The Southern Baptist Convention continues to lose ground and people, shuttering over 1250 churches in 2022, according to a recent report from Lifeway Research.
The new survey reveals that in 2022, the latest year where data is available, 1253 congregations were closed down, representing around 2% of the denomination’s 51,423 active congregations.
“The primary reason congregations are no longer considered active Southern Baptist congregations is that they cease to exist. Around 4 in 5 of the missing congregations (79%) disbanded/closed, leaving Southern Baptists with 984 fewer congregations.Within that group, 813 (83%) closed. Another 136 (14%) merged into another Southern Baptist congregation. Fewer became part of a non-Southern Baptist church (17 or 2%), never got started (8 or 1%) or are now a campus of another church (10 or 1%).”
Notably, the losses were only a slight increase from 2021 and 2020, which saw 1003 and 1102 congregations close.
