Baptist Press: Recently compiled statistics for the Southern Baptist Convention in 2004 show a reversal in recent downward trends in key categories such as baptisms and membership.
According to the Annual Church Profile (ACP), information gathered by LifeWay Christian Resources, baptisms totaled 387,947 in 2004, compared to the 377,357 for 2003, which marked a fourth consecutive year of decline.
The current SBC emphasis on baptizing a million people during 2005 wasn't initiated until last summer's annual meeting in Indianapolis and only allowed churches who accepted the challenge to be a part of the initiative for a short time before the end of the reporting year. So Lifeway Christian Resources president, James T. Draper, Jr., predicts another increase in 2005.
