How Many Baptists Does It Take? By Steve Parr 

How many Baptists does it take to change a light bulb? It only takes one in most of our churches. In others, it depends on what the constitution and by-laws say. On a more serious note: How many Baptists does it take to enroll someone in Sunday School? The answer may surprise you. Consider the following information taken from last year’s Annual Church Profiles. Enrollment increased by 12,282 last year in our Georgia Baptist Churches. The increase reflects the fourth largest gain in the past twenty-five years. There are 3,543 churches in the state convention. Do the math. The average church increased enrollment by 3.46. The average Georgia Baptist Church has 293 resident members. It took 85 people to enroll one person in Sunday School last year. Ouch! 

Consider the Southern Baptist Convention as a whole. Enrollment increased last year by 19,393. Our Georgia Baptist Churches accounted for 63% of the net gain in enrollment in the Southern Baptist Convention last year. Hang on to that thought. There are 43,024 Southern Baptist Churches. For simplification I will round off the numbers. Our 40,000 Southern Baptist Churches increased enrollment last year by 20,000. That means it took two churches to enroll one person in Sunday School last year. Can you believe that? We may look good if we compare our results to the convention as a whole. However, the comparison does not provide any sense of satisfaction. Are you satisfied that our churches only enrolled an average of three or four per church? 

Is the problem that Sunday School is outdated and no longer effective? Consider Dr. Thom Rainer's comments from his study of the most effective evangelistic churches in our country: 

“Leaders have not been oblivious to comments about the prospective demise of the Sunday School. They expressed bewilderment that a methodology so effective in their churches was declared terminally ill by pundits. Indeed, several pastors shared that they had listened carefully to the critics, trying to determine if they and their churches were about to be left behind in a future methodological wave. But ultimately all came back to the position that Sunday School is neither ill nor dying nor dead. On the contrary, Sunday School, done well, is one of the most God-blessed methodologies in the recent history of the church.” 

“If any program-based methodology proved to be a dynamic tool for these evangelistic churches, it was the Sunday School program. Most of the leaders of these churches were amused at the prophesies of the decline or death of Sunday School. When we asked them why such predictions were being made, they had a unified response: The problem with non-evangelistic Sunday Schools is not the program itself; the problem is failure to use the program as an intentional evangelistic tool.” 

Increasing enrollment in your church will not in and of itself increase your Sunday School attendance. However, you cannot and will not experience sustained growth in your Sunday School without increasing your enrollment. How about your Sunday School? How does your enrollment compare to one year ago? Right now there are 296,998 resident members of our Georgia Baptist churches that are not enrolled in a small group Bible Study. That averages out to 85 for each church. They live in the community and are a member of the church. They don’t attend because they do not receive regular contact, are not invited to fellowships, are not receiving ministry, and are not a part of a fellowship group. One Sunday School pundit refers to these prospects as “low hanging fruit.” I dare you to do something about this. Share this information with your church and with your Sunday School leaders. Make a commitment to increase the enrollment by at least four per class in the next year and to start at least one new class. If every church would do this the results would be amazing. The ultimate result would be more people coming to know Christ as more people are engaged in Bible Study, invite their friends, and share their faith. How many Baptists does it take? We’ve got a mighty army. Charge!!!