ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Southern Baptists in Alaska are launching a three-year growth effort aimed at reversing a membership decline.
The Alaska Baptist Convention reported a 15-percent drop in church membership during the last five years, to 16,848 in 2002, according to the Associated Baptist Press. The convention attributed part of the decline to a number of larger churches purging their membership rolls and failure of congregations to turn in an Annual Church Profile used in compiling statistics.
But David Baldwin, the convention's executive director, cited other problems. Interest in Sunday school and training programs is lacking, evangelism is inconsistent and some churches depend too much on outside funding, Baldwin said. Details of the program were not released.
"Leadership training is needed all over the state," he said.
The "Light Up Alaska" program will focus on missions and prayer in 2003, church development in 2004 and evangelistic outreach in 2005. The convention's goal is to reach 10 percent - 63,000 persons - of Alaska's population.
Baldwin said nearly half of Alaska's Southern Baptist 74 churches and 26 missions average fewer than 50 in worship attendance. Eighty percent of the churches average fewer than 100 attendees each week.
