Baptisms slow their decline in 2003 Annual Church Profile report

Georgia churches reported slightly fewer baptisms in 2003 than in the previous year, but that minimal drop was a significant improvement from the 5.3 percent decrease reported in 2001.

That's good news for the Georgia Baptist Convention and its ambitious goal of baptizing 50,000 new believers in 2005 as part of the national "What Now?" evangelism emphasis.

According to information compiled from the most recent Annual Church Profile, churches reported 34,111 baptisms in 2003, a decrease of 377 or 1.1 percent from the 34,488 reported in 2002. That 2002 figure was a drop of 5.3 percent from the 36,280 reported by churches in 2001.

Mike Minnix, vice president for evangelism for the GBC, theorizes that the decline is partially tied to the nation's economic slump that began in 2001.

"It's been my observation that churches generally spend less on evangelism and more on social ministry to those who are hurting in their community during economic downturns. That is not to say that the social spending is bad, because people have greater needs and there are more opportunities to minister in hard financial times.

"But with declining income, many churches place fewer funds into evangelism efforts and I believe that results in fewer baptisms," he said.

As the economy increases, more funds become available for evangelism.

"If you look at the technology boom in the late 1990s when the economy was bursting at the seams, most conventions reported record baptisms. In Georgia we broke all records with 37,182 baptisms in 1998."

GBC evangelism personnel are working to lead churches to increase their funding of evangelism efforts statewide, beginning with training laity to be more effective soul winners.

"We believe baptism levels will be up for 2004 because of the number of laypersons who have participated in our witness training conferences this year. We have conducted 18 conferences this year with attendance averaging between 75 and 200, and that was only for the first five months of this year," Minnix explained.

More laity being equipped to share their faith

Michael Pritchett, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Madison, has experienced that interest by laity firsthand.

"In May of 2003 we conducted a S.A.V.E.D. seminar to lay the groundwork for our revival in March of this year. At the conclusion we began to implement what we learned about prayer and evangelism.

"During the revival we saw 31 saved, 28 dedications, one who came for baptism and one by church letter. Just five weeks ago, on Easter Sunday, I baptized 31.

"During my 14 years at New Hope I have never seen the Holy Sprit work in people's lives as He did through this revival."

Minnix then cited events such as the recent area wide crusade in Lincolnton, north of Augusta.

Gary Johnson, pastor of Lincolnton Baptist Church, said 321 professions of faith and 256 other decisions were registered in the three-day crusade on May 2-5. The event was sponsored by churches across the denominational spectrum.

The crusade, which spanned parts of five counties, was led by evangelist Rick Gage.

"This was the first time that we have had a crusade of this nature in 20 years and it was just a great outpouring of God's spirit," Johnson added.

Additional ACP reporting

In keeping with the baptism trend, few churches reported gains in other areas on the statistical report.

The total number of Georgia Baptist churches increased by 32, or .9 percent, to 3,543; total membership basically remained flat with a decrease of 192 to 1,375,344; and average worship attendance increased 5,498, or 1 percent, to 529,846.

In other areas:

• Music ministry declined 1,167 to 175,858;
• Sunday School enrollment increased 12,457 to 740,985 while the number of Sunday Schools increased 53 to 3,365;
• Discipleship Training enrollment and participation dropped 33,919, or 15.6 percent, to 184,176;
• Vacation Bible School declined 12,782 to 291,075 while the number of schools dipped 178 to 2,135;
• Mission project participation increased 2,568 to 146,713;
• WMU enrollment increased 859 to 88,071 while the number of churches reporting WMU organizations dropped 361, or nearly 17 percent, to 1,803. But other women's ministries jumped 40,605, or nearly 50 percent, to 122,025.
Barbara Curnutt, executive director-treasurer of Georgia Baptist WMU and Women's Enrichment Ministry, said the figures were confusing due to a lack of reporting from churches.
"We maintain our own database separate from the state convention and we know of 259 churches with WMU organizations who failed to return their report.
"We constantly struggle to get an adequate picture of involvement at the local church level. Adding to the mix is that women's ministry is much more loosely structured than WMU. It's not inlikely for a church to have 500 women to attend a retreat and then report those 500 as actively involved in women's ministry, which would skew the results from year to year."
• Men's Ministry faced a similar problem in reporting. Enrollment was recorded as dropping 4,669, or 7.3 percent, to 59,437 and the number of churches with men's ministry organizations declined 277 to 1,680.