Posted on 02/02/2024 7:04:43 AM PST by Morgana
The United Church of Christ declined by over 286,000 members from 2012 to 2022, according to recently released statistics on the theologically liberal mainline Protestant denomination.
A recent report by the UCC Center for Analytics, Research & Development and Data found that, from 2012 to 2022, the denomination experienced a net loss of 286,610 members and 551 congregations.
Additionally, from 2020 to 2022, the UCC went from having 4,794 congregations to 4,603 congregations, with membership dropping from approximately 773,000 to approximately 712,000.
The 2022 membership numbers also represented a sharp decline from 1960, when the denomination reported approximately 2.24 million members, over three times its current count.
According to the report, 128 congregations were removed from UCC records in 2022, an increase of 50.6% compared to 2021, when 85 congregations were removed.
The report states that this sharp increase could be “related to a new policy from the UCC’s Board of Directors that removes churches from records after two years of being marked inactive unless the Conference requests an extension or otherwise updates an inactive designation.”
“Since this was the first year the policy was enacted, the number of inactive churches removed is not expected to be as high in subsequent years; future years of data collection will demonstrate whether removals return to previous levels,” the report reads.
The UCC report acknowledges a considerable decline from 2005 to 2007, when “the UCC experienced a loss of nearly three congregations per week on average” due to its 2005 General Synod passing a resolution supporting same-sex marriage.
CARDD Director Erica Dollhopf said in a statement last week that she hopes the report, which details data on a host of trends in the UCC, can help local congregations “identify places where their church might have particular strengths and to find inspiration for how their church might find new pathways to flourishing.”
Dollhopf also noted that, according to the report, smaller UCC congregations tended to have the highest percentage of volunteer engagement for their assorted projects and ministries.
“This finding highlights the particular gifts of smaller churches — they tend to be close-knit, highly involved communities,” she continued. “The smallest churches by membership size tend to have the most people attending in-person worship relative to membership.”
“While not everyone who attends worship is necessarily a church member, this calculation is another way to approximate engagement, which generally is highest within smaller churches.”
The statistical report also shows that 83.1% of the denomination is white, while 4.8% is African American, 4% is Asian or Pacific Islander, and less than 1% is Hispanic.
The Great Lakes region, an area that includes Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, had the highest percentage of UCC members at 30.6%.
Behind the Great Lakes region is the Mid-Atlantic region, with 20% of UCC members; in third place is the New England region, which has 19.7% of the denomination’s members.
The Western region, which includes the West Coast and goes as far east as Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming, has only 9.4% of the members and 13.1% of the congregations.
Last July, at their 2023 General Synod meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, the UCC elected the Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson to be its first female president and general minister.
In her nomination speech before the General Synod last year, Thompson said that “hope springs forth” within the UCC, with the denomination being “the place where we have seen the Spirit of God poured forth among us in many ways.”
“Here is where we honor the resilience of those who came before us, took risk and oftentimes did more with less than we currently have. And here is the place we identify as now, as we ponder the call of God to be salt and light to the world,” Thompson stated.
One of my dreams is to find a deserted church building, and convert it into a home and a public meeting space. This post gives me hope that more of those structures will be coming on the market!
No suprise at all. The UCC has been just about the most Liberal of all the old “mainline” Protestant churches. It actually began losing members in 1957 when it became the UCC and some it’s most Conservative Congregational andEvangelical & Reformed congregations (the two merging denominations) would not participate in the merged denomiation. Other UCC congregations kept losing members over the decades as the UCC continued to become less biblical and more Liberal.
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because GOD IS LOVE.” But when God says that, he doesn’t mean sodomy, adultery, premarital fornication, etc.
Sadly, there are plenty already on the market.
No, you are missing the point.
Yes, God loves you, God loves all of his creations.. and no, no matter what you do in your life, you will never ever earn or be deserving of God’s grace, but he grants it anyway.
However, as I said before, if you are part of any “Church” who’s just offering bumper sticker theology... and “God is Love”, or “Jesus is Love” is indeed bumper sticker Theology. Any Pastor, or Priest, or Minister, who tries to dumb down all of Christian Theology to simply “God is Love” is a heretic.
(see tag)
In case anyone gets the mistaken notion that this group is some subset of the traditional Churches of Christ - forget it. Not even close.
The UCC is a perfect example of apostasy.
“As bad as this is, there are whole countries of Catholics where few attend church during the course of a whole year.”
As a member of the ELCA synod of the Lutheran Church, (my spouse’s family church over her lifetime), when they announced a few back that the ELCA would be ordaining females and members of the LGBTQ community, I was stunned that such a decision would come down with zero discussion at the congregation-level.
That said, shortly after the that decision was communicated, the ELCA sustained the loss of hundre4ds of congregations throughout the United States.
As I walk the halls of the church, I see the pictures of the bygone years of confirmation classes going back to the 1950’s, where there were 30-50 confirmations in a class, through the 80’s and 90’s, 20-30 confirmations, through today, 1-2 confirmations.
As I sit in the pew in my mid-50s and look around, I am among the youngest congregants in the church, save just a few, and even fewer children, maybe 3-6 total.
We pray for the oppressed, we pray for the environment, we pray for those marginalized, and yes, we pray for the migrants seeking a better life.
Stephen Bannon said it best: the churches are empty and the Mosques are full.
I pray nothing happens to my wife, for if it does, her funeral will be my last time attending this church.
I’m amazed you are still there.
The death of churches is a sad thing...
Where I live, UCC is the faggiest church in town. Rainbow crap all over, even a rainbow-painted park bench (is it racist that black is not part of the rainbow?) - even an electronic sign out in front practically begging queers of all types to join.
Exactly describes one of the UCCs in town here.
"Hate Has No Home Here", with a rainbow background, on their electronic sign out front.
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