The Southern Baptist Convention lost more than 1,200 churches in 2022, according to a new data analysis from LifeWay Research.
of SBC’s 2022 Annual Church ProfileA LifeWay analysis released Tuesday found that 1,253 congregations were no longer part of the SBC between 2021 and 2022.
In 2021, 2 percent of the SBC’s 50,423 active congregations closed in 2021, and 0.5 percent withdrew from or left the conference by the time 2022 data was compiled.
While 1,003 congregations closed or left in 2021, losses in 2022 were higher than the previous two years. christian post I will report. Additionally, the SBC lost 1,002 congregations in 2020.
“The national network of Southern Baptist congregations changes weekly,” Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research, said in a statement.
“Once each year, we take a snapshot of current Southern Baptist congregations to report national statistics. Then, by analyzing the annual list of congregations, details of these constant changes are revealed. Masu.”
In May 2023, Lifeway released a report showing that SBC membership had declined by approximately 457,000 people, the largest decline in membership in 100 years.
The total number of SBC members increased from approximately 13.68 million members in 2021 to 13.22 million members in 2022.
“The loss of 457,371 members is the largest single-year decline in more than 100 years,” the report added.
Another loss is that the SBC lost 416 member congregations, according to the 2023 report.
“Much of the decline in membership that we’re seeing reflects people who stopped participating in individual congregations years ago, and record-keeping is finally catching up,” McConnell said. . statement at that time.
“A congregation’s membership total quickly reflects additions and subtractions due to deaths or someone leaving membership. However, many congregations take the time to remove others who no longer participate. It will cost.”
Despite the losses, reported SBC membership remains above the approximately 7 million reported in 1950, but several million below the peak of approximately 16.3 million reported in 2006. ing.
Image credit: ©Getty Images/Darwin Brandis
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributor to Christian Headlines and host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast dedicated to sound doctrine and Biblical truth. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Alliance Theological Seminary.
