Come on you Southern Baptists, get with the program. You need to increase those Sunday School enrollments so your children may continue to get the proper level of indoctrination. Otherwise they might grow up with the potential for objective thinking and the ability to reason; you wouldn’t want that for your children would you?
It’s also important that donations are increased. Those ministers need to plan their European summer vacations and winter skiing trips soon. Also, don’t forget that the new model year cars generally come out in the fall, it’s therefore imperative that you send your money in quickly so these Baptist preachers (which no doubt have a direct line to Jesus himself) can get their new Rolls Royce and Bentley automobiles out of the showroom and into their garages prior to the Christmas holidays. TGO
Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Southern Baptist churches say membership and donations to missions dropped last year, but baptisms increased after a four-year decline.
Southern Baptist Convention membership fell 0.42 percent to about 16.2 million, and Sunday School enrollment dropped slightly to about 7.6 million in 2009, according to a church survey released by Baptist Press.
Giving to missions totaled $1.3 billion in 2009, a decline of 1.8 percent. The denomination blamed the poor economy for the decrease.
Still, churches reported some good news: a 2.2 percent jump in baptisms to 349,737 last year. The previous four-year decline had been deeply troubling to the nation’s largest Protestant group, which had been trying to re-energize its evangelism.
Thom Rainer, head of LifeWay Christian Resources, which worked with state Baptist conventions to compile the annual statistics, said that while the increase in baptisms is encouraging, he is troubled by the poor showing on other fronts.
“The decline in membership across our denomination, along with the drop in Sunday School enrollment, indicate that Southern Baptists continue to be distracted from — or indifferent toward — the command of Jesus to make disciples,” Rainer told Baptist Press. “I pray that these discouraging numbers sound a wake-up call to all of us.”
The convention’s annual meeting is set for June 15-16 in Orlando, Fla.
