Churches in Cleveland County
Cleveland County, North Carolina has 236 churches in the Churches List directory, 3 of them verified and 50 with a published website. The 2020 US Religion Census counted 221 congregations and 60,201 adherents across 29 religious bodies in the county. That is 605 adherents per 1,000 residents of its 99,526 people.
Religious bodies in Cleveland County (2020 US Religion Census)
| Religious body | Congregations | Adherents | Per 1,000 pop. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Baptist Convention | 106 | 37,427 | 376.1 |
| United Methodist Church | 31 | 5,140 | 51.6 |
| Non-denominational Christian Churches | 25 | 4,370 | 43.9 |
| Catholic Church | 2 | 2,901 | 29.1 |
| National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. | 4 | 2,002 | 20.1 |
| National Missionary Baptist Convention, Inc. | 4 | 1,600 | 16.1 |
| African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church | 7 | 1,220 | 12.3 |
| Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) | 6 | 734 | 7.4 |
| Jehovah's Witnesses | 3 | 682 | 6.9 |
| Foursquare Gospel, International Church of the | 2 | 580 | 5.8 |
| Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | 1 | 490 | 4.9 |
| Wesleyan Church | 3 | 447 | 4.5 |
Source: 2020 US Religion Census (Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies). Per-1,000 rates divide reported adherents by the county's 2020 Census population (99,526). Largest 12 bodies by adherents shown.
Notable churches in Cleveland County
№ 01
First Presbyterian Church of Kings Mountain
YouTube
Penley's Chapel Church
Second Baptist Church
Gantts Grove Baptist Church
Haynes Memorial Baptist Church
Shiloh Baptist Church
Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church
Rhema Church
We are not a Church we are a Movement! Founded in July 2010 we have recently got a New Pastor who really believes in reaching the City & seeing a Awakening happening in the Kings M...
Lighthouse Pentecostal Church
Heaven Bound Baptist Church
We are a 1611 KJV only church We are a small growing church of about 60 that is not interested in big business but rather salvation through Jesus Chist. Sunday School 10:00 Sunday...
Bingham Memorial Evangelical Methodist Church
Crowders Mountain Baptist Church
Cities and towns in Cleveland County
Directory traditions here: Baptist Churches (127) · Methodist (24) · Non-Denominational (20) · United Methodist (12) · Presbyterian (7) · Church of God (5) · Christian (4) · African Methodist Episcopal (4) · Pentecostal (4) · Wesleyan (3)
Researching ancestors from Cleveland County?
Church registers are among the richest genealogical sources: baptisms, marriages, and burials often predate civil records. The FamilySearch catalog holds microfilmed church records for many North Carolina counties, filed by denomination and parish name: search Cleveland County church records on FamilySearch (free account). Cross-reference with the historic-register churches above and the cemeteries listed on each church's page.
Disaster history of Cleveland County
FEMA has issued 20 disaster declarations covering Cleveland County since records began in 1953, most recently in 2026. The most frequent cause: hurricane (7 declarations). Churches have historically served as shelters and relief hubs in these events; congregations can register preparedness plans with their county emergency management agency.
Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries.
How this county page is assembled
Directory listings are mapped to Cleveland County through the US Census Bureau's 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file: each ZIP Code Tabulation Area is assigned to the county holding the largest share of its land area, so a small number of churches in ZIP codes that straddle county lines may be attributed to a neighboring county. Congregation and adherent counts come from the 2020 US Religion Census and are reported by the religious bodies themselves. Population is the county's April 2020 decennial-census base from the US Census Bureau's population-estimates program; per-1,000 adherence rates divide reported adherents by that figure. Corrections to any listing go through the corrections page.