The Southern Baptist Convention has 270 more churches than at this time last year — and fewer members, and performs fewer baptisms.
If the number of churches increases, and the number of members goes down, there can be no explanation but that the new congregations are cannibalizing existing churches and growing at their expense. This is not sustainable.
And I’ll bet those statistics were compiled before the Paige Patterson scandals, and churches are already coping with its radioactive dust. The SBC is running on fumes.