According to new data analysis from LifeWay Research, the Southern Baptist Convention lost over 1,200 churches in 2022.
The SBC’s 2022 Annual Church Profile, which was published Tuesday, the Lifeway analysis found that, between 2021 and 2022, 1,253 congregations were no longer part of the SBC.In 2021, 2 percent of the SBCs 50,423 active congregations closed its doors in 2021 while 0.5 percent either left or disaffiliated from the convention by the time data for 2022 was put together.
The losses in 2022 were an increase from the previous two years while 1,003 congregations closed and left in 2021, The Christian Post reports. Additionally, the SBC lost 1,002 congregations in 2020.
“Every week, the national network of Southern Baptist congregations changes,” Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, said in a statement.
“Once each year, we take a snapshot of the current Southern Baptist congregations to report national statistics. Later, analysis between annual lists of congregations reveals more details of these constant changes.”
In May 2023, Lifeway published a report showing that the SBC saw a decline of approximately 457,000 people, which is the largest membership drop in a century.
Total SBC membership went from roughly 13.68 million members in 2021 to 13.22 million members in 2022.
“457,371 members lost is the largest single-year numerical drop in more than 100 years, the report added.
Another loss, according to the 2023 report, is that the SBC lost 416 member congregations.
“Much of the downward movement we are seeing in membership reflects people who stopped participating in an individual congregation years ago and the record keeping is finally catching up,” McConnell said in a statement at the time.
“Membership totals for a congregation immediately reflect additions as well as subtractions due to death or someone removing themselves from membership. But many congregations are slow to remove others who no longer are participating.”
Despite the losses, the reported SBC membership is still more than the approximately 7 million reported in 1950 but it is several million under the peak of roughly 16.3 million people reported in 2006.
Image credit: Getty Images/Darwin Brandis
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for Christian Headlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
