Southern Baptists report increase in baptisms, but not enough to reverse downward trend

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The Southern Baptist Convention saw 16% more baptisms in 2022 than in the previous year, though not enough to reverse a 20-year downward trend, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination said in its annual statistical report.

The figures come on the heels of a report that total SBC membership fell by 457,371 in 2022, the largest single-year shortfall in more than a century. The church’s overall membership declined to 1978 levels.

Southern Baptist membership has fallen from its highest level of 16.3 million in 2006 to 13.2 million today.

One observer credited a rise in non-denominational churches as part of the decline, with some Baptists moving to the new churches. An SBC official said an overdue purge of inactive and deceased members accounted for part of the 2022 drop.

Southern Baptist congregations reported baptisms rose to 180,177 in 2022, with total baptisms up 46% over the 2021-2022 reporting period, as the nation emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic.

While encouraging, the 2022 total is less than half of the 414,657 baptisms reported in 2000, which the SBC’s Lifeway Research arm said was the last year that figure surpassed 400,000 annually.

In 2017, the average SBC congregation had 7.9 baptisms, which fell to 5.4 on average in 2022.

According to the Annual Church Profile report, 43% of churches reported no baptisms for 2022, 34% baptized one to five people, and 9% reported six to nine baptisms. Thirteen percent of congregations — slightly more than 1 in 8 — reported at least 10 baptisms, including 5% who saw 20 or more baptized that year.

Congregations in the southern U.S., those in urban areas and newly established churches were most likely to report high baptism numbers, according to the report. Churches in urban areas averaged 8.6 baptisms, a higher number than suburban (5.5) or rural churches (3.1).

The Rev. Matt Henslee, a veteran Southern Baptist pastor who is set to become senior pastor at Plymouth Park Baptist Church in Irving, Texas, recognizes the challenge.

A longtime SBC outpost, Plymouth Park has seen substantial drops in attendance, with roughly 200 attending, down from earlier years when 900 worshipped weekly.

“in order for the trend to reverse across the Southern Baptist Convention, we’re going to need to pick the right battles, and that’s not with each other, but the enemy and against lostness,” said Mr. Henslee, currently the assistant preaching pastor at the First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas. “We need to get out from behind our keyboards and into the lives of those in need of gospel hope. I’ve wondered if the downward trend in evangelistic fervor in our churches matches the upward trend of our engagement in keyboard skirmishes online.”

He said he hopes to reverse the decline at Plymouth Park by returning to the basics.

Mr. Henslee aims to “reengage the community around the church that largely doesn’t know the church exists. We’ll equip the saints to engage and evangelize our neighbors, co-workers, family, and friends, build proverbial bridges into some of the area schools and communities around us, and aim to live out the gospel in our daily lives and rhythms.”