Posted on 04/26/2015 6:53:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
As someone who both cares about the mission of the church and leads a research organization, I watch the trends in the church and the culture.
Occasionally, someone asks me to share some thoughts on the big picture, in the case of the North American context, questions related to "streams" of Protestantism.
Based on research, statistics, extrapolation, and (I hope) some insight, I notice 3 important trends continuing in the next 10 years.
Trend #1: The Hemorrhaging of Mainline Protestantism
This trend is hardly news—mainliners will tell you of this hemorrhaging and of their efforts to reverse it. Mainline Protestantism is perhaps the best known portion of Protestantism, often represented by what are called the "seven sisters" of the mainline churches. Mainline churches are more than these, but these seven are the best known, perhaps:
United Methodist Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Episcopal Church
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
American Baptist Churches
United Church of Christ (UCC)
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
They tend to fall on the progressive side of the theological continuum, but there is diversity of theology as well (Methodists, as a whole, are probably most conservative, for example).
Mainline Protestantism is in trouble and in substantive decline. Some are trying to reverse this, through evangelism and church planting initiatives.
However, this is an uphill battle and, as a whole, mainline Protestantism will continue its slide.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
Is the Southern Baptist a Convention not considered “mainline”? Maybe not, but I would have thought they are more conservative than Methodists.
The local Lutheran ELCA church lost half of its members in one year after they they went through what my ex-member neighbor called "the Gay thing".
Ideally a church should look the church of the first century. If it doesn’t we can be sure that it’s basing it’s values and beliefs on society, culture and politics rather than the bible.
Nope, they’re not.
They’re not mainline or they’re not more conservative?
Some good comments at the site since they did not address the growth of Catholicism.
The percentages tell the story.
I just noticed that these were 2000-2010 figures.
In five years where do you think the biggest changes are?
Study goes on to say....
In just one year, from 2000 to 2001, the number of these non-infant entries into the Catholic Church fell by more than 20,000 (down 12.6%). This drop predates the emergence of news of clergy sex abuse cases. In fact the number of entries into the Church increased from 2001 to 2002 when these stories emerged in the media. From 2002 the number of new non-infant entries stabilized until 2006 and 2007 where another steep decline occurred. There were more than 28,000 fewer non-infant entries into the Church in 2007 than in 2005 (down 19.2%). Since then, the decline has flattened out a bit but still continues through to the numbers for 2010.
I am not sure how to explain the trends in the figures above in terms of causal events. But the shifts are significant and beyond random fluctuations (the average year-to-year change in non-infant entries since 1944 has been 1.0%).
They’re not mainline
Regarding Baptists listed in this article. It is my “guess” that they are putting all branches/types of Baptist churches into a single group. just like they have apparently done with Lutherans, Presbyterian, and others that are splitting over homosexual issues.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a ‘bottom up’ organization with both liberal and conservative congregations. Unfortunately it is mostly the secular humanist liberal DOC clergy that runs the central church offices in Indianapolis. I am a life long member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), thus speak from my own experience with the denomination.
Here’s what they referred to in the article ...
American Baptist Churches
The American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) is a Baptist Christian denomination within the United States. The denomination maintains headquarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The organization is usually considered mainline, although varying theological and mission emphases may be found among its congregations, including modernist, charismatic and evangelical orientations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Baptist_Churches_USA
The other two trends for those who don’t wish to go to the site:
Trend #2: Continued Growth of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement
Trend #3: Networks [of non denominational churches] will Explode in Number and Influence
Thanks, I missed that. It looks like they are ‘cherry picking’ their ‘denominations.’
American Baptist Churches
The American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) is a Baptist Christian denomination within the United States. The denomination maintains headquarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The organization is usually considered mainline, although varying theological and mission emphases may be found among its congregations, including modernist, charismatic and evangelical orientations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Baptist_Churches_USA
Yes, the American Baptist group is usually considered mainline and as a whole differs in some respects from the Southern Baptist group as a whole. I don't know enough to confirm what the Wikipedia article says about the history, but the two groups did split in the 19th century over slavery-related issues.
(I have known American Baptists: one of them, whom I knew mainly indirectly, was both a woman and an ordained pastor in the denomination. The Southern Baptist FAQ answers "Can women be pastors or deacons in the SBC?" with words including these: "The Southern Baptist Convention also passed a resolution in the early 1980s recognizing that offices requiring ordination are restricted to men. However the BF&M [Baptist Faith and Message] and resolutions are not binding upon local churches. Each church is responsible to prayerfully search the Scriptures and establish its own policy.")
It just occurred to me that the name "American Baptist" may be misinterpreted as referring to Baptists in the United States, but everything in that list is a specific group, not a general label. It's like the difference between "American airlines" and "American Airlines," but "Baptist" is usually capitalized. (Similarly, not every Baptist in the South is a "Southern Baptist.")
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