In recent years Ryan Burge has increasingly become known as the guy who effectively communicates the story of religious decline in America through accessible articles filled with charts and graphs. He currently serves as Associate Professor at Eastern Illinois University and as the founder of Graphs about Religion, which is a website focused on religion and politics. Burge is also the author of four books, including one of So What Faith’s Top Books of 2022: 20 Myths About Religion and Politics in America.
From 2006 until last Sunday he also served as the pastor of First Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Interestingly, as its final pastor, Burge served longer than others as illustrated by the graph below, which he created.
According to an AP article, the congregation attracted around 50 worship attendees on a good Sunday when Burge started. Following years of numeric decline, only eight people gathered for the penultimate worship service.
According to a RNS article, the congregation’s membership declined from more than 600 in the 1960s to 170 members in the 1990s to around 50 members when Burge was called as the pastor in 2006. Then, in 2017, the congregation voted to give their building to a local Christian school. This past Sunday, in his final message, Burge offered words of thanks for his 18 years in ministry and the congregation’s 156 years of impact on their local community.
Clearly, Burge now possesses an academic and experiential understanding of the impact of the decline in religion in America.
So What?
When one of the world’s leading experts on religious decline who also happens to be an ordained Baptist pastor concludes his ministry because the church he serves chooses to close after decades of decline, those of us tasked with leading congregations who also know much about these trends are particularly challenged.
I write this blog as someone who has studied and written about Mainline decline for many years (see “My Religion is Dying: A Deep Dive into Mainline Decline” for a summary of my writing on the topic and links to 50 related blog posts), as one who has served 10 congregations, and as one who has served in ministry settings beyond the local church. As I reflect on the 10 local congregations I have served, I’m aware that one closed in 2021 after 158 years of ministry (see Central Christian Church: Concluding 158 Years) and another that has been around since 1870 has dwindled to few enough members that closure is likely in its near term future. The other eight congregations are currently viable, including a few with significantly larger membership today than when I served in their midst.
I’m less than a month into my current congregational ministry role as Interim Senior Pastor of Advent Lutheran Church in Arlington, Texas. Like most Mainline congregations, it has experienced decades of declining membership. It, however, is a congregation that is well positioned for renewal.