TALLY TIME It concerns all of us.
The seven major Protestant church denominations of our nation are all showing marked losses in membership.
We all need to try to determine why this is happening. We need to become aware that this it not exactly new. It has been happening over a span of years but only recently has it become evident that such losses are becoming steady and it could lead to real harm for some groups if such an exodus continues - even at present rates of decline.
To often, when such a crisis arises, there is a tendency for us to waste our time, efforts and funds in a frenzy of contrasting and/or comparing strange mixtures of figures, statistical summaries, and some downright falsifications to prove “who” among all church groups can be said to be stealing “what” from”whom”.
Such pettiness is pathetic. This problem faces all members of the various religious divisions. One can no longer point at another and lay blame upon them. We are involved.
Right away we want to know who is “losing” and who is “winning”.
Much depends on overall memberships! Percentage lists can be deceptive. One protestant group shows a decline of 57.2% - a loss of over one million members during the study period 1965 to 2003. Another one - my own – lost one million-eight hundred thousand members in that same thirty-eight year span of time. Other loses run from as low as 12.3% and the remaining four are puzzling as well one lost 25% which mean that 2,816,122 former members are somewhere else Sunday mornings - or , are they?
An easy solution to the problem: Check to gate at other churches reporting gains in members over the same time period.
The Assembly of God churches took in 2,157,439 new members. 377.1% gain.
The Southern Baptist Convention shows 5,669,030 - a 52.6% gain.
Roman Catholic (US) show a gain of 45.4% ...around 21,013,592 new members.
That enough figures for you? Play around with them as other church member are doing across the nation, or start searching for the real reasons behind these changes. The gains shown above ignore the normal gains of actively engaged congregations; no one seem to be aware of the existence of score of independent, non-denominational, unaffiliated churches scattered all over the country. They claim memberships of fifteen thousand. One I heard claims “over forty thousand “ and they are appearing on television more a more in advancing evangelistic forays and imitations thereof others who have tried that way before – some with marked success. We have yet to evaluate the true effect of that which we call the “Electronic Church”...people -thousands of us – who “attend” church service every Sunday in this way. The denomination which first discovers a method in which members may worship at home will upset membership statistics in a fabulous way.
A.L.M. February 10, 2006 [c487wds]
