Christine Stride is Executive Assistant to the Baptist National Leader and works at the Baptist National Support Centre in Auckland. She is a member of Titirangi Baptist Church.
Attendance at Baptist churches in Aotearoa New Zealand has increased for the second consecutive year, according to data from the latest Church Statistics that our churches complete each year.
Also, baptism numbers were up considerably on the previous year, with 710 baptisms celebrated – that’s about 15 people a week. This is up 39% on the 512 baptisms in 2023 and is very close to the 727 baptisms in pre-COVID 2019.
Just under 60% of those baptised were aged 25 and under, highlighting the significant work of our Children, Youth and Family ministries and our He Rito initiative.
These encouraging statistics are a testament to the hard work being done in our churches by pastors and people in ministry and mission, says Baptist Union National Leader Charles Hewlett.
“I appreciate there’s still a lot of work to be done, but our efforts in gospel renewal are making a difference,” he said.
“Most weeks I hear stories of people who have made first-time commitments to Jesus, of the many baptisms taking place and of our local churches impacting their local communities.”
Overall, Baptist churches recorded a total weekly onsite attendance of 27,327 people, made up of 20,824 adults, 2525 teenagers and 3978 children. These numbers are from our own annual data collection that the churches in our collective gather, and there is close alignment here with the latest (2023) national census figures, where 31,737 people added the word ‘Baptist’ for their Religious Affiliation. The general Christian Affiliation numbers over the past five decades in New Zealand are showing something of a correction from a cultural affiliation with faith to the reality of an actual practice of faith.
While onsite attendance numbers are still 9% lower than in 2021, last year’s figure is a 6.8% increase on 2023, making this the second consecutive year that there has been an increase in recorded attendance. The increase for the 2022 to 2023 period was 13.4%. The last time our union of churches experienced year-on-year attendance growth was the five years between 1999 and 2004, with a 7.4% increase over that time.
Just over 61% of Baptist churches have less than 100 people in average weekly onsite attendance. This represents an improvement from the 2023 figure of 69%.
According to the data from our churches, seven churches now have over 500 attenders (up from four churches in 2023), with one of those reporting having more than 1000 weekly attenders onsite.
As for online attendance, 88 churches reported that they had congregations or services with an online presence, with numbers of attenders ranging from 1 to 250.
Photo: Imagine this many people being baptised every week! Our 2024 data show that, on average, there were about 15 baptisms in New Zealand Baptist churches every week.
