The Southern Baptist Convention has witnessed another year of membership decline but has also seen worship attendance and baptisms increase, according to a recent report.
According to a report released Wednesday on the Annual Church Profile compiled by Lifeway Research, the SBC had approximately 12.72 million members in 2024, a 2% decline from the approximately 12.98 million reported for 2023.
However, the SBC saw 250,643 baptisms in 2024, which was about 10% more than the 226,919 that occurred in 2023, itself a rise from 2022, when the nation’s largest Protestant denomination reported fewer than 200,000 baptisms.
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Also, an average of over 4.3 million people worshiped weekly in SBC congregations, with over 2.5 million being involved in small group Bible study on a weekly basis. Both numbers were around 5% higher than what was reported for 2023.
Jeff Iorg, president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, said in a statement quoted in the Lifeway Research report that “Southern Baptists love to focus on evangelism, and these ACP numbers back that up.”
“We rejoice that God is using Southern Baptist churches to reach people with the gospel,” said Iorg. “We celebrate the upward trends in baptisms that we haven’t seen in the past 30 years. These ACP results help us see that God is at work among Southern Baptists.”
The SBC also reported having 30 fewer member congregations, dropping from 46,906 in 2023 to 46,876 in 2024. This decline included both churches that had closed and churches that were no longer affiliated with the convention.
This loss of member congregations is also considerably less than the drop in 2023, when the convention saw 292 congregations either close down or end their affiliation with the SBC.
As with most religious groups in the United States, the SBC has seen declines in membership and the number of congregations in recent years. This is partially attributed to some churches opting to leave the denomination because they want to allow women to serve as pastors. In recent years, some churches have been ousted for elevating women to the office of pastor, which goes against the Baptist Faith & Message.
In 2023, SBC leadership removed the prominent California megachurch Saddleback Church from membership for having a woman serve as teaching pastor.
Additionally, as part of its efforts to combat sexual abuse among its ranks, the SBC has disfellowshipped seven churches since 2022 over their alleged failure to properly handle abuse allegations.
