Posted on 08/21/2019 1:01:13 PM PDT by lightman
Oldline Protestant denominations make for a competitive peer group, but the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is on track to claim the top spot for fastest declining major U.S.-based church last year.
Total membership declined from 411,140 in 2017 to 382,248 (-7%) while average worship attendance declined from 139,936 to 124,437 (-11%) according to numbers reported for 2018. Baptisms dropped from 4,344 to 3,782 (-13%) while the number of other additions (including transfers in) declined from 7,441 to 6,969 (-6.4%).
At the current rate, the denomination will shrink by another 50 percent within a decade. This annual rate of decline exceeds that of the Presbyterian Church (USA) which reported a nearly 5 percent membership drop for the year 2018 and held the distinction of “fastest declining” for much of the decade.
The dramatic decline doesn’t appear to be registering among top denominational officials.
“I am genuinely hopeful for the future of this Church,” wrote the Rev. Teresa “Terri” Hord Owens, General Minister and President in an August 15 reflection following the denomination’s biannual General Assembly. “I saw signs of life and growth everywhere, of Disciples who are learning to abide whether that means waiting with expectation or tarrying a while in the Presence.”
Owens described the denomination’s members as “primed for growing into what the Lord has in mind for us – to become a healing, helping force for good in this fragmented world.” Addressing sustained decline that has shed 80 percent of members since the denomination crested in 1964 did not appear to be a concern: “We must continue to abide, to remain, to persist.”
Denominational officials strongly embrace social justice causes. At a post-Assembly rally at the Iowa Capitol, Disciples’ public policy groups joined with ecumenical and interfaith partners on the religious left to proclaim support for government directed poverty alleviation programs. The denomination also embraces a sanctuary movement to shield illegal immigrants from law enforcement, supports LGBT causes, and partners with an “Indigenous womxn-led collective” to “shift social and environmental paradigms by dismantling colonial institutions and replacing them with Indigenous practices.”
The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, co-leader of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, spoke at the rally and Assembly closing celebration.
The July 20-24 General Assembly gathering in Des Moines, Iowa included a resolution to receive the gifts of those with “gender-diverse identities”.
“God is further known to us as the male-bodied Jesus embodying God’s feminine Wisdom; and as the non-gendered Spirit,” the resolution reads.
The shrinking denomination has not engaged in public discussion about a potential merger with another church body, but did vote to enter a full-communion ecumenical relationship with the United Church of Canada. The agreement allows for the free movement of clergy between the churches, and recognizes each’s sacraments of Baptism and Communion. Both churches already have a similar agreement with the United Church of Christ (UCC), which also shares a public policy office with the Disciples.
One of several groups that grew out of the Restoration Movement, begun in the early 19th century by Barton Stone and Thomas and Alexander Campbell, the Disciples are the smallest of seven historic oldline Protestant denominations. Prominent members have included Presidents Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson and James Garfield. You can view my coverage of the Disciples’ 2016 membership report here and 2017 report here.
The 2018 numbers were provided by the Office of General Minister and President and appear in the 2019 Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) yearbook. One caveat with these numbers: the denomination changed to an online reporting format this year and experienced a small decline in reporting congregations. The denomination does not estimate for congregations that do not report, unlike some denominations that roll over the previous year’s congregational report if new information is not received.
...’The falling away will continue’....
Indeed it will...the Great Apostasy and the Great Deception are in play in a world ready to deceive itself.
Maybe if your church is little more than a branch of the Democrat Party, with a bit of religious stuff thrown in, why not go directly to political activism since that is really the main thing for leftists and don’t be bothered with even nominal religious values?
Lose scripture, lose people. The old dead denominations love death.
You make my point. Thank you. The Chritian Church of Jesus Christ is universal, ibique, ubique, ab ominibus. Since the protestants only started dividing in 1517 thats means they only catholic or ibique, ubique et omnibus christian structure is what is now called by the proper name of Catholic with capital C.
That just seems incorrect to me. Based only upon the size of the crowds I see in the parking lots of two separate Evangelical type churches, those two have grown to or past capacity. One is a "Pflugerville Community Church", the other is a (???) Calvary Church. They regularly fill up and overflow their parking lots. I don't notice that much growth (if any) in the local mainline denominations.
Ex-Christian Sodomite-Communist Cult loses members, film at 11.
They probably bow down and worship their Liberal Fake News Newspapers as their source of inspiration. Sermon materials are probably based on it with a few cherry picked scriptures taken out of context to make it appear Biblical.
They probably bow down and worship their Liberal Fake News Newspapers as their source of inspiration. Sermon materials are probably based on it with a few cherry picked scriptures taken out of context to make it appear Biblical.
H-e-double hockey sticks.
We joined a Disciples of Christ here in Georgia. It is an extremely small congregation but have been in existence for 135 years. That is the first I have heard that this church supports SJW agendas!
All I can say is that it is an extremely small and very conservative congregation and a Christ centered church.
Thank you for saving me the bother.
I was very surprised. The church I grew up in is gone.
DoC ping. Not the DoC I grew up in many years ago. The left-wingers have full control in Indianapolis.
So sorry.
There are churches which had played a significant roll in my spiritual formation which have become the prey of Satan—always distressing to realize you can’t go back home.
So it would seem.
I’m a life long member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The individual congregations select their own ministers as opposed to having them assigned by either the region or Indianapolis. Last fall I left the congregation were I was a member for 31 years because I moved from the east coast back to Indiana. We had an excellent pastor and I miss him. He never talked politics from the pulpit, just the gospel. He was selected by the congregation and proved to be an excellent choice. The national leadership is far to the left of most of the folks at Bethany.
I rejoined the congregation I grew up in here in Indiana. I’m slowly getting use to the pastor here. Her sermons are fairly good. The congregation is an older one and unfortunately went through a split a few years ago, over what, in my opinion was a poor selection of 2 consecutive ministers. I was visiting one Sunday and nearly walked out when the minister did a direct attack on those of us who chose to serve in the military.
Blessings to all. G-F
Christian Church as a denomination is one of three “daughters” of the Restoration Movement which began in the 1830s: Church of Christ (non-instrumental, located largely in the South); Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, largely mid-west; and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), geographic center unknown.
If you go to a Christian Church, ask someone in charge if there is a connection to the Restoration Movement. If not, it may just be a garden variety community Bible church.
Conservative evangelical numbers are slightly up.
It is the liberal denoms who continue to free fall. As they should.
It seems many leave them to join the “nones.” Which is more honest.
Yew must be goin ta a good baaaah-ble based church.
I had to leave a couple of those before I found this one. They will at least listen to me when I talk of the divine council and Conditional immortality (my belief system). They even let me teach Sunday school and play bass in the worship band and do their Jail ministry visitations. :)
https://www.thedivinecouncil.com/
https://www.jewishnotgreek.com/
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