Baptist groups support ‘parental rights’; SBC news: Guidestone and Lifeway updates; Southern Baptists see attendance and baptism growth, membership decline.

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention (MWBC) signed onto a friend-of-the-court brief filed Monday (May 8) that urged the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to rule parents have legal standing to contest the guidance of the Eau Claire (Wis.) Area School District. The policy permits staff to conceal from parents their child is identifying at school as a gender different than his or her biological sex.

The brief marks the third time in 14 months the ERLC has joined with a Baptist state convention and other organizations to support parents challenging a school’s guidelines regarding students who identify as transgender. Among the commission’s allies on those friend-of-the-court briefs were the Baptist Convention of Iowa (BCI) in one case and the MWBC in the other.

Lifeway Christian Resources and B&H Español were named Publisher of the Year by the Spanish Evangelical Publishers Association (SEPA) at its annual awards ceremony held April 20, 2023, in Miami, Florida. The SEPA Awards recognize the highest quality and excellence in the publishing, sales and marketing of Christian literature in Spanish.

This is the fifth time Lifeway—the world’s largest provider of Spanish Bibles—has been named Spanish Publisher of the Year.

Lifeway also received the award for Bible of the Year for “The Thematic Study Bible” (Biblia Temática de Estudio), edited by renowned pastor, Miguel Núñez. “The Thematic Study Bible,” published June 2022, features a collaboration of theologians and pastors from various Spanish-speaking countries. 

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For the second straight year, baptisms and giving increased among Southern Baptist congregations. In-person worship service and small group attendance also rebounded, but total membership and the number of congregations slid.

The Annual Church Profile (ACP) compiled by Lifeway Christian Resources in cooperation with Baptist state conventions paints a complicated picture for the Southern Baptist Convention but contains some positive news. In 2022, baptisms increased by more than 16%, in-person worship attendance climbed by more than 5%, small group attendance grew by 4% and giving to Southern Baptist congregations ticked up by almost 2%.