Church planting statistics show activity at several levels: new churches and groups, leaders and planters in training, discipleship, evangelism, and the durability of new congregations. The figures below come from different reports and measurement periods, so they should be read as report-specific counts rather than one combined global total.
In this article
- Recent IMB activity
- Training and leadership
- Discipleship and gospel response
- Church generations and regional counts
- Earlier IMB church-planting indicators
- North American church planting
- Support, assessment, and durability
Recent IMB activity
The 2025/2026 IMB Annual Statistical Report recorded 7,697 total new churches and 5,488 new groups. It also recorded 225,578 individuals discipled. These measures describe different stages of ministry activity: a new church count is not interchangeable with a new-group count, and neither is a count of people receiving discipleship.
The same report recorded 29,018 people trained in church planting. It also recorded 2,752 human-needs projects completed, with 149,937 individuals impacted by those projects. Alongside those service measures, 2,066,251 people heard a partial or full gospel presentation, 801,557 had an opportunity to respond to the gospel, and 196,497 decided to follow Jesus Christ.
Here is a compact view of selected measures from the 2025/2026 report:
| Measure | Reported count |
|---|---|
| New churches | 7,697 |
| New groups | 5,488 |
| Individuals discipled | 225,578 |
| Gospel presentations heard | 2,066,251 |
| Opportunities to respond | 801,557 |
| Decisions to follow Jesus Christ | 196,497 |
Source: IMB 2026 Annual Statistical Report.
The report also recorded 29,937 people baptized. Training counts included 66,900 people trained to make disciples, 68,895 trained in Bible storying, 37,896 trained in church health, 35,049 trained in evangelism, and 29,828 given basic discipleship. The report lists church-planting training at 29,018 people in the same section.
Training and leadership
Church planting depends on preparation as well as the formation of congregations. In the 2025/2026 IMB Annual Statistical Report, 23,890 leaders were trained in evangelism and 23,329 leaders were trained in church planting. Other leadership-development counts were 17,698 leaders trained in church health, 15,976 trained in biblical counseling, and 15,719 trained in preaching or teaching.
The report also recorded 14,792 leaders trained as a pastor or elder. These categories overlap in subject matter, but the supplied figures do not establish whether every person appears in only one category. They are therefore best used as separate reported measures of training activity.
The earlier IMB 2015 Church Planting Indicators report recorded 24,073 people receiving training to start new churches. It also recorded 78,134 believers trained in other training opportunities and 264,028 people being personally mentored. The time period is different from the 2025/2026 report, so these figures are useful for historical context rather than a direct trend calculation.
That 2015 report included a people-group dimension as well. It recorded 94 people groups that could sustain church planting without outside assistance, 30 people groups engaging other people groups outside the country, and 80 people groups engaging other people groups inside the country. These are report-defined indicators, not a complete measure of all church-planting capacity.
Source: IMB 2015 Church Planting Indicators.
Discipleship and gospel response
The available reports distinguish between exposure to a gospel message, an opportunity to respond, a stated decision, baptism, and ongoing discipleship. Those measures should not be treated as synonyms. In the 2025/2026 IMB Annual Statistical Report, 2,066,251 people heard a partial or full gospel presentation. Of those report measures, 801,557 had an opportunity to respond and 196,497 decided to follow Jesus Christ.
The same report recorded 225,578 individuals discipled and 66,900 people trained to make disciples. It recorded 29,937 baptisms, 29,828 people given basic discipleship, and 68,895 people trained in Bible storying. The figures describe distinct activities and outcomes; the report data supplied here does not provide a conversion rate or a retention rate.
The IMB 2023 Annual Statistical Report recorded 728,589 gospel witnesses, 556,035 opportunities to respond, 190,897 seekers, 178,177 new believers, and 102,417 baptisms. It also recorded 680,280 baptized believers meeting. These counts belong to that report’s 2024/2025 reporting context as supplied, and should not be merged with the 2025/2026 figures.
The 2015 indicators report recorded 1,993,368 people who heard a gospel witness and 1,042,098 people who had an opportunity to respond to Christ. It also recorded 784,768 baptized believers meeting in groups or churches. The earlier report provides a historical snapshot, but the supplied information does not establish identical definitions across all reporting years.
Church generations and regional counts
The IMB 2023 Annual Statistical Report recorded 21,231 new churches and 11,068 new groups in its report year. It counted 112,065 total churches and 41,385 total groups. Within its church-generation figures, it counted 17,381 first-generation churches, 7,394 second-generation churches, and 87,124 third-generation-or-higher churches.
Those generation categories provide a different lens from the headline new-church count. A first-generation count concerns the report’s classification of churches, while a total-new-church count concerns churches recorded as new during the relevant period. The supplied data does not define every classification rule, so the categories should be retained as reported.
Selected IMB 2023 Annual Statistical Report regional summaries included 520 total people groups in one summary and 677 total people groups in another. One regional summary recorded 42 new churches, 381 total churches, 7,656 baptized believers meeting, 229,399 gospel witnesses, 217,704 opportunities to respond, 149,030 seekers, 115,317 new believers, and 84,135 baptisms.
Another regional summary recorded 7,173 new groups, 32,069 total groups, 19,244 new churches, 99,591 total churches, and 402,119 baptized believers meeting. Because these are regional summaries, they should not be added to the report-wide totals without knowing whether the summaries overlap.
Source: IMB 2023 Annual Statistical Report.
Earlier IMB church-planting indicators
The IMB 2015 Church Planting Indicators report recorded 3,842 new churches formed. It also recorded 4,656 new groups intended to become churches that were meeting at the time, plus 9,480 groups intended to become churches that were meeting in another reported measure. The report counted 41,172 first-, second-, and third-generation churches meeting now and 2,021 first-, second-, and third-generation churches that had ceased to meet.
The same report recorded 784,768 baptized believers meeting in groups or churches. Its outreach measures included 1,993,368 people hearing a gospel witness and 1,042,098 people having an opportunity to respond to Christ. The report also recorded 264,028 people being personally mentored.
These figures illustrate why church-planting statistics need definitions and dates beside them. “New churches,” “groups intended to become churches,” and churches “meeting now” describe related but different states. The supplied 2015 figures do not support a calculation of a universal church-planting success rate.
North American church planting
The NAMB 2024 Annual Online Ministry Report states that Southern Baptists planted more than 11,000 churches since 2010. For 2023, it recorded 840 new congregations, including 652 new church plants. The 652 church plants included 44 replants, 122 existing churches that affiliated with the SBC, and 66 new church campuses.
The 2023 North American figures can be summarized as follows:
| NAMB 2024 report measure | Count |
|---|---|
| New congregations in 2023 | 840 |
| New church plants | 652 |
| Replants included | 44 |
| Existing churches affiliating with the SBC | 122 |
| New church campuses | 66 |
| Send Network planter candidates assessed | 371 |
Source: NAMB 2024 Annual Online Ministry Report.
The report recorded 47 Send Network church-planter assessment retreats in 2023 and 371 church-planting candidates assessed. NAMB hosted two Send Network orientations with more than 400 new church-planting missionaries attending. It also recorded 1,751 churches exploring or implementing the Multiplication Pipeline and 22,702 participants engaged in Pipeline training.
Support, assessment, and durability
NAMB’s 2024 report recorded 434 churches offering residency opportunities and 190 replanters trained through residencies. More than 1,200 revitalization and replant pastors underwent a 40-week training program, while more than 260 Associational Missions Strategists were trained through the Replant Practitioner Lab.
The report says the four-year survivability rate for new church plants had risen to nearly 90 percent. “Nearly 90 percent” is an estimate-style description rather than an exact percentage in the supplied facts. The same report estimated that 26 percent of all baptisms in non-South states in 2022 came from churches planted since 2010. That figure is specifically for non-South states and the 2022 measurement year.
The report also documents ministry support connected with North American work. Send Relief engaged 32,142 volunteers, served 248,481 people, impacted 1,909 churches, and shared the gospel with 47,356 people in North America. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief expended more than 76,000 volunteer days and prepared more than 1 million hot meals in 2023.
Southern Baptist chaplains presented the gospel 95,627 times in 2023, reported 18,408 professions of faith, and reported more than 1,600 baptisms. NAMB supported more than 6,500 missionaries and chaplains, including 3,299 missionaries in varying ministry categories and 3,300 endorsed chaplains.
Financial support was also reported: Annie Armstrong Easter Offering receipts for fiscal year 2022–2023 totaled $70.4 million, and the 2024 Annie Armstrong goal was $75 million. These financial figures describe an offering and a goal, not the number of churches planted.