Great story of Rural Replanting happening in Mer Rouge, Louisiana.
Category Archives: Louisiana Baptists
Report: Baptisms Rebound in Louisiana
Last week Lifeway Research released a report on Baptisms and other stats across the Southern Baptist Convention. Find it HERE. How does Louisiana’s data fit into that picture?
Louisiana Baptist churches reported 8,120 baptisms in 2022. That’s a 21% increase from 2021 to 2022. And a 44% increase from 2020 to 2022. Up from 5,637. Still a long way from a high of 16,187 in 1994. A steep drop started in 2016, the last year above 10,000 baptisms in our reported history.
38% of Louisiana Baptist churches that reported in 2022 had zero baptisms. 35% baptized 1-5 people, while 10% saw six to nine baptisms. 16% reported at least 10 baptisms.
Newer churches are not as evangelistic as they once were. This is something I’ve written about before HERE. Church’s founded before 2000, averaged 7.5 baptisms per church. Those founded between 1950 and 1999, baptized 8.3 per church. Those founded from 1900 to 1949 baptized 9.2 per church. And those founded pre-1900 averaged 5.3 baptisms per church.
If you’re concerned, you can do something about low baptism numbers today! SHARE THE GOSPEL. Here is three questions and a to do list for increasing baptisms in short order:
Question: Do we have a list of potential candidates?
1. Look over our church directory and circle the names of people that I know have not been baptized or that I’m not sure have been baptized.
2. Make appointments with at least one of these each day, until everyone circled has been challenged to consider where they are in their journey toward Christ.
3. Plan a sermon on Baptism where everyone will be challenged to follow and obey Christ with the opportunity to respond.
Question: Are we making Evangelistic Contacts?
4. Pray for open doors to share the gospel.
5. Plan a time today and at least three times each week, to intentionally interact with people that are far from God.
6. Put at least three outreach events on the calendar between now and the end of the year that are sure to engage people who are far from God. Get names, pray, follow up.
Question: Are we developing an Evangelistic Culture in our Church?
7. Plan at least one evangelism training for the entire church between now and the end of the year.
8. Put on the calendar at least one monthly special prayer time for lost and unchurched people in our community.
9. Challenge our church leaders by email and in person to right down the names of five people that they know who need Christ. If they don’t know five people, challenge them to get to know five people who need Christ.
Georgia Barnette is at Work!
Our Louisiana Baptists State Missions Offering, the Georgia Barnette Offering, is a great spark for missions all over Louisiana. In 2021, we received just under $1.6 million for the offering and this money has been at work across the state of Louisiana this year! As Louisiana Baptist churches give to the 2022 offering, here is a brief run down of some of this year’s Georgia Barnette expenditures, as of September 1st:
- $75k in scholarships for ministerial students.
- $206k in church planting and compassion ministry funding for over 100 projects across the state.
- $92k in funding for the Mission Builder program providing construction resources and volunteer mobilization for church building projects across Louisiana.
- $55k for training and networking events for leaders in non-English speaking churches in Louisiana.
- $18k for African-American church leadership development and networking events.
- $20k for special evangelism projects including Prison outreach and evangelistic event support.
- $92k for Collegiate Ministry, including Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) at Grambling University and Southern University in Baton Rouge and Summer Missions support for Baptist Collegiate Students.
- $35k for the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Extension at Angola State Penitentiary.
- $56k for ESL (English as a Second Language), Multi-housing, and Chaplaincy training and projects across Louisiana.
- $40k for Disaster Relief Training and Projects.
- $26k for women’s ministry support, including Crisis Pregnancy / Sanctity of Life Projects and job training for women in crisis situations.
- $150k for the Here for You Multimedia campaign.
Still around $550k to be distributed over the next four months. It’s always a lot of fun to watch the Georgia Barnette offering at work! Find out more about the Georgia Barnette State Missions Offering at GeorgiaBarnette.org. Watch for opportunities to give through your church this Fall, or give RIGHT HERE. Let’s be faithful to provide this spark for missions in Louisiana!
Lost in Louisiana’s Metros
Louisiana has nine Metropolitan Statistical areas, which includes all of our major cities and 34 of our 64 parishes. 82% of the population of Louisiana lives in one of these Metro areas. These are not all urban areas. Extremely rural parishes including Union and Grant are included in these areas.
So how are we doing at reaching Louisiana’s Metros?
Combined – Link with Metro by Metro Breakdown
- 3,655,086, live in Louisiana’s Metros
- 76.5% are potentially spiritually lost
- 26.2% or 957,829 are evangelicals
- 3.1% or 111,486 attend a SBC Church
- There are 956 SBC churches in our Metros, which means there is 1 church for 3,823 residents.
Data on each Metro area individually:
- New Orleans – Worksheet– By Parish with SBC Data
- Baton Rouge – Worksheet– By Parish with SBC Data
- Lafayette – Worksheet– By Parish with SBC Data
- Shreveport-Bossier – Worksheet – By Parish with SBC Data
- Lake Charles – Worksheet – By Parish with SBC Data
- Houma-Thib – Worksheet – By Parish with SBC Data
- Monroe – Worksheet – By Parish with SBC Data
- Alexandria – Worksheet – By Parish with SBC Data
- Tangipahoa – Worksheet
By Population:
| Metro | Population |
| New Orleans – includes Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, St. James | 1,167,866 |
| Baton Rouge – includes Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, West Baton Rouge, West Feliciana | 802,484 |
| Lafayette – includes Lafayette, St. Martin, Acadia, Iberia, Vermilion | 426,897 |
| Shreveport-Bossier – includes Bossier, Caddo, De Soto | 398,594 |
| Houma-Thib – includes Lafourche, Terrebonne | 208,178 |
| Lake Charles – includes Calcasieu, Cameron | 199,607 |
| Monroe – includes Ouachita, Union | 176,441 |
| Alexandria – includes Grant, Rapides | 153,922 |
| Tangipahoa | 121,097 |
By Potential Lostness:
| Metro | Lost | % Lost |
| Tangipahoa | 98,743 | 81.5% |
| New Orleans | 921,058 | 78.9% |
| Baton Rouge | 615,413 | 76.7% |
| Shreveport-Bossier | 301,040 | 75.5% |
| Monroe | 132,834 | 75.2% |
| Lafayette | 316,971 | 74.2% |
| Houma-Thib | 153,567 | 73.8% |
| Alexandria | 113,342 | 73.6% |
| Lake Charles | 143,782 | 72.0% |
By Evangelical Population:
| Metro | Evang | % Evang |
| Houma-Thib | 22,651 | 10.9% |
| Lafayette | 61,335 | 14.4% |
| New Orleans | 186,390 | 16.0% |
| Tangipahoa | 34,691 | 28.6% |
| Baton Rouge | 241,123 | 30.0% |
| Lake Charles | 61,906 | 31.0% |
| Shreveport-Bossier | 189,528 | 47.5% |
| Alexandria | 73,499 | 47.8% |
| Monroe | 86,706 | 49.1% |
By SBC Attendance and Churches:
| Metro | SBC Attenders | % SBC | SBC Churches | Church to Population |
| Houma-Thib | 2,477 | 1.2% | 29 | 1 / 7,179 |
| Lafayette | 6,653 | 1.6% | 60 | 1 / 7,115 |
| New Orleans | 24,473 | 2.1% | 191 | 1 / 6,114 |
| Baton Rouge | 22,194 | 2.8% | 192 | 1 / 4,709 |
| Tangipahoa | 4,450 | 3.7% | 60 | 1 / 2,018 |
| Lake Charles | 8,221 | 4.1% | 64 | 1 / 3,119 |
| Shreveport-Bossier | 17,764 | 4.5% | 146 | 1 / 2,730 |
| Monroe | 13,438 | 7.6% | 99 | 1 / 1,782 |
| Alexandria | 11,816 | 7.7% | 115 | 1 / 1,338 |
Lost in Louisiana
Jesus said he came “to seek and to save the lost” Luke 19:10
The Baptist Faith and Message says that it “is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and every church of the Lord Jesus Christ… to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ.”
Being spiritually lost is described in the Bible as being alienatedfrom God, guided by the flesh, perishing, under wrath, and many more terrifying descriptions for the present and eternal life of an individual. Followers of Christ must be committed to follow His example and command to seek and save the lost.
One of the assumptions that kills the mission to the lost is that we think most people are already saved or have a church they attend. Below is a compilation of Parish by Parish data that shows how many are potentially lost, how many evangelicals there are, and how many attend southern baptist churches across Louisiana.
The tool used calculates Spiritual Lostness by:
- # of non religious adherents + cults
- # of Christian adherents (all denominations including Roman Catholics) minus 60% of total (using Barna’s figure that 60% of people that claim to be Christian, do not profess to believe in Christ as a means of salvation)
- Add 60% to non-adherents + cults = number of lost individuals
- Also shown is how many may be reached by a non-traditional or new church. 50% of the lost say they would attend church if invited. So, 50% would not. These are the radically unreached.
Yes. You can probably poke holes in the data, or you can say, “What if this is true?” – “What will it take to reach that many people in my community?” “Is my church able to reach the lost as it is?” “What am I doing to change these numbers?” If you could start a movement to reach thousands of lost in your community or region or the state, what would it to look like?
- SBC Attendance numbers are from 2018 Annual Church Profile Data.
- Population figures are from the 2010 Census. We’ll be looking forward to updating this with new 2020 Data in the very near future.
- Data on Adherents is mostly from The Association of Religious Data Archives – thearda.com.
Lostness Across Louisiana
- Parish by Parish LINK (includes populaton, evangelical population, SBC attendance, church to population ratio)
- Louisiana Worksheet LINK
- Estimate shows that 76% of Louisiana may be spiritually lost. That is over 3.4 million!
- 28% of Louisiana’s population are evangelicals.
- 26% are Roman Catholic.
- 41% are none’s or non-affiliated.
- Only 3.5% of Louisianians attend an SBC church. Less than 8% of the population are resident members of an SBC church.
If you add all these numbers to the fact that baptisms, worship attendance, and Bible Study attendance are all down and at historic lows for Southern Baptist in Louisiana, it points to our need of a movement of God to turn the tide of lostness in our state. Revitalization? Yes! Crusade Evangelism? Yes! Sunday School Growth? Yes! Church Planting? Yes! We need all hands and all ideas on deck!
How goes it in your Parish?
Here are Parish by Parish Worksheets on Lostness throughout Louisiana –
- Acadia Parish
- Allen Parish
- Ascension Parish
- Assumption Parish
- Avoyelles Parish
- Beauregard Parish
- Bienville Parish
- Bossier Parish
- Caddo Parish
- Calcasieu Parish
- Caldwell Parish
- Cameron Parish
- Catahoula Parish
- Claiborne Parish
- Concordia Parish
- De Soto Parish
- East Baton Rouge Parish
- East Carroll Parish
- East Feliciana Parish
- Evangeline Parish
- Franklin Parish
- Grant Parish
- Iberia Parish
- Iberville Parish
- Jackson Parish
- Jefferson Davis Parish
- Jefferson Parish
- Lafayette Parish
- Lafourche Parish
- LaSalle Parish
- Lincoln Parish
- Livingston Parish
- Madison Parish
- Morehouse Parish
- Natchitoches Parish
- Orleans Parish
- Ouachita Parish
- Plaquemines Parish
- Pointe Coupee Parish
- Rapides Parish
- Red River Parish
- Richland Parish
- Sabine Parish
- St. Bernard Parish
- St. Charles Parish
- St. Helena Parish
- St. James Parish
- St. John the Baptist Parish
- St. Landry Parish
- St. Martin Parish
- St. Mary Parish
- St. Tammany Parish
- Tangipahoa Parish
- Tensas Parish
- Terrebonne Parish
- Union Parish
- Vermilion Parish
- Vernon Parish
- Washington Parish
- Webster Parish
- West Baton Rouge Parish
- West Carroll Parish
- West Feliciana Parish
- Winn Parish
Multiply Louisiana Church Planting Update
A little update from my day job….
Louisiana Baptists Church Planting Advisory Council Meeting was held yesterday. The Council heard reports on New Churches across Louisiana, Church Planting Training, Compassion Ministry, and State Missions Offering allocations for Church Planting. Here’s a synopsis:
- 86% to our goal of 300 new churches from 2010 to 2020.
- 33 projected church plants for 2020. Two churches started in January. Six new churches in process for February.
- 57% of new churches started since 2010 have been non-anglo. 82 African-American, 35 Hispanic, 12 Asian, 18 Other.
- In the pipeline for 2020 – 8 new Hispanic churches, 2 Portugese, 2 Asian (Burmese and Cambodian).
- 64 churches started in North Louisiana (25%);193 in South Louisiana (75%), including 70 new churches in New Orleans or 27%.
- 3,749 Baptisms in church plants and replants since 2010 – 14.5 per church plant. (includes first 3 years of ministry)
- 13,977 Commitments to Christ reported by new churches since 2010 – 54 per church plant. (includes first 3 years of ministry)
- Because of the generous giving of Louisiana Baptist Churches to the Georgia Barnette State Mission Offeringin 2019, we were able to increase supplements to church plants and replants by over $10,000 per plant and give each current church plant in Louisiana a bonus at the end of 2019.
Pray for Louisiana Church Planters who are on the front lines of reaching people and meeting needs in our state.
Connect with Louisiana Baptist Church Planting here – MultiplyLA.com. On Facebook, check out our Multiply Louisiana Facebook Group.
Multiply Lake Charles
Lake Charles is projected to be one of the fastest growing communities in Louisiana for years to come. Oil and gas and chemical manufacturing are booming and have only slowed down slightly with drops in oil prices. Carey Baptist Association and Director of Missions Bruce 
Baker serve this area, representing Calcasieu, Cameron, and Jefferson Davis Parishes. Planters and partners are needed to reach a growing population and a key area for our state for years to come. Check out some data on this area:
- Population of Carey Baptist Association: 241,662 (up 3% since 2010). Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis, and Cameron Parishes.
- Worship Attendance in 72 SBC churches: 9,128 Only 3.8% of the population worshipped in a SBC church on any given weekend in 2018.
- Bible Study Attendance: 5,227 (down 20% since 2010). Only 2.2% of the population attended Bible Study in an SBC church on any given weekend in 2018.
- 72 SBC churches for a church to population ration of 1 to 3,356 residents. Our state average & our goal for each association is 1 to 2,850. NAMB suggests 1 to 2,000 as a good mark. 12 new churches would be needed to get to 1 to 2,850 in the Lake Charles area.
- 57 SBC churches in Calcasieu Parish for 1 to 3,563. 10 churches in Jefferson Davis Parish for 1 to 3,158.
- Only 10 non-Anglo SBC churches for 1 to 6,714 church to non-anglo population.
- Evangelical Population: 59,161 or 24% of the population.
- Those with No Religious Affiliation or None’s: 65,878 or 27% of the population. So there are now more None’s than Evangelicals.
- Roman Catholic Population: 83,950 or 35% of the population.
- Mainline Protestant: 11,157 or 5% of the population.
- 7,302 students currently attend McNeese St. University.
- 63% of Carey Association churches are under 100 in attendance. 38% under 50 in attendance.
- 28% of Carey Association churches with zero baptisms in 2018.
- Projected Job Growth is 2.5% in 2020 and 3.1% in 2021.
Pray for planters and partners.
Yes, There Are Towns in Louisiana without a Southern Baptist Church!
Louisiana has 304 Census Designated Areas, noted as cities, towns, and villages by the Census Bureau. A few years ago, out of curiosity, I did a little digging into how many of these might not have a Southern Baptist Church. I knew of a few, but didn’t expect that number to total almost 100! Now, if you’ve ever looked at this list, you won’t recognize many of these places unless you are from there. A few even have a population of less than 10! The Missions and Ministry Team has sought to keep this list updated and add it to the numerous things that play into good church planting strategy and missiology for Louisiana.
Not all of these places necessarily need a new church. Some of these towns have active churches near them. It’s not the objective of the Louisiana Baptist Mission and Ministry Team to start churches, just to say we did. If it’s a strategic need and if God calls his people to go; we will assist in starting a church in these geographic locations.
Not all of these places are without evangelical witnesses. We are not saying that all of these places are without the witness of an evangelical congregation. We celebrate the work of evangelical partners who are seeking to reach our state and we’re happy when we find that a community has an active witness of the Gospel in its midst. When we find that little to no active gospel witness is present, the priority rises.
Not all the places in Louisiana that have a church are saturated with the Gospel. A more shocking statistic than the number of communities without a Southern Baptist Church is the low percentage of people that attend the Southern Baptist Churches that are already in existence. Most parishes across Louisiana, have less than 10% of the population attending SBC churches on any given weekend. Many areas, even across the south, have too few churches to reach even 30% of its population with the gospel.
Louisiana’s need for new churches in no way compares with the need in other parts of North America. The fact that Louisiana has towns with no SBC churches has challenged me to remember pioneer areas across North America and the world with zero access to a gospel advancing community of believers. As a missionary friend says, “As you go to the church of your choice this weekend, remember those with no church to choose.” Let the reality of Louisiana’s need, remind us of the unfinished task before us in carrying out Christ’s Great Commission.
How can we respond to places with no church?
- Pray! Pray for laborers (Luke 10:2). Pray for open doors (1 Corinthians 16:9).
- Take a vision tour. In 2020, our team will be conducting one day Vision Tours and Windshield Surveys in many of these towns with no SBC Church. Email me at lane.corley@louisianabaptists.org and let me know if you’d like to help with these tours.
- Adopt a town to pray for and plan to reach out through a day of prayer walking or other outreach event. Let us know if you’d be interested in reaching out in a city or town without a church.
Where are these towns? Here’s a list of the top 50, listed by CDA / Town / City or Village, Parish, Association, and Population. Check out our Engage Map for and interactive look at locations of Louisiana Baptist churches, church plants, and target locations for new churches – https://www.engagemap.org/louisianabaptists/EngageMap.
- Terrytown – Jefferson – NOBA – 24,216
- Bayou Cane – Terrebonne – Bayou – 21,173
- Estelle – Jefferson – NOBA – 16,791
- Gardere – East Baton Rouge – BAGBR – 11,229
- Woodmere – Jefferson – NOBA – 11,114
- Timberlane – Jefferson – NOBA – 10,655
- South Fort Polk – Vernon – Vernon – 9,293
- Oak Hills – East Baton Rouge – BAGBR – 8,980
- Old Jefferson – East Baton Rouge – BAGBR – 8,283
- Galliano – Lafourche – Bayou – 7,650
- Eden Isle St. Tammany NSBA 7,631
- St. Gabriel Iberville BAGBR 7,094
- Meraux St. Bernard NOBA 7,073
- Village St. George East Baton Rouge BAGBR 6,802
- Inniswold East Baton Rouge BAGBR 6,772
- Vacherie St. James BAGBR 5,689
- Chackbay Lafourche Bayou 5,647
- Grambling Lincoln Concord Union 5,184
- Elmwood Jefferson NOBA 5,037
- Eastwood Bossier NWLA 4,547
- Richwood Oauchita NELA 3,378
- Buras-Triumph Plaquemines NOBA 3,358
- Lutcher St. James BAGBR 3,345
- Brusly West Baton Rouge BAGBR 2,721
- Chauvin Terrebonne Bayou 2,682
- Abita Springs St. Tammany Northshore 2,584
- Bayou Gauche St. Charles NOBA 2,557
- North Fort Polk Vernon Vernon 2,432
- Edgard St. John the Baptist NOBA 2,315
- Rosepine Vernon Vernon 2,235
- Garyville St. John the Baptist NOBA 2,225
- Boothville-Venice Plaquemines NOBA 2,220
- Montz St. Charles NOBA 2,140
- Labadieville Assumption Bayou 2,092
- Henderson St. Martin Evangeline 1,885
- Belle Rose Assumption Bayou 1,837
- Paradis St. Charles NOBA 1,616
- Ama St. Charles NOBA 1,361
- New Sarpy St. Charles NOBA 1,203
- Cullen Webster Webster-Claiborne 1,133
- Paincourtville Assumption Bayou 1,070
- Empire Plaquemines NOBA 1,054
- Leonville St. Landry Acadia 1,042
- Rosedale village Iberville BAGBR 983
- Grand Coteau St. Landry Acadia 964
- Supreme Assumption Bayou 859
- Parks village St. Martin Evangeline 831
- Mermentau village Acadia Acadia 815
- Killona St. Charles NOBA 815
- Convent St. James BAGBR 711
Louisiana’s Healthy AND Growing Churches – 2018
Dr. Bill Day, Church Growth and Evangelism Professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, defines a Healthy and Growing Church as a church that has had:
- 10% growth over a 5 year period.
- At least one baptism per year in that period.
- An attender to baptism ratio of 15:1.
I like this formula, because it helps us see that not every church that is a healthy church is a growing church. And not every church that is growing, grows by evangelistic growth. This formula cuts through the pack to get to the healthy, evangelistic, growing churches. It is also a formula that includes smaller membership churches that often get left out of the lists that are only based on the biggest numbers.
You can see my reports on Healthy and Growing Churches in Louisiana in 2016 Here and Here. And 2017, Here.
2018 Data is in, and we’re currently collecting the Annual Church Profiles for 2019. Here’s a look at Healthy and Growing Churches among Louisiana Baptists in 2018:
- 150 Louisiana Baptist churches, or 9%, grew by 10% growth between 2014 and 2018. That’s down from 161 in 2017 and 163 in 2016.
- Only 60 Louisiana Baptist churches, or 4%, were healthy AND growing churches between 2014 and 2018; with 10% growth, 1 baptism per year, and a 15:1 attender to baptism ratio.
Where are these churches?
- 19 are in south Louisiana, 41 are in north Louisiana.
- 24 along I-20, 17 in Central LA, 5 in SWLA, 9 on the I-12, 1 in New Orleans, 4 in Baton Rouge.
How old are these churches?
- 3 are less than 10 years old
- 3 are 11-25 years old
- 8 are 26-50 years old
- 20 are 50-100 years old
- 26 are 100+ years old
What’s the size of these churches?
- 5,000+ – 1
- 1,000-4,999 – 0
- 500-999 – 4
- 250-499 – 11
- 100-249 – 23
- 1-99 – 21
Who are these Churches?
Top 25 Churches with the largest % growth between 2014 and 2018:
- United Outreach, Shreveport – grew by 68% from 90 to 280, baptizing 126 between 2014 and 2018.
- Heflin, Heflin – grew by 67% from 100 to 300, baptizing 56.
- Gandy, Florien – grew by 53% from 53 to 70, baptizing 79.
- Unity, Cotton Valley – grew by 49% from 57 to 112, baptizing 138.
- Christ’s Community, Denham Springs – grew by 44% from 423 to 750, baptizing 417.
- Grawood, Keithville – grew by 44% from 192 to 340, baptizing 98.
- Fellowship on Airline, Gonzales – grew by 44% from 95 to 170, baptizing 28.
- Midway, Ponchatoula – grew by 44% from 20 to 36, baptizing 18.
- Bethany, Bethany – grew by 41% from 62 to 112, baptizing 89.
- Newton, Delhi – grew by 41% from 50 to 85, baptizing 98.
- Trinity, Hammond – grew by 40% from 90 to 150, baptizing 26.
- Bethel, West Monroe – grew by 40% from 45 to 75, baptizing 25.
- Old Zion Hill, Independence – grew by 39% from 200 to 330, baptizing 97.
- First, Castor – grew by 39% from 55 to 90, baptizing 23.
- Memorial, Monroe – grew by 38% from 40 to 65, baptizing 29.
- First, Pine Prairie – grew by 35% from 163 to 250, baptizing 37.
- Oak Forest, Leesville – grew by 34% from 56 to 85, baptizing 52.
- Lighthouse, Shreveport – grew by 33% from 40 to 60, baptizing 40.
- First, Robeline – grew by 33% from 170 to 255, baptizing 227.
- Celebration Church, Metairie – grew by 32% from 5,233 to 7,656, baptizing 2,764.
- Bethsadia, Many – grew by 30% from 35 to 50, baptizing 57.
- Unity, Oak Grove – grew by 29% from 100 to 154, baptizing 193.
- Open Door Fellowship, Coushatta – grew by 28% from 90 to 125, baptizing 73.
- Mangham, Mangham – grew by 27% from 110 to 150, baptizing 35.
- First, Holden – grew by 27% from 62 to 85, baptizing 33.
Churches that Added the Most People between 2014 and 2018:
- Celebration Church, Metairie, added 2,423 people.
- Christ’s Community, Denham Springs, 327 people.
- Heflin, Heflin, added 200 people.
- United Outreach, Shreveport, added 190 people.
- Grawood, Keithville, added 148 people.
- Old Zion Hill, Independence, added 130 people.
- Addis, First, added 127 people.
- His Church, Pineville, added 126 people.
- First, Pine Prairie, added 85 people.
- First, Robeline, added 75 people.
Top 10 Baptisms by these churches from 2014 to 2018:
- Celebration Church (SBC), Metairie – 2764
- First, Haughton – 425
- Christ’s Community, Denham Springs – 417
- Philadelphia, Deville – 370
- His Church, Pineville – 311
- Addis, First – 277
- First, Robeline – 227
- Unity, Oak Grove – 193
- Trinity, Many – 149
- Unity, Cotton Valley – 138
Do you think your church should be on the list? Remember the criteria:
- Does your church have 5 years of history?
- What is the ratio of attendance to baptism? Must be 15:1.
- Did your church turn in an Annual Church Profile all of the 5 years?
- Did your church baptize at least 1 person each year?
- Did your church grow by 10% over the 5 year period?
Email me for a copy of the full report and list of churches on this list, along with all the churches that grew by 10% over the last five years in Louisiana – lane.corley@louisianabaptists.org.
Rural Ministry Today
This year, our Louisiana Baptist Missions and Ministry Team held 10 weeks of Summer Network gatherings across Louisiana, and we tried to hit some of our more rural areas and associations. Though 75% of Louisiana is considered Urban by the Census Bureau. A few observations about ministry in Rural Louisiana in 2019:
- There is a growing shortage of pastors. There are associations in our state with 20-25% of their churches without pastors.
- There are more retirees entering the ministry. We met several amazing men who had retired from secular employment and are now pastoring churches! We also have several planting churches! How about ministry as an ENCORE career.
- Rural Pastors are finding innovative ways to meet the changing ministry environments they are in. Addiction, homelessness, poverty are major issues in rural areas, just as in urban areas, and on the minds of pastors. Churches are finding ways to address these. Encouraging.
- Rural Pastors are heroes. They do it without fanfare or abundant resources. I have been inspired by the enthusiasm of young and old pastors in rural areas this summer. Their church of 40 people may seem insignificant, but in a community with 600 people, they are a mega church!
- Relationships among churches and among pastors are lifelines for the stresses of ministry in rural areas. Associational coaching networks are forming. Pastors with education are mentoring pastors who did not have the opportunity. Encouraged by the kingdom mindset across our state.
- Smaller, rural churches have suffered from transfer growth as many older Christians choose to drive out of their community to a larger church in another town. Heard this observation several times from rural pastors this summer in relation to the struggle to find mature Christians to lead. There are seasoned Christians giving up on the small, local church.
- Rural communities are attractive to families and are growing in population and income level. From younger retirees to families that want more space and don’t mind a 45 minute to 1 hour commute daily, demographics are changing in many of our rural areas.
I am a product of rural churches. These churches gave me a great foundation of faith. Ministry looks differently, may move slower, but continues to be fruitful for life change and making disciples. Praying for our Rural pastors and churches.
Lane Corley 