“On Religion” columnist Terry Mattingly covers a baptizing bus tour put on by the Southern Baptists in an attempt to rack up one million baptisms between June 2005 and June 2006. While the Southern Baptist denomination has grown as other denominations shrink, the baptism numbers have essentially plateaud since the 1950s while the population has exploded.
In Southern Baptist congregations only 40 percent of adults baptized are true converts—the rest have come from other churches.
“What that means is that we’re not reaching the pagan pool,” says Southern Baptist Convention president Rev. Bobby Welch. “We’re just rearranging the furniture inside the church.”
Ultimately, church marketing isn’t about seats in pews or money in the offering plate. It’s about helping the church communicate effectively with a world at large, to reach new hearts with the good news.
