Updated Country Profile - Barbados

Click here to access the updated Reaching the Nations country profile for Barbados. Little has changed for the Church in Barbados since the first edition of the almanac was published. Membership growth rates have slightly increased and the Church organized a mission headquartered in Barbados - the Barbados Bridgetown Mission to service nearly one dozen island nations and territories/dependencies in the region. However, the Church reports some of the lowest member activity rates in the region in Barbados as only about 20% of the 1,047 church-reported members appear to regularly attend church. Here is the Future Prospects section of this article:

The experience of the Church in Barbados demonstrates that contrary to some expectations, developed local church leadership, political stability, and a traditionally Christian population do not guarantee favorable church growth conditions. The majority of active Barbadian members have become entrenched in the Church, resulting in poor member-missionary participation and slow church growth. Furthermore, member activity rates have appeared to decrease from 30% to 20% within the past decade as most new converts baptized during this time have not been retained. Reliance on full-time missionaries for finding, teaching, and baptizing new converts has appeared to decrease retention rates for new converts. Although the Church organized a new mission headquartered in Barbados in 2015, there has not appeared to have been measurable progress achieved with strengthening the Church or accelerating growth based upon metrics available such as church-reported membership and the number of congregations. Additionally, full-time missionary reports indicate only modest increases in the number of people who attend Church, and it is unclear whether these increases have occurred in all three branches or only in the Christ Church Branch. Increasing the number of retained new converts and the establishment of congregations in additional areas of the island such as Speightstown will be necessary to reverse stagnant church growth trends sustained over the past 2-3 decades.