Protestant Churches Disappearing; More Catholics Than Total of All 19 Prot. Denominations Listed

Analysis of National Council of Churches' data ^ | March 30, 2006 | Dangus

[dangus]

The National Council of Churches' have just reported church membership for the 2006 yearbook. It's quite an interesting picture:

The Catholic Church is the largest and numerically fastest growing church in America, with 67.8 million members, a growth of about 563,000 members.

Many non-denominational churches, not listed in the report, have been growing rapidly in the recent past.

Proportionally, the fastest growing church in America is the Assemblies of God, (10th largest) growing at a 1.81% rate, by adding 50,000 members. That's over twice the growth rate of the Catholic church, but 1/10th of the increase in members of the Catholic Church, because the Assemblies of God is only 4% of the size of the Catholic Church, having 2.78 million members

The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints, (4th largest) with nearly twice (6.0 million) members of the Assemblies of God had nearly the same growth rate, 1.74%.

Looking quickly, one might mistakenly think the Orthodox Church in America (24th largest) is growing amazingly quickly. The Council reports 6.4% more members than it reported last year, but this is the first update in many years. Previously, the Orthodox Church in America had reported simply the same rough estimate year after year: 1 million.

Meanwhile, the Council reported the Greek Orthodox Church (17th largest) as having 1.5 million members; the church doesn't report annually, but just a few years ago, it had nearly 2 million members. Of course, that report itself was quite old, so the decline isn't that amazingly fast. Still, unless there is rapid, unforeseen growth in the smaller Orthodox congregations, it means that overall, the Orthodox Church is likely declining, and what few Orthodox are remaining are switching to the more generic Orthodox church.

Many of the Protestant churches in decline are probably no surprise: United Methodist, 3rd largest, down 0.79% to 8.186 million; Evangelical Lutheran, 7th largest, down 1.09% to 4.93 million; Presbyterian Church (USA), 9th largest, down 1.6% to 3.19 million; Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, 14th, down 1.01% to 2.464 million; Episcopal, 15th, down 1.55% to 2.28 million*; American Baptist, down 0.57% to 1.433 million; and, with the fastest collapse of them all, the United Church of Christ, which has made a strong push to present itself as gay-friendly, dropped 2.48% to only 1.266 million.

What may be surprisin are some of the other denominations in decline. Southern Baptists (2nd) are down again, 1.05% to 16.3 million; and Jehovah's Witnesses, (25th) which were growing just last year, dropped a significant 1.07% to 1.03 million.

Five Baptist conventions, mostly black, (ranked 6th, 12th, 13th, 20th, and 22nd) report very old, and very suspect numbers. Totalled, they would be well over 16 million, but they are believed to actually have far, far fewer members, clinging for political purposes to very old, very rough estimates.

Amazingly, not one of the 25 largest denominations in America was a growing Protestant denomination, except for the Assemblies of God which are not always counted as Protestant.

Combined, the 13 reporting churches had a total membership of 118.7 million. The memberships claimed most recently by the 12 churches that did not issue new reports a combined membership of about 30 million, but is probably closer to 20 million. Even with the very possibly significantly exaggerated estimates of these churches included, however, there are now more members in America of the Catholic Church than in all of the 19 Protestant denominations in the top 25 denominations combined!

[*The National Council of Churches reports 2,463,747 members of the Episcopal Church. This is, however, exactly the same number of members reported by the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, the next largest church, and it creates a data conflict with last years' numbers. The number used last years' numbers as a baseline, and subtracted this years' reported decline. Also, the Episcopal church is not counted among the 17 Protestant denominations, following the practice of the National Council of Churches, the Encyclopedia Britannica, the World Almanac, and many other references.]

[dangus]

Incidentally, all those Mexicans in the news lately are not counted as Catholics unless they are registered with their parishes, so they are not likely to be the predominant source of the Catholic Church's growth.

[justshutupandtakeit]

And why wouldn't they be registered?

[thoughtomator]

Catholics keep out-and proud homosexuals out of the clergy, don't they?

[dangus]

Edits found to late:

"[B]ut is probably closer" should be "but which is probably closer."
And I'm right, my grammatic is wrong. I'm sure of it. It's "The Assemblies of God is," and not "The Assemblies of God are," since "Assemblies" (a plural) is not the subject; "Assemblies of God" is, and that is a singular noun, the name of a single denomination!

[John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?]

Where’s Farrakhan? These numbers aren’t true we need to march! (Sarcasm on)

I n all honesty how many nondoms are there in this country, many who have left the traditional denominations for various reasons and have gone to the non denominationals churches are not being counted.

[dangus]

1. Because they tend to be afraid that the registration list will be turned over to the government, since they come from a formally anti-clerical state, whose previous ruling party killed thousands of priests and nuns and banned "proselytization."

2. Because very few have retained their Catholicism; most of what is retained has often been degraded to mere superstition.

3. Because many are migrant workers, have families in Mexico, or are dissatisfied with the demeaning, condescending Spanish-language masses offered in America by apostate priests who romanticize about their being oxen, donkeys, and chickens on the altar, and whose idea of a communion hymn is "Allabare, Mi Senior," sung with guitars and maraccas; and, if end up switching to non-denominational and charismatic churches.

I've lived in parishes in New York, Massachusetts, and near DC where the census number of Hispanics outnumbered the number of registered Catholics, yet the total size of the congregations of all masses (including the Spanish-language ones) was about 10:1 "Anglo." (A very insulting term for many of my Irish friends!) I hear the L.A., South Texas and Miami-area (except anti-Communist Cuban exiles) Hispanics are even less religious/Catholic, although I haven't been to those places enough to have a good personal sense.

[Pontiac]

The Catholic Church is the largest and numerically fastest growing church in America, with 67.8 million members, a growth of about 563,000 members.

And yet the Bishops are closing and selling a huge number of small and midsize parishes to raise money to pay off lawyers.

[txrangerette]

What is posted here fails to mention the Churches of Christ (go to the site to find it), which list 1,500, 000 members and reported holding steady...no statistical decrease or increase. Note that this is NOT the United Church of Christ, which IS mentioned in the posting as having suffered a big decline and is known among other things "for being gay friendly". The Winkler family are members of the Churches of Christ, NOT United Church of Christ, NOR the International Church of Christ(not on the list).

[dangus]

So do I. It seems my whole adult life (15 years), I've seen exploding, new nondenominational communities, but then I go back up to 15 years later, and there are just new nondenominational communities, but no more nondenominational Christians than there were before. I suspect many of their congregants are dissatisfied with their former denominations, and like being able to pick the congregation that believes what they want to believe, but then, after many years, there's really not that much to hold them in.

I know so many non-denominational churches claim that a majority of their members are ex-Catholic. Well, guess what? Catholics are pretty close to a majority of registered Christians in the country, so for a congregation made up mostly of young converts, that makes sense. But I can also tell you that a few of the parishes I've lived in have a very vast number of former former Catholics! Typically, they dropped out of the Catholic church, not having learned much in the dreadfully weak-minded modern CCD books. Then, knowing very little about Jesus or their faith they were attracted to the people making the most noise. But then, once they started doing a lot of their own religious formation (scripture-reading, etc.), they realized that they simply hadn't understood the Catholic faith very well.

Of course, this is all based on a not-terribly-broad personal experience. I've lived in enough places I feel I have a little insight into the religious practices of many Hispanic immigrants (of course, being gross generalizations!). But I haven't lived in the non-denominational "hot-spots." Plus, it's my understandin that a vast proportion of immigrants end up in nondenominational churches, and gosh knows this place is flooded with illegal immigrants. And in cities, sometimes you can't tell a nondenominational church from a check-cashing service or phone-card store unless you happen to walk by during one of their services and hear the music! (This is a reflection of their poverty and a contempt for "trappings", I believe, and is no sign of a lack of reverance.)

I would be very interested to know how many people attend non-denominational churches; but by their very nature, except for the megachurches, they are very difficult to enumerate.

[dangus]

>> And yet the Bishops are closing and selling a huge number of small and midsize parishes to raise money to pay off lawyers. <<

I've lived in Boston. Believe me, those churches are dead. I'd go to a high-noon mass. There would be me, the priest, the lecter, a few old ladies, and a very big, fat fly you can't help noticing because it's the only form of life.


Go figure; child-raping perverts preaching statism from the altar don't effectively maintain church attendance. Who'd've thought? (/sarcasm)
The growth is outside of the cities like Boston where the church-closings are.

Now, of course, it is criminal if churches are being sold off for the money. On the other hand, if they are shutting down the parish and leaving the church for an oratory, that is unfortunate, but understandable given the absence of congregations.

[Between the Lines]

Edits found to late:

What may be surprisin are some of the other denominations in decline. Southern Baptists (2nd) are down again,

In the South we spell it surpirsin' with an apostrophe.

[dangus]

Hahahehah! I was hopin no-one would notice... :^D

[John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?]

The big growth in the non denominational church was during the Charismatic renewal; many left their churches and went non denominational due to the fact that they were Spirit filled. This is particularly true in the Catholic Church, it seemed like the more ridged and formal the belief system the greater the flight from that system to the nondenominations.

[Pontiac]

I've lived in Boston. Believe me, those churches are dead.

This is not true in rural areas. I am from rural Ohio and know of several small parishes that are being consolidated, closed and closed for the money.

These parishes are small but active. The members (many elderly) now will have to drive many miles to attend services.

[dangus]

>> The Winkler family are members of the Churches of Christ, NOT United Church of Christ, NOR the International Church of Christ(not on the list). << The Winkler family?

Sorry... couldn't help it.

BTW, it's not that the Churches of Christ are holding steady; it's that there is no update. It could be booming or collapsing for all we know. However, most that report such a broad estimate are declining, and clinging to an out-of-date estimate to hide the decline. I can find an old reference to "The Churches of Christ" in my 1997 almanac that lists the congregation at 1.657 million. I'd also like to know the fate of several other small churches, like the Salvation Army, and like those that broke off from larger ones, like the non-Episcopalian Anglicans, the Presbyterian Church in America.

[Straight Vermonter]

In reference to the Church closings I think demographic shifts are the biggest problems in the older, east coast cities. The 2nd and 3rd generation Irish, Portugese, Italians etc have made it out of the cities and into the suburbs.

I know that in Boston they are having a terrible time with the Catholic schools because the schools are all inner city and the people are in the burbs.

[Straight Vermonter]

it seemed like the more ridged and formal the belief system the greater the flight from that system to the nondenominations.

No, in fact it was the liturgical chaos that followed Vatican II that caused folks to look elsewhere. Catholicism is growing again because (some) order has been restored.

In areas that are very orthodox the growth has been almost more than the dioceses have been able to handle.

[dangus]

Actually, you and John are both right. People need security. They need to know that there is a competent authority overseeing things. (Government, of course, is an inherently incompetent authority.)

Picture a 14-year-old girl whose father just found out from the school that she was caught stripping naked in the locker room with some older guy. On some level, she WANTS her father to raise holy hell about what she was doing, to make her afraid of it, to know that he is confident about his morality, to know he will provide consequences. Instead, he just sits quietly, afraid of "losing her."

When finally he finally skips up and lets a trace of his outrage be sensed by her, she hates the contradiction of his scorn, but lack of exercising authority. He is a cowering wimp, and she hates him for it. "Who are you to judge me? I'm a grown up!" she declares with genuine but misdirected fury.

Benedict, then, is like that grandfather (her father's father), who doesn't QUITE feel HE has the authority to lay down the law, but at least can say to her, "He's your father. And you know what you did was positively wrong!"

If she's not too far gone, she will love him for saying that.

[dangus]

(God is the only competent authority to oversee us, of course... but parents can still teach us right from wrong, and Christ founded the church to do just that.)

(Benedict IS like a grandfather here, I believe.. He wants to assert some order in the church, but is concerned that he cannot contradict the local bishops - who have immediate authority through their positions in the office of the apostles - too much, so he moves slowly.)