Church Insurance Premiums Jump 12 to 30 Percent: GuideStone Shifts to Broker Model to Help Churches Shop Dozens of Carriers
Changes are afoot in the church insurance world, and some congregations have borne the brunt, Baptist Press reports. Premiums for religious organizations rose 12 to 30 percent in 2026 in what one industry analysis calls a "church insurance market crisis," driven over the past five years by severe weather, sexual abuse cases, changing state laws and ballooning jury awards. GuideOne Insurance vice president Andre Krutainis recalled a pastor crying in a meeting: "I have to make a choice between insurance and my salary." Meanwhile, premiums for large commercial properties have declined steadily since 2023.
Krutainis said religious organizations were seen as profitable starting around 2006, and insurers wrote policies aggressively in a soft market that lasted until the pandemic. Then the big three church insurers, GuideOne, Church Mutual Insurance and Brotherhood Mutual Insurance, all experienced some level of financial distress from severe weather events, the #ChurchToo movement and jury verdicts outpacing inflation. They began limiting coverage and raising prices, and other insurers withdrew from the religious market. Among the congregations hit is Bethel Baptist Church in Monticello, Mississippi, whose pastor, Adam Wyatt, posted that the church's insurance has increased 119 percent in three years and is really hurting church budgets.
Relief may come from GuideStone Financial Resources. Starting this year, GuideStone's insurance division has moved away from a partnership with a single carrier to a broker model: in 13 southeastern states it now connects churches with dozens of carriers so congregations can shop for the coverage they need, and it plans to expand from the Southeast to as many as 48 states. New York and Hawaii are the only states where GuideStone does not anticipate expanding, because of their insurance laws. Previously, GuideStone worked through Brotherhood Mutual. Matt Cardwell, who leads GuideStone's property and casualty insurance team, said the past three to five years have been very challenging for churches, but the market has started to soften over the past 12 to 18 months. He said GuideStone helped one Texas church cut its overall property and casualty program cost by 17.5 percent by moving it to another carrier while maintaining essential protections.
Whatever carrier a church uses, James Brown, a vice president at PointeNorth Insurance Group in Birmingham, Alabama, advises having someone other than your own agent review the policy every year, knowing your operations and asking your agent specific questions, such as whether coverage fits daycare field trips, overseas mission trips, stained glass windows or pipe organs, and finding an agent who specializes in churches. He also suggests running the entire insurance program through a super intelligence (SI) model, telling it who you are and what you do, and asking whether the policies address it.
Baptist Press report, via The Christian Index
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Photo: 密西西比州Jackson的Calvary浸信会教堂（资料图）。GilbertThompson 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Calvary Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi (file photo). Photo by GilbertThompson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
