Reasons for Decline
“Many Church Rolls Decline” declared the recent article distributed by the Religious News Service.
Not exactly breaking news. According to new figures released by the National Council of Churches, most mainline Protestant denominations report continuing decline.
While the Southern Baptists and Catholics reported membership losses in the 2009 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, in the 2010 edition released February 12th, only the Catholics reported a rebound with a 1.5% growth rate to more than 68 million members.
The Presbyterian Church (USA) experienced the greatest loss among the top 10 denominations – down 3.3% to 2.8 million members.
Okay, enough with the data. I certainly have no problems with the accuracy of the statistics. In fact, the NCC’s annual Yearbook is regarded as one of the most reliable recorders of church membership in North America.
It’s the post-game analysis, highlighted in the report, that I found interesting.
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