2025 survey results show strong baptisms and shifting attendance patterns
This first installment of the 2025 Annual Statistical Report highlights a rebound in survey participation and encouraging baptism totals across reporting churches. It also tracks how online attendance continues to trend downward as more people prefer gathering in person. Finally, the report notes sobering age trends among lead ministers alongside promising signs of ministry training pipelines.
- Survey responses rose from 261 churches to 380, improving the strength of the data.
- Reported baptisms totaled 36,706, with increased baptism ratios and improved dollars-per-baptism efficiency overall.
- Online attendance represented 19% of total worship attendance on average, continuing a post-2020 downward trend.
Survey Response Rebound
After a five-year slide in the number of responses to our annual church survey, this year we saw a 46 percent jump from 261 churches last year to 380 this year. Survey responses peaked in 2019 with 439 churches. More churches equals better data for us to celebrate and learn from. A big thank you to the churches who completed our survey this year, and if your church didn’t respond this year, then I hope you will next year.
Banner Year for Baptisms!
Baptisms once again reached a high-water mark for the post-Covid era with a total of 36,706 reported, an average of 97 baptisms per church, which was one more than last year’s average of 96 baptisms per church. Several dozen churches reported that last year was a record year for the number of baptisms.
The most baptisms ever reported was in 2014 when 347 megachurches, emerging megachurches, large churches, and medium churches totaled 37,194 baptisms, an average of 107 baptisms per church.
We had not started including small and very small churches in the survey then, but their inclusion would have increased the total number of baptisms but decreased the per church average. By comparison, when you segment out the same four church size categories for 2025, the average number of baptisms per church was 180 which is a significant difference and easily a record.
The previous best year for total baptisms when all six size categories were included was in 2017 with 35,238 baptisms, an average of 82 per church.
An impressive metric that several churches noted involved tracking the percentage of different people who baptized someone last year. For example, Mt. Gilead Church (Mooresville, Indiana) reported that non-staff members did over 40 percent of their baptisms. Eighty percent of the baptisms at Sherwood Oaks Christian Church in Bloomington, Indiana, were performed by non-staff members. And Rise Christian Church in Newark, Ohio, had 88 different people involved in baptizing 134 people last year.
Another number to celebrate is the dollars spent per baptism. In 2024, the overall average spent was $23,485 per baptism. Last year, that dollar figure dropped by six percent to $22,073 spent per baptism. This is based on the total number of baptisms divided by the total giving in the most recent fiscal year. Megachurches were the most efficient spending only $18,392 per baptism and small churches spent the most money per baptism at $37,269.
The overall baptism ratio (the number of baptisms per 100 people in attendance) also increased last year to 6.7 from 6.4 in 2024. Megachurches led the way with a baptism ratio of 8.6. Small churches had the lowest baptism ratio at 5.8.
Attendance
In 2019, only one-fourth of the churches surveyed reported offering online worship services. Sixty-eight percent of the churches said they did not have online church and had no plans to start, and seven percent said they planned to launch an online option soon.
Of the 25 percent that had online church, only seven percent of their average total worship attendance was comprised of online viewers. Almost half (48%) of those churches with online worship didn’t include online viewers in their overall worship attendance numbers.
COVID-19 changed the trajectory of online church for everyone. What was previously the exception became the norm in 2020. Last year, 75 percent of the churches surveyed reported online attendance numbers. For the churches that reported online worship attendance in 2025, it comprised an average of 19 percent of their total worship attendance, which was a five percent drop from 2024. The online worship attendance percentage of the total attendance has trended down each year since 2020, which tells me more people prefer to gather in-person rather than watch church on a screen.
Megachurches had the largest percentage of their total worship attendance comprised of online viewers with 27 percent, while small and very small churches had the lowest percentage of online viewers comprised in their overall attendance with only 16 percent.
While in-person church is the preferred choice of most, the availability of online church has shifted enough people away from in-person gatherings that even with solid attendance gains the last four years, in-person average worship attendance for churches of all sizes has yet to return to their pre-COVID numbers as the chart below depicts.
| 2019 Average Attendance (Pre-COVID) | 2024 In-Person Average Attendance | % Change | 2025 In-Person Average Attendance | % Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Megachurches | 5765 | 4447 | -22.9% | 4703 | 5.8% |
| Emerging Mega | 1348 | 1154 | -14.4% | 1155 | 0.1% |
| Large | 737 | 565 | -23.3% | 609 | 7.8% |
| Medium | 354 | 329 | -7.1% | 307 | -6.7% |
| Small | 164 | 152 | -7.3% | 141 | -7.2% |
| Very Small | 57 | 49 | -14% | 53 | 8.2% |
Since COVID, churches have reported rapid year-over-year growth. In both 2022 and 2023, the overall growth rate was 12.8 percent and 13 percent respectively. The last two years (2023 and 2024) the overall growth rate was 7 percent each year. Megachurches grew the fastest last year with an average of 12.6 percent followed closely by large churches at 12.5 percent. Small churches had the slowest average growth rate with 2.3 percent.
Overall, 70 percent of the churches in this survey grew last year. Eighty-seven percent of the megachurches grew last year, which was the best, and only 58 percent of very small churches grew last year.
On any given weekend, an average of 418,776 people will gather in-person and online to attend these 380 churches. By comparison, according to the 2020 census, the entire population of Tulsa, OK, is 413,066.
Minister Matters
The greying of our ministers continues. Last year, the average age of the lead ministers surveyed was 54.4 years old, which was a year-and-a-half older than in 2024 when the average age was 52.9 years. The youngest lead minister this year was 28 years old and the oldest was 86 years old.
The more concerning stat is that there were three-and-a-half times as many lead ministers over the age of 60 than under the age of 40 (119 vs. 34 respectively).
One development that could help to reverse this trend is the number of churches that have launched formal residency or internship programs for leadership development or vocational ministry training. Over one hundred churches, or 29 percent, reported offering such a program. Megachurches were the most likely to offer either an internship or residency program with 72 percent doing so.
For example, Cornerstone Christian Church (Lincoln, Nebraska) said its offering online and in-person structured discipleship and ministry training. Eagle Christian Church (Eagle, Idaho) is offering residency training and Central Christian Church (Mt Vernon, Illinois) is starting a pastor training program that runs parallel to a college degree.
Author: Kent Fillinger
Kent Fillinger is President of 3:Strands Consulting, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Regional Vice President with Christian Financial Resources.
