzes statistics.
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“In our history as Southern Baptists, we’ve never had the kind of malaise statistically we’ve had in the last five years,” said Alvin Reid, professor of evangelism at Southeastern.

The Southern Baptist emphasis on baptisms is rooted in the theological belief — deeply embedded in Baptist DNA — that each baptism is evidence of a new Christian life, said Dale Jones, secretary-treasurer of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. “Most of us tend to look at attendance or actual membership. Their emphasis is on how many new people they got this year,” Jones said.

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