"The Southern Baptist Convention has as many members as all mainline denominations combined."
Well ... according to the National Council of Churches USA, while the "mainline" churches are losing members (as did the So Baptists in 2010), United Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Evangelical Lutheran, United Church of Christ, AME, AMEZion, American Baptist, and Christian Churches/Churches of Christ churches total over 26 million members. Baptists count 16.3 million members as of this year.
I'm not clear, though, on what denominations count as "evangelicals". There are five other flavors of Baptist among the top 25 denominations in addition to the two above. Where do they fall? And where do you put Jehovah’s Witnesses? They're growing faster than anyone lately (though still only 23rd).
BTW, for those like Mr. Carter who are keeping score, the fastest growing churches (among the top 25 Christian denominations, besides Jehovah’s Witnesses) are currently the Catholics (who massively outnumber So. Baptists 68 to 16) and the Mormons (who rank 4th at 6 mil).
ncccusa.org |
