Each year our church sends our annual church profile to be shared with the 45,000 other Southern Baptist churches across the country.

These are our sister churches, our partners in ministry.

What makes us closer to these churches than the other 400,000 Protestant churches in the country?

Years ago, I read a great definition of Southern Baptists and how we relate to one another. Sister churches are those who share common doctrine and common emphases. They are churches where the fellowship with one another is easy and good.

We are thankful to have these churches and to work together to do missions and evangelism around the world.

The following are the highlights of our annual church profile.

I am thankful to tell you that First Baptist Church, Covington, Louisiana, baptized more people this year than ever before in our history–143 people over the last 12 months.

That means we have baptized 601 people over the last five years, and 1125 people in the last 10 years.

That also means that over half of the growth of the church is conversion growth. By the time you add those who moved from other denominations about two thirds of our new members are coming from no church background or a different church background.

Over the past year we have averaged more than 2000 (2007) people in our worship services each Sunday and an average of over 1300 (1343) people in our small group Bible study classes. When you add those who attend the various Bible studies associated with our church we had almost as many people studying the Bible week by week as we did worshiping in the worship services of the church.

All these are very healthy statistics.

My greatest joy is seeing the church grow and minister in a healthy manner. May we work to promote the health, unity, and harmony of God’s church.

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