Annual Returns encouragements; ‘make space for God to speak and move’

General Secretary Lynn Green highlighted areas of growth (and some of decline) in the latest Annual Returns statistics, as well as encouraging Baptists to continue to make room for God to speak and lead us into His new thing in her Friday evening address

 


 
The numbers of baptisms across Baptists Together has continued to rise, even after last year’s highest figures in a decade, Lynn Green told delegates at the Baptist Assembly. The 2025 annual returns show an increase of a further 825 baptisms on the previous year. 

‘That’s just incredible!’ said Lynn in her Friday evening address. ‘And it’s not just numbers, these are all people. We thank God for each one of these lives.’

There were further encouragements beyond the baptism numbers. Local church membership showed a modest increase in 2025—the first time membership has risen in 20 years. ‘It’s a sign of discipleship, God on the move – and I want to say more Lord!’ said Lynn.



Church attendance has continued its upward trajectory with a three per cent increase. Worship services saw an additional 1,000 people aged 18-35 compared to 2024.  Children’s attendance remains static, and there has also been a modest uplift in the number of young people engaging with Sunday worship. 

These figures were brilliant, said Lynn, adding, ‘I want to say a huge thank you to all of you, by God’s grace and through your faithful witness and ministry we are seeing God at work! It’s people like you. There’s no magic formula.  

‘Baptists are participating in God’s mission in so many ways and that is brilliant to see. By God’s grace, we are seeing him at work in and through our movement—the gospel is indeed bearing fruit and growing.’ 

Lynn noted there was a decline in the total number of churches within Baptists Together. Some are closures of tiny churches; some are changes with Local Ecumenical Projects and others are churches in dual membership with the Baptist Union of Wales.

However, several closures reflect a strategic shift.

‘Interestingly there have been amalgamations, with larger churches bringing all their congregations into a single charity,’ Lynn explained, suggesting this reflects ‘wise stewardship to reduce the burden of compliance and to increase missional impact.’ 

Elsewhere, some churches are planting congregations, not churches – another interesting shift.

With the smaller number of churches in our Union, this meant the average annual baptism rate per church had jumped from 1.3 per church in the pre-Covid era, and 1.6 last year, to a current average of two. 



Lynn also highlighted the need to face our current challenges with hope. She spoke of the structural challenges facing the Union, specifically regarding accredited ministry. She described the current situation as a ‘demographic time bomb,’ with ministers retiring at a much faster rate than new leaders are being trained. 

Data from the Ministries Team suggests our Union needs at least 350 more accredited or recognised ministers by 2028 just to "stand still" and provide churches with the leadership required to flourish. 

‘We need to make room for God to speak and move among us,’ Lynn said, ‘calling new leaders to commit their lives to following Him in ministry, and calling churches to nurture and make room for Christlike leadership to grow and develop.’

The central theme of Lynn’s address was the spiritual necessity of 'Making room for God.' She highlighted the Northern Baptist Association (NBA) as an example—a region that, despite limited resources, is showing ‘faith filled, imaginative, creative courage.’ Earlier in the evening she had invited Linda Donaldson and Johnny Pozzo, co-team leaders of the NBA, to share some of the creative ways the Association’s churches and people were sharing and embodying Jesus, many supported by Home Mission. She set this in the wider context of her call in 2015 to light beacons of prayer, rooted in Isaiah 43:18-19, and make space for God.

‘Echoing what I shared at the beginning this evening, I still believe that God’s call to us in this season is to renew our commitment to prayer and making room for Him to speak and move and lead us into His new thing.

‘Because while we celebrate every person baptised, every worshipper of Jesus across our movement, every child and young person we connect with, I know that the harvest in God’s heart is so much more than we are seeing. Do we share God’s heart?’

She challenged every Baptist to share God’s heart for the ‘lost and the least,’ urging a move beyond personal devotion into a collective missional hunger. This includes a call to ‘get out of the boat’ and go to new people and places through church planting and pioneering. 

'This is God’s call to us now,’ said Lynn. ‘He is longing for us to make room for Him to speak and move… in evangelism and mission, in loving and compassionate service, in seeking His Kingdom, and in raising up Godly leaders to embody and hold out the good news of Jesus in an anxious and fractured world.’

Concluding her address, Lynn urged delegates to be the ‘influencers’ for Baptists Together, expressing her hope the national data would grow local confidence in the Gospel. 

‘This is the movement you are part of,' said Lynn. 'This is who we are, by the grace of God.

‘Be those influencers who tell the story of the growth and vibrancy and imagination of Baptists Together!

‘The Lord has already gone ahead of us. Let’s make room for God now as we worship together, trusting that the wind of the Holy Spirit will take us wherever he is calling us to go.’