I mentioned in my earlier newsletter that I had met with other Executive and Area Ministers from other Baptist groups in Canada.
The meeting was held in Edmonton under the leadership of Jamey McDonald who is the Baptist General of Conference of Canada Executive Director. As part of the two day meeting we met with Reginald Bibby the University of Lethbridge’s sociologist. Reg is well known to many of us as an effective and prolific writer of religion in Canada. He has been enormously helpful in challenging the popular media’s cultural dismissal of the Christian faith in Canadian society. A reading of Bibby’s latest book, Restless Churches, gives a picture of a healthy, growing and energizing Christian faith at the beginning of this new century. Reg is also known as a former Baptist Union minister and more importantly, for me personally, he was a counselor (and Ken Hilmer the director) at Gull Lake Camp where I became a Christian. More of Bibby in this newsletter later…let’s go back to the other Baptist groups in Canada.
There are five main Baptist groups in Canada:
Group # of Churches Sunday Attendance
BGC Canada 100 14,000
NAB Conf 126 22,434
South. Bapts (Canada) 206 11,446
Fellow. of Evang. Bapts 503 86,299
Baptist Union/Ontario & Quebec/Atlantic
Baptist Conv ON & QC 1050 143,000
Why so many Baptists? There are many answers to that question, some of them not very flattering to those of us who call ourselves Baptists. The simple “e-mail” version is in Canada the variety of Baptists have been determined by ethnicity and theology. While this is a wild oversimplification it touches on the basis of these groups and not necessarily their configuration today.
The Baptist General Conference comes out of the Swedish tradition and the North American Baptists out of the German tradition. These two groups along with a very strong Ukrainian cohort were originally part of the Baptist Union. The Southern Baptists represent both an ethno-cultural perspective along with (in the last two decades) a more conservative theology. The fellowship evolves out of a split with mainstream (not to be confused with mainline) Baptist life in the 1920’s and are also more conservative in culture and theology. That’s a thumbnail sketch. So what does it rear?
To begin with what statistical place do these groups have in Canadian society?
Canada’s Top 12 Religions Groups in 2001
1. Roman Catholic 12,936,910 45%
2. United Church 2,839,125 12%
3. Anglican 2,035,500 8%
4. Christian (unspecified) 780,450 3%
5. Baptist 729,475 3%
6. Eastern Orthodox 606,620 2%
7. Lutheran 606,590 2%
8. Muslim 579,640 2%
9. Protestant (unspecified) 549,205 2%
10. Presbyterian 409,830 1%
11. Pentecostal 369,480 1%
12. Jewish 329,995 1%
(Source: Statistics Canada, 2001 Census)
(Note: These are minimum numbers as the totals represent how people “self describe”. In other words, someone may go to a Mennonite, Pentecostal or Baptist church but not describe themselves as such. Non- affiliation language is a popular method of church planting while by-passing perceived regular cultural labels associated with a specific denomination.)
How many churches does that represent?
Number of Churches & Affiliates
Religious Groups Approx. No. Churches No. of Affiliates
Roman Catholic 6000 12,900,000
Mainline Protestants 8800 5,892,000
United Church 3800 2,839,000
Anglican 3000 2,036,000
Lutheran 1000 607,000
Presbyterian 1000 410,000
Conservative Protestants 9800 2,776,000
Alliance 380 66,000
Baptists 2000 729,000
Evangel Missionary 300 67,000
Free Methodist 130 14,000
Mennonite 550 191,000
Nazarene 170 14,000
Pentecostal 2000 369,000
Reformed 270 116,000
Salvation Army 380 88,000
Wesleyan 80 12,000
Other 1500 330,000
Non-denominational 2000 780,000
(Source: Yearbook of American and Canadian Statistics, Statistics Canada 2001 Census)
There are some basic observations we can make. There is a rise in the independent Christian movement in this country. There is also a rise in teens and adults going to church. In 1980, 16% of Protestant teens went to church and in 2000, 26% attended. 55% of Canadians expressed that they are receptive to being more involved in a church; 45% in British Columbia, 62% in the Prairies and an astonishing 59% of 18-34 year olds. (Source: Bibby Project Canada 2000).
What a time to be alive as a Christian in Canada. I’m not going to belabour these numbers today. I would however like to mention some things in brief.
I want to ask some open ended questions about some of these stats. If over 720,000 people call themselves Baptists why do only 268,000 (give or take a few) attend church? If more folk are attending church are we one of the churches they are seeking out God in? Are we removing extraneous barriers to people finding Jesus or is our church culture more important to us than the incarnation? When we love our own culture more than those in our community we realize how challenging the incarnation (God with us; Emmanuel) must have been for God.
This is a reflective time, not a “numbers game”. What has God called each of us to in the years ahead? Whatever God has called us to we live in exciting times and, if we are open, He will do much in us (reflective/spiritual formation) and through us (active/proclaimative).
Continuing in a fruitful Advent Season,
Warmly,
In Christ,
Jeremy Bell
