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There's a big brouhaha about this on a
Southern Baptist list that I'm a member of. Apparently the SBC does not
have a consistent way to count membership or attendance denomination
wide. Some larger churches use their membership roll, which is
typically not purged of anyone unless they die or "Transfer their
letter" to another Baptist Church. Some use Sunday School attendance,
others count heads in the worship services. I know that is the case in at least one Baptist Church in Shreveport while I was attending a Bible Church there. Since transfer to the Bible Church was not recognized (once a Baptist, always a Baptist, I guess), they continued to call even after we had been out of that church for over 5 years. They put us down as "inactive." Did our body count still get turned in to the SBC? I don't know. Since the SBC is essentially a congregationally ruled body, each congregation can submit what they want. The national convention can "Suggest" but they cannot "Mandate" any method of head counting. So that SBC number may be artificially high. Thing is, it probably has been for decades. David "Suppose
you were an idiot; and suppose you were a member of
Congress...ah, but I repeat myself."—Mark
Twain On 2/21/2010 11:35 AM, [email protected] wrote:
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