Pastor salaries not keeping pace with inflation
Compensation for full-time Southern Baptist pastors and church staff has lagged behind the growth in the cost-of-living over the past two years. Health insurance coverage also remains low, according to the 2018 SBC Church Compensation Study. Pastors of smaller churches were especially found to be compensated less than larger churches’ staff.

Many pastors lack a will, survey finds
More than half of Southern Baptist pastors do not have a will of any kind or a durable power of attorney with health care directives. LifeWay Research’s Scott McConnell said the survey shows pastors’ lack of awareness about estate planning and related laws.

McCain’s Baptist ‘church home’ hosts funeral
The late Sen. John McCain called North Phoenix Baptist Church his “church home” – despite never joining it. The Southern Baptist congregation in Arizona hosted McCain’s memorial service August 30. The two-time presidential candidate attended North Phoenix for more than 25 years; his wife was baptized there.

McCain died Aug. 25 at age 81, a year after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.

TN Baptist on cereal boxes for tutoring efforts
It’s not often a Southern Baptist is highlighted on a cereal box. But for Neal Buchanan, he was recently featured on two brands of Kellogg’s cereal boxes – Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes. Buchanan, an 82-year-old member of Lincoya Hills Baptist Church in Nashville, was chosen for his devotion to education and his passion for childhood literacy.

CA approves abortion drug bill
California legislators have approved a bill requiring state-run university health centers to give students abortion-inducing drugs. The state legislature passed Senate Bill 320 last week and now heads to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature.

Sources: Baptist Press (4), World Magazine

Saddleback reaches baptism milestone
Saddleback Church celebrated its 50,000th baptism Sunday, Aug. 12. The Southern Baptist congregation headquartered in Lake Forest, Ca., has 19 campuses. Saddleback was founded in 1980 by Pastor Rick Warren.

“Each of these lives represents an individual changed by and committed to a relationship with Jesus Christ,” the church tweeted about the milestone. “We are in awe of what God has done in the last 38 years and are hopeful and expectant for what he will do in the years to come. Thank you, God!”

‘Great is Thy Faithfulness’—like you’ve never heard it before
At a recent conference, author and pastor John Piper wrote two new verses for “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” the hymn that wrapped up the meeting. The verses reflect his theological standpoint—which is more Reformed than that of the hymn’s author. Christianity Today asked church music experts to weigh in: As the culture around them changes, should hymns stick to their original theology?

NAMB forms new group to step up evangelism efforts
The North American Mission Board announced last week the creation of an evangelism and leadership group tasked with promoting evangelism in Southern Baptist churches. Georgia pastor Jim Law will head the new group, Baptist Press reports.

Rwandan government imposes new rules on churches
Rwandan officials have imposed new restrictions on religious practice in their country, including the requirement that all pastors have a theological degree from an accredited school. The government has also instructed pastors not to encourage their congregations to fast for long periods of time, Christianity Today reports.

Church fraud on the rise
Reported cases of financial fraud in churches rises about 6% each year, The Christian Post reports, and is expected to reach the $60 billion mark by 2025. The growing problem could be solved by requiring churches to complete a specific IRS form, says one tax law expert.

Sources: Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post

By Baptist Press

The Southern Baptist Convention expanded by more than 270 churches in 2017. More people showed up for weekly worship services, and congregations gave more generously in a strengthening economy. However, reported baptisms and membership declined as fewer churches participated in the SBC’s Annual Church Profile (ACP).

Longstanding patterns continued to dominate the ACP, which is compiled by LifeWay Christian Resources in cooperation with Baptist state conventions.

-The number of churches cooperating with the Southern Baptist Convention grew for the 19th consecutive year, reaching 47,544. That’s a 16.3% increase in churches since 1997.

-Membership fell for the 11th consecutive year, to 15 million. Since 2006, Southern Baptist congregations have lost about 1.3 million members.

-Baptisms also declined, as they have for eight of the past 10 years. Congregations reported baptizing 254,122 people—26.5% fewer than in 2007. The latest ratio was one baptism for every 59 church members.

“It’s heartbreaking to be baptizing fewer people for Christ, even though Southern Baptists have nearly 2,900 more churches than we had a decade ago,” said LifeWay President Thom S. Rainer.

“Yet a quarter million baptisms is not an insignificant number. We praise God for every individual who has come to Christ and followed him in baptism. It is my prayer that God would embolden Southern Baptists to share the gospel with their friends and neighbors.”

Fewer churches reporting

The ACP numbers don’t tell the full story of baptisms or other measurables among Southern Baptist churches. Despite the best efforts of associations and state conventions across the country, 26% of churches did not participate, said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. The percentage of SBC churches that participated by reporting at least one item was 74%, down from 80% in 2013 and 77% in each of the last three years. (In Illinois, 95% of IBSA churches submitted an ACP for 2017.)

For that reason, reported totals do not include all of the activity within Southern Baptist life, though the summary does include adjustments in some categories for non-reporting congregations. This summer, LifeWay Research plans to release statistical analysis of the current state of the SBC that includes estimates of the congregations that did not report.

Despite the lower participation rate, the ACP report shows increases in some areas:

-Average attendance at weekly worship services climbed 2.3% to 5.3 million, an increase of nearly 120,000.

-States outside the South reported some of the strongest signs of growth. California now has 47 more congregations and Michigan has 24 more congregations than the previous year. Those figures include churches along with church-type missions—congregations that are not fully independent or self-sustaining.

-Non-Southern states are now home to 21.3% of Southern Baptist churches and 32.2% of church-type missions.

-Reported baptisms nearly doubled in Colorado and rose 31% in Iowa, 17.6% in Alaska, and 13.4% in New Mexico. In North and South Dakota, weekly worship attendance grew by 20.8% while baptisms climbed 34.8%.

Overall, Southern Baptist churches reported 4,376 church-type missions last year, down 2.6% from 2016. The count of churches and missions combined is 51,920 congregations.

Giving & mission expenditures

Southern Baptists saw an increase in overall giving of almost $267 million. Total and undesignated church receipts reported through the ACP increased 3.3% and 2.3% respectively.

Reported mission expenditures fell by about $4 million in 2017. However, the numbers are not directly comparable since there were changes in how many and which state conventions collected this statistic.

Congregations reported total mission expenditures of just under $1.19 billion.

Individual congregations voluntarily report their ACP data to their local Baptist associations and/or their state conventions. National statistics are compiled and released when all cooperating state conventions have reported.

– From Baptist Press