Equipping University

The SBC loves to tout that we are the largest denomination in the United States with 16,266,920 members in 44,696 churches. That sounds impressive until you read the next line on the annual report and discover that the average attendance in worship in those same churches is 6,148,868. This means that only 37.8% of all the SBC members attend worship services on any given week - a little more than two-thirds! Of course, it is possible that many are ill, at college, in the military, or have some other valid reason for not being in their home church. However, that cannot be the case for all the absentees. Every week, over 10 million Southern Baptists fail at the absolute minimum level of commitment for a church member. In the past, it was generally accepted that no church and no denomination had the right to consider itself healthy unless more people attend than were on the roll. This is the standard in churches all around the world today and by our great-grandparents in America's past. As we attempt to gauge t