SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A church in Georgia reported baptizing 400 people on a single Sunday in March. From among 3,000 worship attenders at the church’s three campuses, hundreds responded to the call to follow Christ in baptism. And they stirred the waters for a long time that day.
Such a story seems possible in Georgia where some “buckle of the Bible Belt culture” remains and megachurches are common.
But what about non-South churches? Can baptisms see an uptick there too?
Some numbers from the 2025 Annual Church Profile as well as some fresh reports from churches in 2026 paint a hopeful picture in Illinois.
A tale of two churches
Recent stories from two churches demonstrate a principle: Old churches can reach people and start baptizing again; new churches can reach unreached people in unlikely places. And it’s all from good word of mouth.
David Starr hadn’t planned to return to a church he first pastored more than 30 years ago. At 79, most people would have retired. But when the handful of the faithful hanging on at Diamond Springs Baptist Church in the country outside Shattuc, Ill., phoned, Starr took up the call.
From single digits in worship, the church is now averaging more than 30 each Sunday. “We’d have 40 if everybody’s there at the same time,” Starr said.
There’s nothing flashy about the church or contemporary about its worship, but the Gospel is clear and Spirit is present.
“One man saw cars outside the church and decided to come,” Starr said. “A lady came, then brought her son and his family. He brought his best friend, a single man with two kids. Soon we had all these people. It was like a domino effect.”
Only one person had been baptized in the 20 years since Starr left. “So we had to clean out the baptistry,” he said, “the changing rooms where old stuff had been stored.”
Starr baptized seven people on a single Sunday in February – one teenager and six adults. “It’s not anything I’m doing. The Lord is doing it,” he asserted. Starr started a discipleship class immediately, and he plans to canvass the area where new homes are being built. He preaches bringing friends to Christ. “I stand and marvel at what God is doing.”
And the people are inviting people.
The sample principle is at work in another unexpected place – a college campus just across the state line in Indiana. A Baptist Campus Ministry at Indiana State University in Terra Haute has birthed a new congregation, with Marshall Baptist Church in Marshall, Ill., serving as midwife.
“We started by having ‘Church on Campus’ one Sunday a month,” Marshall Pastor Paul Cooper said. Cooper graduated from the university and has history with its BCM. His church about 15 miles from the campus has taken to heart its ministry to the students. “It became clear that a church was needed, and that we didn’t know what we were doing,” he said.
BCM Director Chad Wilkin partnered with Cooper to provide a consistent Sunday presence on campus. Then they met the team from H20, an Ohio-based college church planting group similar to SALT network. From there, H20 on the Indiana State campus was born.
Marshall Church sent members to support the campus church when it launched in the fall. Cooper and Wilkin align their preaching plans so they can support each other’s ministry. And H20 took off.
The resulting baptisms come from students telling students. One young woman who was a member of Marshall Church wrote to her sister on campus about her own conversion. “I’ve fallen in love with Jesus,” she wrote, “and I want you to know him too.”
She also wrote to her parents urging them to follow her in following Christ, Cooper said. Now the whole family has been baptized.
Let’s run the numbers
Baptisms in Illinois increased in 2025 by 5.63 percent. That’s 3,875 last year compared to 3,657 the year before. More important, rebound from the impact of COVID closures is complete, with baptisms 9 percent above 2019 numbers. While worship and Sunday school attendance have not fully returned, IBSA churches’ commitment to bringing people to faith and baptism is renewed. With it, there’s hope for increased emphasis on evangelism in our congregations.
Using the popular “Who’s Your One?” evangelism strategy, Illinois churches are urging each member to identify a lost person whose salvation they will pray for. A video explaining the strategy is posted at IBSA.org/ministries/evangelism.
“This past year, 370 of our IBSA churches did not witness a single baptism,” IBSA Associate Executive Director Mark Emerson said. “A significant obstacle for these churches is that many have been deceived in thinking that their church is too weak to effectively share the Lord. This can prevent them from embracing the urgency of evangelism.”
But, as Diamond Springs Church clearly demonstrates, stuck churches don’t have to stay stuck.
“Remarkably, this past year in Illinois, Baptist churches of various sizes, ages, and resources, including those without pastors or effective facilities, actively shared the Gospel and witnessed individuals professing their faith through baptism,” Emerson said. “It is evident that the Gospel’s impact is not contingent upon the physical size, structure or financial resources of a church.”
As pastors Cooper and Starr pointed out, people with zeal born of their own salvation make great impact when they share the good news they’ve experienced for themselves with others who need to know Jesus.
“When churches are intentional about sharing the Gospel,” Emerson said, “individuals are drawn to Christ.”
This article originally appeared in the Illinois Baptist.
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