Doctrine, Demographics, and the Decline of the Southern Baptist Convention in Shelby County, Tennessee

Abstract

Recent church membership statistics show that the Southern Baptist Convention is in decline in Shelby County. This paper argues that the increasingly conservative tilt of the national denomination in recent years, in addition to demographic factors specific to the county, explain this phenomenon. The size, strength, and national prominence of Memphis's Bellevue Baptist Church make Shelby County a particularly significant site for investigating membership trends in the Southern Baptist Convention.