Baptist

Baptists originated among early 17th century English Dissenters led by a preacher from Gainsborough called John Smyth. These “Baptists” were Christians who had rejected the Church of England and Catholic Church but couldn't accept orthodox Calvinism. They advocated adult baptism, as they couldn't understand how a baby can appreciate the importance of infant baptism.

Due to persecution in England the early Baptists were forced to emigrate to Amsterdam. John Smyth and fellow English Non-Conformist, Thomas Helwys, founded there the first official Baptist church in 1609.

The first English Baptist church was built at Spitalsfield, London by Thomas Helwys and a small group of fellow Christians in Newgate in 1612.

The first American Baptist church was established at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1612 when Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, was baptized before proceeding to baptize eleven others.

Frequently the subject of bitter persecution, the Baptist denomination at first grew slowly in America but growth accelerated in the 18th century largely as a result of the Great Awakening revival movement. 

In the 19th century the Baptists split over the issue of slavery. This led to the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845. 

The very first package tour was organized by an English Baptist minister named Thomas Cook who on the July 5, 1841, for a return fare of 1 shilling, took a party of 570 people from Leicester to a temperance rally 11 miles away at Loughborough. He subsequently organized other package tours as part of his fight against the demon drink.

Baptist churches are found today in almost every country in the world. According to a Baptist World Alliance census released in 2020, there are 241 Baptist denominations members in 126 countries, 169,000 churches and 47,000,000 baptized members.

The picture below shows a believer's baptism of adult by immersion at Northolt Park Baptist Church, London.

By brett jordan - https://www.flickr.com/photos/x1brett/

Another 15 percent of Americans identify themselves as Baptists or Southern Baptists, meaning this group accounts for nearly three in 10 Protestants. 

In a study published in 2014 using data from The National Survey of American Life: Coping with Stress in the 21st Century (NSAL), 49.08% of African American respondents identified as Baptist.

According to the 2005 English Church Census 8% of regular churchgoers in England are Baptists. There 2,386 Baptist churches with an average congregation of 107.

Censuses carried out by the Baptist denominations in 2020 revealed that the Nigerian Baptist Convention with 13,654 churches and 8,000,637 members claimed the most members on the African continent, the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists with 2,272 churches and 113,000 members in Europe and the Brazilian Baptist Convention with 9,018 churches and 1,790,227 members in South America.