The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, is holding its annual meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday in Dallas. Here are some facts about the SBC:
SIZE: The SBC consists of 47,272 churches with a membership of about 15.2 million. Weekly attendance at services is about 5.2 million. Each church is a self-governing congregation.
DIVERSITY: According to the latest SBC figures, 39,094 of the churches are predominantly white, 3,228 predominantly African-American, and 2,103 predominantly Hispanic. There are also churches for Korean, Native American, Chinese and other ethnic communities.
INSTITUTIONS: The SBC oversees missionary programs in the U.S. and abroad and operates six seminaries with an enrollment of more than 21,000.