First appeared in The Baptist Paper, March 12, 2025 issue. Used with Permission.
The average Southern Baptist church calls the South home, but the only region of the country where those congregations are growing is the Northeast, according to report by Lifeway Research. Churches are baptizing more people, the report noted, but most churches remain small and fewer attendees are involved in small groups.
Lifeway Research analysis of the 2023 Annual Church Profile (ACP) reveals a more detailed look at the Convention and where evangelism and discipleship efforts have been most effective.
“Each year Southern Baptist congregations share a few statistics about their church,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “Some fear this will be used to judge their church, but the reality is real value lies in what we learn from churches together. Looking at combinations of those responses and looking across time reveals how the context of ministry varies across the country and how churches of different types have different challenges.”
The smallest churches are an increasing percentage of the Southern Baptist Convention. In 2018, 38% of congregations fell in the smallest category, fewer than 50 in attendance. In the 2023 ACP, those churches represented 43% of the SBC. Seven in 10 churches in the SBC see fewer than 100 people at their weekly worship service, including 27% that average 50–99 and 43% that average less than 50 attendees each week. One in 5 (20%) are between 100–249. Fewer large churches are part of the Convention, with 6% averaging 250–499 for their services and 4% climbing to 500 or more.
Nearly 4 in 5 Southern Baptist churches (78%) are, in fact, Southern. Far fewer are located in the Midwest (11%), West (9%) or Northeast (2%) regions. Close to half (45%) are in suburban areas, compared to 28% in urban areas and 27% in the rural U.S.
Half of Southern Baptist congregations began in the 20th century, including 21% that started between 1900–1949 and 29% that began from 1950–1999. Slightly more than a quarter (27%) date their founding back before 1900, while 23% started since 2000.
Around a third of churches draw fewer than half of their worship attendees to Sunday School or other types of small groups, including 22% who say between 25% and less than 50% are involved and 9% who have less than a quarter of worship service attendees in a group. Two in 5 (41%) say between 50% and less than 75% also attend small groups. One in 5 (19%) see more than 75% to 100% involved. Around 1 in 10 (9%) have more in their small groups ministry than regularly attend worship services.
Increasingly, churches are drawing fewer people from worship services to Sunday School or other types of small group ministries. The percent of Southern Baptist churches with fewer than 25% of their attendees involved in a small group grew from 6% in 2018 to 9% in 2023. Similarly, the churches with 25% to less than 50% of attendees involved in a small group grew from 19% to 22%.
“The slow but persistent trend of larger churches growing and smaller churches shrinking in the U.S. has continued post-COVID,” McConnell said. “While smaller churches bounced back quickly to near pre-COVID levels, smaller church growth is much less common since then.”
Since the pandemic, Southern Baptist churches have been baptizing more people. Baptisms increased by 26% from 2022 to 2023. Combined with the 16% increase from 2021 to 2022, the SBC has seen a 47% increase over two years.
