Since the denomination was formed in 1983, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has experienced a membership decline of nearly 62%, shrinking from 3,121,238 members in 1983 to 1,193,770 members in 2021. The year over year decline from 2020 to 2021 resulted in the loss of 51,584 members, which equals an annual decline of 4.1%. Given recent losses this net loss is well within the range one would expect. 2021: -51,584 members2020: -56,691 members2019: -50,635 members Older and Grayer More Read More …
Presbyterian Church USA
Serving 9 Beautifully Diverse Congregations (#1771)
Since the year 2000, I've served 9 different Mainline Protestant congregations. Congregational Diversity I'm thankful for the beautiful diversity of these congregations. Denominational Affiliation United Church of Christ - 3 Presbyterian (PCUSA) - 3 Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) - 2 Lutheran (ELCA) - 1 Location North Texas - 5 Southwest Florida - 4 Size - Average Weekly Worship Attendance Family (1-49) - 1 Pastoral (50-149) - 3 Program (150-399) Read More …
From 5 Million to 4 Million (#1026)
From 2001 to 2011, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America lost just over 1 million members. More specifically: 2001 Membership: 5,099,877 2011 Membership: 4,059,785 Membership Loss: 1,040,092 or 20.39% So What? The decline of the mainline is a popular topic, yet few are familiar with the dramatic nature of the numeric decline in membership and denominational funding. While the numbers presented here reflect the change in the ELCA, similar decline is happening across Read More …
Learning from Gen Y: Thoughts of a New Reformation (#0324)
Bradley N. Hill, a minister in the Evangelical Covenant Church, recently wrote an article for the Christian Century suggesting that the way most churches operate (an attractional model) will never effectively engage Generation Y (those he characterizes as being born between 1976 and 2000) for many reasons including: . . . advertisement is just part of the background white noise of our culture. No impersonal website or advertisement, no program or event flyer, poster or radio spot will entice Read More …
Reality Check: A Typical Mainline Church in 2010 (#0305)
The Research Services Office of the Presbyterian Church (USA) just released the 2010 Survey of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Congregations, which was part of the Faith Communities Today (FACT) 2010 study of 10,000 congregations from 100 Christian denominations and other faith groups in the United States. The data was provided by leaders of 706 PCUSA congregations. Among the statistics worth noting: The median worship attendance for all Sunday morning services is 70 people Read More …
Catholics to Recognize Protestant Baptisms (#0189)
After working for the last six years on a means to provide mutual recognition of baptism with several Reformed Protestant denominations, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted in favor of the measure at their annual Fall General Assembly. While similar agreements have been reached in other countries, this is the first of its kind in the United States. According to Religion News Service, Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, chairman of the ecumenical and Read More …
The Future of Mainline Denominations (#0151)
The Future of Mainline Protestantism As a group, mainline Protestants have experienced ongoing decline in membership for multiple decades. In recent years some have replaced "mainline" with terms like "old line" or "sidelined." Looking forward, almost everyone agrees that unless something changes significantly the decline will continue. While some writers have focused on the decline including the likely causes and others are calling for the end of Read More …