The Southern Baptist Convention lost 241,00 members last year, lowering its total membership to less than 13 million for the first time since the mid-1970s.
Still, the largest U.S. Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptists have lost 3,324,156 members since 2006, when its membership peaked at 16.3 million.
The denomination said Tuesday that last year’s membership decline was less than 2%, compared to 3.34% in 2022, when 457,371 people left. The year 2023 marked the 17th consecutive year of membership decline.
The number of SBC churches fell by 292 — less than 1% — to 46,906 last year, according to the Annual Church Profile compiled by Lifeway Christian Resources. Multisite churches reported an increase of 95 locations to 680, while church-type missions fell by 170 to 2,474.
Officials said 4 million people attended services in person each week, the highest number in three years. Weekly Sunday school and small group attendance stood at 2.5 million in 2023, while online worship participation increased.
Southern Baptists have confronted challenges on several fronts in recent years: The interim head of an executive committee resigned over a falsified academic record, an outside study revealed that churches suppressed reports of more than 700 cases of sexual abuse, and several churches were expelled last year over their women pastors, including the denomination’s largest, Saddleback Church in Southern California.
However, the SBC said the latest numbers show elements of good news. Total baptisms rose by nearly 26% to 226,919. California, with its 5,181 baptisms, marked a 248% increase over the previous year. And 35 of 41 state Baptist conventions reporting year-over-year baptism growth, Lifeway said.
Finances remained steady, with donations reported at $10 billion last year, up from the $9.9 billion received in 2022. Donations for missionary activity totaled $798 million last year, up $68 million from 2022’s $730 million.
“Southern Baptists are a force for good. We are sharing the gospel with more people, gathering for worship and Bible study in increasing numbers, giving billions to support churches serving communities across our country and sending millions to support mission enterprises around the world,” Jeff Iorg, president-elect of the SBC Executive Committee, said in a statement. “While we often address our shortcomings, it’s also good to pause and celebrate the global good Southern Baptists are accomplishing.”
The Rev. Bart Barber, whose term as SBC president ends in June, said in an opinion column for the church’s Baptist Press service that the positive numbers suggest the group is overcoming problems and “can do more than one thing at a time.”
“We have witnessed gains in church attendance, and we have simultaneously made consistent progress in bolstering our churches’ defenses against sexual abuse,” Mr. Barber wrote. “We have baptized more people, and we have simultaneously worked, through our annual meeting and through efforts like those of the Cooperation Group, to resolve theological differences in favor of biblical orthodoxy and biblical cooperation.”