Membership in all Mainline Protestant denominations has been in decline since before I was born. The United Church of Christ's membership decline is not extraordinary or unusual when compared to other Mainline Protestant denominations. Like many authors, I write about what I know and about what matters to me. As a result you'll find the greatest amount of information about membership decline in the two denominations I've invested more of my life in than the rest: United Church of Christ Read More …
decline
Giving Up Mainline Protestantism (#1917)
For Lent, I'm giving up something big: the church I always knew. And, unlike past Lenten disciples that ended on Easter, this change is one I expect to be permanent. My Christian Identity For all of my life, I've self-identified as a Mainline Protestant. Despite this unchanging identification, I've spent significant time outside my own tradition. My experiences beyond the Mainline include Worship. I've visited and worshipped in dozens of congregations affiliated with a variety Read More …
PC(USA) Membership Declines by “Only 50K” (#1872)
The Office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) recently published denominational statistics for 2019. I first learned of this new data by reading an article titled "PC(USA) Statistics Show a Leveling Off in Membership Decline." Recent Decline While the denomination has been in decline since its formation, this article seeks to tell the more positive micro story within that ongoing macro story. It seeks to achieve this by focusing on recent positive trends, Read More …
Presbyterian Decline: PCUSA -The First 35 Years (#1856)
The Presbyterian Church (USA) was created by a merger of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and the Presbyterian Church in the United States in June 1983. The newly formed denomination started with a membership of 3,131,228. Membership Decline The denomination has experienced year-over-year membership decline every year since it began. Over the last three decades, the rate of decline has increased: 1988-1998 – 11.9%1998-2008 – 17.3%2008-2018 Read More …
Dwindling Membership: The United Church of Christ from 1965-2015 (#1654)
While I consider myself a post-denominational follower of the Way of Jesus, I have spent the most of the last six years involved in the life of congregations affiliated with the United Church of Christ. This Mainline Protestant denomination has experienced a significant decline in membership over the last 50 years from over 2 million members in 1965 to under 1 million members in 2015. The graph at right shows the denomination's total membership by year in blue and the percent Read More …
Southern Baptist Decline (#1425)
Southern Baptists, the largest Protestant tradition in the United States, are in decline. They have lost nearly 1 million members over the last decade yielding a membership of just under 16 million. Conversion has always been an essential reason for growth in this Evangelical denomination. Since peaking in 1999, the number of baptisms conducted each year has declined by 25%. So What? Emma Green, associate editor for The Atlantic and author of the article I linked to Read More …
Church Size & Growth Potential (#1242)
The Fall 2013 edition of Facts and Trends contains a graphic (p.4) from Leadership Network showing that Protestant megachurches are four times more likely to be growing than are all Protestant churches (79% compared to 20%). So What? This statistic is one of many that highlight the reality that America's largest Protestant churches are among the healthiest of all churches when it comes to growth. Since most congregations are smaller in size, the 20% number must be something that Read More …
Southern Baptist Decline (#1121)
2012 was another rough year for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). More specifically, "according to the Annual Church Profile (ACP) compiled by LifeWay Christian Resources in cooperation with Baptist state conventions, most of the ACP metrics declined in 2012 including membership, average attendance, baptisms . . ." Expressed as percentages, the declines are membership: 0.7%, average worship attendance: 3.1%, and baptisms: 5.5%. So What? While the SBC still Read More …
So Many Dwindling Congregations (#1012)
The cover story of the January 2013 edition of The Lutheran is "Shrinking Church," an article focusing on the pragmatic issues of decline within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). To substantiate the problem, Nicole Radziszewski notes the following statistics about the ELCA: In 2010, almost 30% of congregations had an average worship attendance of fewer than 50 people. From 2003 to 2011, average weekly worship attendance dropped 26%. From 2009 to 2010, Read More …
Can Christianity Be Saved? (#0793)
As I read Ross Douthat's latest New York Times editorial, "Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?," I knew I had to respond. In short, he suggests that the end could well be near for progressive or liberal Christianity unless something changes rather significantly as a result of decades of decline. While not proposing that other forms of Christianity have all fared well, he suggests that they have by way of comparison to progressive denominations. (For more on Douthat's perspective, read my review Read More …