I hesitate to post this for a number of reasons. One, I do not want to be perceived as being overly-negative in my assessment of SBC life. I am actually quite optimistic. Two, I do not want to be accused of being one of those whiners who complains about evangelism more than I practice it, though I candidly admit I am not as deliberately evangelistic as I ought to be. It is a shortcoming I am keenly aware of and presently trying to address. Third, I do not want people to assume that I am some navel-gazing Calvinist who is opposed to even talking about evangelistic strategies or the need for statistics. Though it is true I am more Calvinistic than not, I am not interested in pushing any theological agenda, nor do I approve of the mean-spirited, argumentative Calvinism that I personally believe is all too common among some younger SBC Reformed types. So with these hesitations noted, I want to talk about our Southern Baptist baptism statistics and the numbers behind those numbers.
When Bobby Welch was elected president of the SBC in 2004, he made the centerpiece of his presidential agenda the promotion of personal evangelism in the convention. Rev. Welch is, of course, the well-known pastor of a very evangelistic church and the originator of the FAITH method of evangelism. Besides his own interests in and reputation regarding evangelism, Rev. Welch was rightly concerned that the Southern Baptist Convention’s baptism statistics have been more or less steady since the 1950’s, hovering in the 350,000–400,000 range. This means that Southern Baptists are baptizing a much lower percentage of the population than they were fifty years ago. Rev. Welch challenged Southern Baptists to renew our dedication to personal evangelism and win to Christ and baptize a million people this year. Dr. Frank Page, the recently-elected president of the SBC, has expressed his commitment to continue Rev. Welch’s emphasis on personal evangelism.
I want to make a couple of observations. First, I am one hundred percent in favor of personal evangelism. Second, I bemoan with Rev. Welch and others the lack of evangelistic zeal that pervades so many corners of Southern Baptist life. Third, I would be delighted to see Southern Baptist churches baptize one million people this year. Well, maybe. Let me explain.
I think that one thing that is overlooked in this whole discussion is what I call “the numbers behind the numbers.” As stated above, the SBC has averaged between 350,000–400,000 people per year over the last several decades. Besides the aforementioned drop in baptism per total population, what do these numbers really tell us?
I think we need to candidly admit that the number of baptisms per year, say 350,000, is somewhat (unintentionally) misleading. First, this statistic includes individuals who have been Christian for years but never been properly baptized. Some of these individuals were sprinkled as babies. Others were immersed in Church of Christ congregations or paedobaptist churches. Still others were immersed in baptistic churches but this immersion occurred prior to one’s actual conversion. In other words, many of our baptisms do not represent new converts per se but rather represent individuals who are being properly baptized.
Second, this statistic represents more than a few “rebaptisms.” By rebaptism, I do not mean the examples represented above; most would claim that sprinkling or alien immersion is not really baptism. What I mean is believers who were immersed after they were saved, but due to a tender conscience, a rededication of some kind or spurious teaching believe they must be baptized again in order to be right with God. There is a particular type of theology, common among some revivalistic Southern Baptists, which claims one must remember all the details of their conversion experience or they are not really saved. Driven by their guilt, many genuine, properly-baptized Christians are immersed a second time.
There is another type of theology, common among some Reformed Southern Baptists, which spends a great deal of time inspecting the fruit in a believer’s life and practically pronouncing judgment upon someone’s regeneration based upon their present behavior. And again, some genuine believers, already baptized, are immersed a second time. Now I absolutely believe that genuine Christians should be able to articulate a conversion experience of some kind. I also totally believe that the lives of true believers will typically be marked by progressive sanctification and visible spiritual fruit. But I think that both of these positions have extremes, and I have witnessed both of them first-hand on many, many occasions.
Third, this statistic represents the baptisms of children who are already attending church services but have only recently professed faith in Christ. Now I have no doubt most of these baptisms represent valid conversions. And I also praise the Lord for every child who comes to faith in Christ and is baptized. But I think we must concede that, though there is no difference in spiritual standing between an open pagan and the lost child of Christian parents—both are without hope lest they repent and believe in Christ, there is a huge difference in cultural standing between the two. In short, our children, though lost, are already in a local church, and though their conversion and baptism adds to our baptism statistics and membership numbers, they do not add physical bodies to the church; the child was already present, just not yet converted. A vast majority of our baptisms are of children already attending church, which means that our baptism statistics do not necessarily reflect our evangelistic impact on the surrounding culture. In fact, in better reflects our evangelistic impact within our own families.
Finally, this statistic no doubt represents some individuals who are immersed but are not really converted. This is obviously the most ambiguous part of the total baptism count, and no one can pronounce final judgments on such matters. But I think most would agree that, from time to time (and possibly often in some churches) individuals are immersed who do not yet believe. They may be too young to believe, they may be insincere in their profession or they may be very sincere but misunderstand the gospel. But the result in all these cases is the same—a lost person has been immersed and accepted into church membership.
When all these numbers behind the numbers are taken into account, I can only conclude that our evangelism is actually in worse shape than even Rev. Welch believes. In other words, not only is our zeal lacking but our proclamation itself is often doctrinally flawed or focused only on our own children. And the result is not just plateaued baptism statistics, but misleading ones as well.
So my question is this: of the 350,000 or so baptisms that are reported every year, how many of them represent conversions of individuals over 12 years old who are not already found within the four walls of our church buildings? Are Southern Baptists even reaching 100,000 pagans a year? I have serious doubts that we are. I have to say this, but I fear that Southern Baptists are not really reaching the culture; rather, we are propagating our subculture. I don’t know about you, but I find this thought sobering and convicting.
I truly hope that, in God’s providence, he will allow Southern Baptist churches to reach and baptize 1,000,000 people in the near future. But I do not hope that so we can pat ourselves on the back for an evangelistic job well done. I hope we baptize 1,000,000 people because we are passionate for souls, clearly sharing good news with a lost world and being blessed by God with more conversions than we have ever seen or imagined. Praise God for converted children and proper baptisms; both are good things. But I pray that a great number of our baptisms will represent lost sinners, out in our culture, won to Christ and uniting with a local church. The time has come for Southern Baptists to recognize where we really stand in our evangelistic practices and do what we must to move past our spiritual torpor and be the churches that God would have us to be.
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