October 1, 2026
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — At the 1973 Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, Owen Cooper, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, stood before the messengers and celebrated the previous year’s record-setting total of 445,725 baptisms.
“There exists within the convention a zeal for evangelism,” Cooper said. “Nineteen seventy-two was a good year for Southern Baptists, but we must share the word now.”
Born from a burden over record-setting numbers 54 years ago, Stephen Rummage, executive director-treasurer for the Florida Baptist Convention, wants to see the Southern Baptist Convention top the total baptisms recorded in 1972.
Several years ago, Rummage began to have a growing burden over the steady decline of baptisms across state conventions. Since 1972, baptisms across the nation have decreased by nearly 200,000. Now, Rummage casts the burden to Florida Baptists and other state leaders to continue the call to evangelism and baptism.
“As I began to realize the decline over the course of my life in something we would say is one of our defining characteristics: winning people to Christ and seeing people baptized,” said Rummage. “I began to think that no matter where else we succeed as Southern Baptists, if we’re failing there, it’s hard to say overall that we’re succeeding.”
Over the last 25 years, the numbers have experienced a sharper decline. The year 2000 saw a total of 414,675 baptisms. Then in 2019, before the pandemic, the number dropped to 235,748.
“As I began to pray about the discrepancy, which is about a 40% decrease over 54 years, I asked God about the assignment he has given me and responsibility,” Rummage said. “Lord, what could you have me do to help churches reach more people in the Gospel and see more people baptized?”
“I began to notice the trajectory we’re on,” Rummage continued. “We are already moving upward in baptism in recent years.”
Last year, Lifeway reported that Southern Baptists celebrated their fifth consecutive year of growth, reaching 263,075 baptisms.
“If we can continue this trajectory consistently and grow by 7% for 7 years, we could see 450,000 people baptized in the SBC by 2033,” Rummage said. “With the power of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, it’s absolutely something that God can do, and I think it’s something that God wants us to do.”
Galvanized in prayer, Rummage quickly began voicing this burden in various meetings throughout 2026 with Florida Baptist pastors. The Florida Baptist Convention State Board of Missions heard his plea for increasing baptisms in April. Then, over the summer, conversations with entity and state leaders continued around the desire to regain footing with baptisms in SBC life.
Each executive director from state conventions has heard Rummage’s heartfelt plea to increase baptisms 7% each year through 2033, and now states are joining together in the same passion for setting baptisms at the forefront of ministry in the years ahead.
“I was really pleased and encouraged by the fact that Dr. Stephen Rummage had given so much thought and research to this baptism initiative,” said Rick Lance, executive director for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. “Having lived through the years in which we were at our best early in my ministry, I can say that to return anywhere near that would be an outstanding achievement. He’s designed a strategy that is reasonable, responsible, and reachable.”
A call to increase baptisms quickly reverberates among state leaders, as this will always be the mission of the church.
Ed Emmerling, executive director for the Baptist State Convention of Michigan, noted the opportunity to make this a primary goal as he enters year two of his leadership in the state.
“I am super excited as state convention leaders are feeling the draw back to evangelism and making this one of our main things again,” said Emmerling. “I’m just thankful for Dr. Rummage that he is bringing this to the forefront and saying, let’s focus on evangelism.”
In each state, celebrations continue and annual baptism days carry on, but this is a specific call to see tangible evangelistic growth over multiple years.
California’s current 10-year goal parallels the heart behind Rummage’s seven-year challenge, adding further momentum to baptisms across the Southern Baptist Convention.
“As Southern Baptists, I mean, that’s one of the things we’re known for,” said Pete Ramirez, executive director for the California Southern Baptist Convention. “I think that this is something we should all be striving for. We want to see more people be discipled to the point where they share their faith publicly through baptism.”
“Each number represents real people who are dying and headed for hell,” added Emmerling. “To me, if we have a chance to affect that one soul, I believe it leads to many more souls in the days and months and years ahead.”
In a meeting with state leaders, Tim Dowdy, vice president of evangelism for the North American Mission Board, heard Rummage’s heart behind the goal and echoed the cooperative movement to see more people reached in North America with the gospel.
“The unity around this effort is such a blessing. Lostness in North America is so great it is going to take all of us working together to declare the Gospel to every lost soul,” commented Dowdy. “I’m so thankful for all God did through SBC churches in 1972 (I was saved that year), but I believe he can use us to reach even more people with the Gospel this year and in the years to come.”
In keeping with the current trend in SBC life, Florida celebrated a historic year of baptisms in 2025: 33,123, an 8% increase from the previous year.
“I shared with the state executive directors simply what God has put on my heart for Florida,” Rummage said. “For us to do our part, we need to grow 7% each year between now and 2033. If we do that in Florida, that means by 2033, we’ll baptize around 57,000 people in the calendar year.
We praise the Lord for everyone who comes to know Christ, and we’re just praying that God would allow us to do that.”
“Pastors are some of the busiest people in the world, but it remains generally true that as goes the pastor so goes the church,” said Todd Gray, executive director-treasurer for the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
“If pastors will lead by example in personal evangelism, talk about it from the pulpit, train their members in praying for lost people and sharing the gospel, then I believe we will not only return to our best days of reaching people with the gospel and baptizing new believers, but we may also see a genuine awakening in our individual states and country.”
“Share the word now” was the charge given by Cooper to the Southern Baptist Convention in 1973, and “share the word now” could be considered an appropriate charge to churches today in hopes of regaining a record number of baptisms by 2033.
“My prayer is that we would gain momentum as we move toward our state convention meetings in the fall, and that momentum would just increase and that it would increase nationwide,” said Rummage.
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This article was published by the Florida Baptist Convention.
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