Mainline church membership decline continues

Trends continue in church membership growth or decline, reports 2011 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches

New York, February 14, 2011 -- Growing churches continue to grow and declining churches continue to decline, according to the National Council of Churches' 2011 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches.

"The direction of membership (growth or decline) remains very stable," writ es the Yearbook's editor, the Rev. Dr. Eileen Lindner, in the newest edition released this week. "That is, churches which have been increasing in membership in recent years continue to grow and likewise, those churches which have been declining in recent years continue to decline."

However, Lindner points out, "the rates of both growth and decline have generally slowed in comparison to recent years." Copies of the 2011 Yearbook may be ordered for $55 each at www.yearbookofchurches.org.

The 79th annual edition of the Yearbook reports a continuing decline in membership of virtually all mainline denominations. And the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's second largest denomination and long a reliable generator of church growth, reported a decline in membership for the third year in a row, down .42 percent to 16,160,088 members.

The Catholic Church, the nation's largest at 68.5 million members, reported a membership growth of .57 percent.

Membership figures reported in the 2011 Yearbook were collected by the churches in 2009 and reported to the Yearbook in 2010.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grew 1.42 percent to 6,058, 907 members and the Assemblies of God grew .52 percent to 2,914,669 members , according to figures reported in the 2011 Yearbook.

Other churches that continued to post membership gains in 2010 are Jehovah' s Witnesses, up 4.37 percent to 1,162,686 members, and Church of God (Cleve land, Tenn.), up .38 percent to 1,076,254 members.

Four of the nation's 25 largest churches are Pentecostal in belief and practice, Lindner reported. "Strong figures from the Assemblies of God and t he Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) suggest an increase in the number of adherents to Pentecostal groups, though it is impossible to state unequivocally from this table since the other two charismatic churches in the ranking have not reported in some years."

The four largest Pentecostal churches are the Church of God in Christ, Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. and the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.)

Mainline churches reporting declines in membership are United Church of Christ, down 2.83 percent to 1,080,199 members; the Presbyterian Church (USA), down 2.61 percent to 2,770,730 members; the Episcopal Church, down 2.48 percent to 2,006,343 members; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. down 1.96 percent to 4,542,868 members; the American Baptist Churches USA, down 1.55 percent to 1,310,505; the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod), down 1.0 8 percent to 2,312,111 members; and the United Methodist Church, down 1.01 percent to 7,774,931 members.

However, ten of the 25 largest churches did not report updated figures: the Church of God in Christ; the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.; the National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.; the African Methodist Episcopal Church; the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America; Churches of Christ; Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc.; the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; and Christian Churches and Churches of Christ.

The 2011 Yearbook includes part two of Lindner's 2010 essay on "The New Immigrant Church," this year focusing on policy and mission.

Church financial trends are also reported in the Yearbook. The financial re porting in the 2010 Yearbook is based on the financial income reports of the 64 churches reporting. The almost 45 million members of these churches contributed almost $36 billion, showing a decrease in the total income to the churches of $26 million.

The 2011 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches reports on 227 national church bodies. Statistics in the yearbook reflect "continued high overall church participation, and account for the religious affiliation of over 163 million Americans," the editor reports.

The Yearbook also includes a directory of 235 U.S. local and regional ecumenical bodies with program and contact information and provides listings of theological seminaries and bible schools, religious periodicals and guides to religious research including church archive listings.

Information in the Yearbook is kept up to date in two regular electronic up dates each year. Access to this Internet data is provided through a unique pass code printed inside the back cover.

Total church membership reported in the 2011 Yearbook is 145,838,339 members, down 1.05 percent over 2010.

4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6,058,907 members, up 1 .42 percent.

5. The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members, no membership updates reported.

6. National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc, 5,000,000 members, no membership updates reported.

8. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., 3,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.

11. African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.

11. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, 2,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.

13. The Lutheran Church-- Missouri Synod (LCMS), 2,312,111 members, down 1. 08 percent.

16. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 1,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.

17. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., 1,500,000 members, no member ship updates reported.

18. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1,400,000 members, members, no membership updates reported.

19. American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., 1,310,505 members, down 1.5 5 percent.

23. Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, 1,071,616 members, no membership updates reported.

25. Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. 1,010,000 members, down 5 9.60 percent (due in part to a new methodology of counting members).

For more information, or to purchase a copy of the 2011 Yearbook, see www.yearbookofchurches.org. Yearbooks from earlier years may be available at a discounted price at 888-870-3325.

Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's 37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches -- include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.

CORE is not a denomination, but it’s more like a support group for Confessional Lutherans. LCMC and NALC both practice open communion and have women pastors. Both welcome all sinners without blessing homosexual actions. Most LCMC and NALC (but not all) congregations realize the issue is about Biblical relevance and not just homosexuality.

LCMC has been around for several years and has a pretty sizable base. It is a collection of individual congregations, accountable to each other, but without much institutional structure.

NALC was created by CORE, last Summer. A lot of congregations seemed to be waiting for NALC to be created before they took their votes to leave the ELCA. It is still smaller than LCMC, but has shown a lot of growth in a very short period of time. Its beliefs are similar to LCMC, but will have Bishops and is much more structured.

It's called 'diversifying your portfolio'.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

“20. Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1,162,686 members, up 4.37 percent.”

It looks like they posted the largest increase. It should be noted that only active members are counted.

The next largest increase was in the Seventh Day Adventist.

Very interesting.

The Catholic Church doesn't take you off the roles even after you've left

The methodology of a survey like this is tricky in every case; it's not a "Catholic thing."

It's not a case of "not taking you off the roles [I think you mean "rolls"] even after you left," it's a case of "how do you know when they've left, and what is 'left,' anyway?".

(They've left if they go to the Assemblies of God fulltime, but have they left if they come to Mass on Christmas and Easter? What if they never come to Mass but still call themselves "Catholic"?)

Some Catholic parishes & dioceses take "parish censuses" regularly, specifically polling people in the pews on Sunday. They would have an accurate idea of how many people are regularly attending members. But others don't do that. A parish could also count contributing members (those who use envelopes or checks), but that wouldn't count the noncontributors who still attend.

One number that is accurate is the number of new members added in a year, because that's just the number of infant baptisms plus the number of adult conversions. So it's safe to say that the percentage increase described in this article is correct or on the low side. What's harder to know is what the baseline number is against which that percentage increase is computed.

It is true that a loss of members who simply left the Catholic Church would not immediately show up in statistics that just measure deaths and new members (both infant baptisms and adult conversion). But it would be reflected in those statistics eventually, because people who leave will not have their children baptized.

Another point is that polls show that the percentage of Americans who identify themselves as “Catholic” has held very steady at about 25% for several decades. That would imply that the number who think of themselves as Catholic is increasing at roughly the same rate as the US population.

As far as people leaving the catholic Church at four times the rate taht they enter, that is somewhat misleading. Most of the exodus from the catholic Church in the US happened in the late 60s and 70s, when the Church was going through rapid changes and turmoil. There were also very few converts to the Catholic Church in that period. Things have stabilized a great deal since then. More people are coming in and fewer going out.

Right now it seems that the Catholic population in the US is growing slowly.

I am surprised to see the Southern Baptists and LCMS down. The more recent trend has shown conservative (read Gospel preaching) do much better than liberal churches (read social justice types)

We have to remember that membership is different than attendance in protestant churches..

I would guess that there may be a decline in people seeking membership but that actually attending services and bible studies etc..

Unlike Catholics that count every baptized baby as a "member" most protestant churches have membership classes and requirements for membership .

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.