This story is exclusive to subscribers.

Southern Baptists lost 1,200-plus churches in 2022, researchers find

Rick Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, makes an appeal to the Southern Baptist Convention, during an annual meeting held in New Orleans on June 13 to let his church, one of the largest in the nation, back into the denomination. The convention lost over 1,200 churches in 2022. (AP Photo/Peter Smith) Rick Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, makes an appeal to the Southern Baptist Convention, during an annual meeting held in New Orleans on June 13 to let his church, one of the largest in the nation, back into the denomination. The convention lost over 1,200 churches in 2022. (AP Photo/Peter Smith)

By Andrew Schwartz April 2, 2024 2 min read

Note: This article was updated March 3 to correct the year Southern Baptist membership peaked.

The Southern Baptist Convention lost 1,253 congregations in 2022, the most recent year on record, its research arm announced Tuesday, continuing a yearslong contraction of the nation’s largest Protestant group.

Among the 50,423 active congregations in the Southern Baptist Convention in 2021, 2% disbanded or closed and 0.5% left or were disaffiliated from the convention by the time the 2022 data was compiled, Lifeway Research said in a news release.

The losses were somewhat offset by church plants. Still, on a net basis in 2022, the Southern Baptist Convention had 416 fewer affiliated churches than it did in 2021, Lifeway Research reported, and its overall membership totals declined dramatically.