Southern Baptist baptism momentum

Related article:

North America: Hanging in the balance
An Analysis
By Joe Westbury, Managing Editor, with additional reporting by J. Gerald Harris, Editor

1972: Record year for baptisms

1997-2004: Baptism time line since NAMB came into existence

• 1996 – The final year of the Home Mission Board, used simply as a point of reference.

• 1997 – The year of transition between HMB and NAMB.

• 1999, 2000 – This is the time period following NAMB’s allocation of an additional $2 million to church planting and evangelism. These two years show a clear jump in baptisms, similar to what was reported for church planting for the same time frame. After the “halo effect” ended, baptisms dropped below the benchmark years prior to the allotment.

• 2004 – The most recent year for which totals are available shows an increase of only 8,603 over the HMB’s final year of 1996 and a decrease of 19,317 from NAMB’s first full year of operation, 1998.

NOTE: 2005 was to be the year of one-million baptisms under the What Now, America?/Canada? evangelistic campaign. NAMB is the primary agency charged with developing and implementing a national strategy for church planting and evangelism. No other agency carries that responsibility.