Baptisms increase in state; little growth reported in other ACP areas

By Barbara Denman / May 1, 2007

Florida Baptist churches ushered 33,461 new believers into baptismal waters in 2006, an increase of four percent over the 32,126 baptized in 2005. Added to the statewide total are another 5,687 new converts baptized by Florida’s partnership churches in Haiti, bringing the total of baptisms to 39,148.

The increased baptisms are a bright spot in the Annual Church Profile (ACP) gathered by Florida Baptist Convention officials from statistics reported by individual Florida Baptist churches for the 2005-2006 church year.

In almost every other statistic, Florida Baptist churches collectively either grew minimally or dropped.

One reason the convention showed only marginal growth is that 217 congregations did not provide an ACP in 2006. Several attempts by Convention officials to secure the information went unheeded, said Lonnie Wright, director of the Convention’s Information Support Services. These churches were included as carry-forward figures when feasible.

The number of churches in the Florida Baptist State Convention decreased by one—to 2,098 in 2006 from 2,099 in 2005. Meanwhile, the number of church-type missions increased by 16—to 661 in 2006 from 645 in 2005.

Resident members increased to 790,823, an increase of 653 or .08 percent above the 790,170 posted in 2005. Total membership fell slightly to 1,041,061 in 2006 from 1,044,831 in 2005.

The number of Florida Baptists attending primary worship increased by 6,631—or 1.48 percent--to 446,893 in 2006 from 440,262 in 2005.

Sunday school enrollment dropped to 572,263 in 2006 from 579,863 in 2005, yet more Florida Baptists are attending Sunday school, as average attendance rose by 1.38 percent to 278,711 in 2006.

Mission project participation was one of the few other areas to show growth as the number of persons involved in on hands-on mission efforts increased by 20 percent to 74,537 from 61,997. Other areas-- Discipleship Training, Music ministry, WMU and Florida Baptist Men, reported decreases.

In financial areas, undesignated receipts given to the churches increased by 8.43 percent to $586,739,941; total gifts received jumped by 8 percent to $787,169,198. Overall missions expenditures and associational missions giving increased only slightly to $85,185,994 and $8,516,671 respectively.

Despite the stagnant growth, Florida Baptists gave generously to Southern Baptist mission causes. From October 2005 through September 2006 period, Cooperative Program gifts increased by 3.55 percent; and the Lottie Moon Offering for International missions and the Annie Armstrong Offering for National Missions both increased by nearly nine percent.

Florida Baptist churches ranked by baptisms

Flamingo Road, Fort Lauderdale / Troy Gramling / 732

Church at the Mall, Lakeland / Jay A. Dennis / 538

Jacksonville First / Mac Brunson / 483

Idlewild, Lutz / Ken C. Whitten / 416

Orlando First / David Uth / 384

Bell Shoals, Brandon / Forrest Pollock / 370

McGregor, Fort Myers / Richard A. Powell / 323

Coral, Coral Springs / David Hughes / 291

Central Florida First, Orlando / Clayton Cloer / 284

Hopeful, Lake City / Rodney Baker / 281

Christ Fellowship / Rick Blackwood / 277

Fort Lauderdale First / Larry L. Thompson / 276

Church at the Springs, Ocala / Ron Sylvia / 264

Oviedo First / Dwayne E. Mercer / 252

Panama City First / Craig Conner / 251

Naples First / Hayes P. Wicker / 251

Olive, Pensacola / Ted H. Traylor / 245

Brandon First / J. Thomas Green, III / 206

Indian Rocks First, Largo / Charles M. Martin, Jr. / 189

Woodland, Bradenton / J. Timothy Passmore / 174

Florida Baptist churches ranked by baptism-to-church member ratio

Church at the Bay, Tampa / Harold Mayer / 52 - 2/1

CrossPointe, Wesley Chapel / Bruce Moore / 55 - 2/1

Oak Harbor, Atlantic Beach / Randy Crews / 79 - 2/1

Palm Coast Community, Palm Coast / William (Billy) L. Wight, Jr. / 109 - 2/1

Palm Harbor Community / Warren Wetherbee / 23 3/1

Restauracion, Miami / Marcial Cordero / 25 - 3/1

Jesucristo El Camino / Angel Izquierdo / 31 - 3/1

Relevant, Seffner / Paul Wirth / 35 - 3/1

Living Water Community, Ft. Lauderdale / Rick Thompson / 48 - 3/1

Mayo / Jimmy V. Legg / 48 - 3/1

New Beginning, Opa Locka / Eric D. Readon / 60 - 3/1

Dry Prairie, Bowling Green / Douglas Carter / 74 - 3/1

Greater Little Rock, Pensacola / Lannie Wesley, III / 100 - 3/1