This is HUGE. The largest cohesive evangelical group, the Southern Baptist Convention (with 16 million members), met last week, and is experiencing decline in membership and baptisms.

Ed Stetzer blogged about the annual convention:

"Newly elected SBC president Johnny M. Hunt believes this year's annual meeting has helped our churches to see things as they really are. 'I think this is kind of an alarmed setting ... where we see our ship sinking. We're declining,' Hunt said. But at the point of decline, more Southern Baptists are expressing optimism and sense the denomination stepping up to face the challenge."
...
"I would reiterate that without change, our course over the last 50 years does not look positive. I pray that our future will be filled with a continued tone of gospel-focused, biblically sound, properly relevant, missional engagement both here and abroad so that all facets of our tribe can fulfill our ambassadorial role for Christ."

Furthermore, this article from Lillian Kwon at The Christian Post is rather compelling. She writes:

"The 16-million member denomination went into their 2008 meeting after the April release of LifeWay Christian Resources' Annual Church Profile, which revealed that baptisms fell for the third straight year in 2007 to SBC’s lowest level since 1987. Total membership also dropped by 0.24 percent to 16,266,920."

...
"'The truth is individuals and churches are the ones who are in decline. And we must deal with reality,' Page said at the annual meeting. 'We have compared ourselves to the wrong standards, ignoring God’s call for repentance and we have been failing to be relevant to a culture that sees us as representatives of death, not as representatives of light.'"

"'I believe God is calling us to see that the problem lies with me,' he added. 'Yes, there are problems amongst us. I have deep concern about the absolute disintegration of many of our churches … But let’s take an honest look at reality. Blame the denomination if you wish, but the problem is ‘me.’ ‘I haven’t been winning people to Christ as much as I [ought to].’"

This decline seems to be across the Church, not just the SBC. Why is the Church declining? What do we need to do about it? Is evangelism the problem/answer, or is it something else?