Baptisms were up more than 26 percent across the Southern Baptist Convention’s churches in 2023, said Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board.
“We’re seeing big numbers, but each individual decision is eternally important, and God honors each and every one,” Ezell said during his report to the SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis on June 12.
Flanked by a group of Baptist state convention executive directors, Ezell shared that 35 out of 41 of our state conventions saw baptism gains in 2023, some of which were historic records.
“We can’t rest and be satisfied until everyone across the globe hears the good news,” he said. “But we can celebrate what God is doing in and through each of you and each of your churches.”
News from the states
Barry Whitworth, executive director of the Baptist Resource Network of Pennsylvania/South Jersey, shared that in 2023, they saw a 61 percent increase, the highest baptism count in a decade.
Todd Unzicker, executive director of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, shared that they had a 34% increase.
“We know that it’s the Lord that gives the harvest, so we give all praise to Him,” he said. “There was not one pastor who didn’t pray that their waters of baptisms would stir. There wasn’t one church that didn’t pray for revival.”
As he and others traveled around the state in the months prior, they noticed many churches were storing Christmas and Easter decorations in their baptistries. He challenged them to pick a day and fill their baptistries with water, believing that God would bring someone to salvation before that day.
“And we saw many saved,” Unzicker said.
Terry Dorsett, executive director of the Baptist Churches of New England, shared that they currently are experiencing an incredible revival in New England driven mostly by the 57% of their churches that speak a language other than English.
“God is doing something in New England, and we’re just glad to join him in it,” he said.
‘Count the blessings’
Luis Soto, executive director of the Convention of Southern Baptist Churches of Puerto Rico, said “by the grace of God,” they saw a 24 percent increase in baptisms last year.
Before 2016, no churches were planted in the metro area of San Juan for 20 years. But since then, NAMB has helped start 22 new congregations in and around San Juan.
Pete Ramirez, executive director of the California Southern Baptist Convention, reported that they saw more than double the baptisms in 2023 from the year before.
“This year, we’re challenging our churches to not just count the cost of ministry but count the blessings, and we expect those numbers of baptisms to grow,” he said.
Tommy Green, executive director of the Florida Baptist Convention, said churches in his state reported almost 30,000 public professions of faith in 2023.
“That was an increase of 33% over the previous year,” he said. “We’re just so blessed to have incredible pastors and churches who have a heart to reach Florida for Christ.”
Ezell said as NAMB partners with state conventions to plant and resource churches, “it’s all about the gospel.”
“That’s why we plant churches through Send Network. That’s why we meet needs through Send Relief,” he said. “That’s why we provide evangelism resources, and that’s why we send over 3,000 chaplains all over the world. We do these things to lead more people to Jesus, and it’s working.”
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