According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s figures, Nebraska has grown in population from 1,711,263 in 2000 to 1,796,619 in 2009. This represents a population growth of approximately 4.75%.
According to Episcopal Church statistics, the Diocese of Nebraska went from Average Sunday Attendance (or ASA) of 4,078 in 1998 to 3,153 in 2008. This represents an ASA decline of about 23% over this ten year period.
A pictorial chart of some Nebraska diocesan statistics may be found here.
Or about 26 percent off from where they ought to have been had they merely held a steady percentage vis-a-vis the population.
I’m not sure why Nebraska got singled out here, but it is an interesting (or depressing) case of just how drastic has been the general decline in TEC over the last decade. In a state that grew by almost 5%, the diocese shrunk by about 23%. Disastrous.
Just for the sake of comparison, the neighboring state of SD to the north, grew by about 7% during that same decade (although it’s only half the size of Neb.), and yet the Diocese of SD lost an almost identical proportion of its ASA, some 22.3%. A devastating loss in just one decade.
But I clicked on the US Census Bureau Fact Sheets for both states and found some interesting demographic differences between the two contiguous states. Both prairie states have an overwhelmingly high ratio of Anglos/non-Hispanic Whites (87% for SD, almost 89% for Neb). Conversely, they have extremely low numbers of Blacks (a tiny 1% for SD and just 4% for Neb), and Hispanics (only 2.2% in SD and just 7.6% in Neb). The national averages are about 12% for African-Americans and 15% for Hispanics.
But whereas the percentage of Native Americans in Neb is right at the national average (0.8%), in SD the Indian population is an incredibly high 8.4%. And the proportion of the TEC Diocese of SD that’s made up of those “First Nation” tribal people (almost all Lakota/Sioux) used to be about half the diocese.
All is certainly NOT well in the heartlands for TEC.
But we already knew that, didn’t we?
David Handy+
SD native
NRA,
As each state has grown, do the additional people reflect existing demographics? You noted that Anglos make up 87% of the SD population and 89% of the Neb population. For example, is a higher percentage the growth Hispanic than anglo when compared to existing demographics? If this is the case it may explain (some) of the ASA drop vs population growth since the Hispanics would tend to be RC. I am not attempting to be an apologist for TEC, I am just attempting to understand the numbers.
Deacon Dale (#3),
Maybe others can take the time to research that kind of question. I freely admit that I haven’t done the homework necessary to give a reliable answer to your entirely valid question. Perhaps Statman can come to our aid…
David Handy+
My father grew up on a farm in Nebraska and I still have relatives in that state. My father’s family raised beef cattle along with their other agricultural activities.
One thing that was obvious in raising beef cattle was that if the heifers preferred heifers and the steers preferred steers, the cattle herd didn’t increase its numbers, in fact, it shrank in size through attrition.
Since Nebraska is a farm country state, its not a surprise that the events in ECUSA of the past several years, along with an analogous Nebraskan appreciation of sexual reality, have resulted in Nebraskans leaving the Episcopalian ‘herd’ in that state.
Kendall’s posting facts like this about state growth and diocesan decline is [i]Very Divisive[/i].
When will this divisive behavior cease?
Sarah,
As soon as you stop noting divisive behavior it will stop being divisive.
I am not a postmodernist. If I do not notice Truth, it still exists, even if my discourse community does not recognize the Truth.
It is the truth that Kendall’s posts comparing state population increases to TEC membership losses is [i]Quite Divisive[/i].
There is no doubt about that.
My refusing to notice this Divisive Behavior will not make it Any Less Divisive. And further, others in other discourse communities will also note [and have noted] how [i]Singularly Divisive[/i] it is for him to keep posting these little steady dripping posts.
When will this stop? When he covers every single state and diocese with his Divisive Posts???
Positivism tells me that which is unobserved is only a virtual threat, and thus the proclamation of such threat is negative in intent. Negative undermines my positive position. Since I choose to be cyclopedically positive, I therefore accept existentially only that which is portrayed as positive.
In response to Sarah, when a church gets our membership, attendance, volunteer time, or money, its leaders are responsible for overseeing the church well. Financial and non-financial metrics are an objective look at how they are doing and if the church is shrinking, something is wrong and it is incumbent on leadership to explain why and deal with it. There is nothing wrong with T19 publishing the info; in fact, it should be called commendable, not divisive. In fact, our church leaders themselves should be raising this, so T19 doesn’t have to. Are they in this diocese?
#9. Rob Eaton+
The best understanding I can come up with based on what you have said is that a wet bird does not fly at night. Maybe I’ll be able grasp your communications better when JDS lays hands on me once again.
Well, enough of that. A simple exercise in sarcasm related to a very typical (general) response from the pew, usually fostered by clergy who filter their communications in their congregation.
I would say that to certain clergy, such information sharing is divisive, exactly. To the still general membership in the pew such information is not immediately divisive – it is challenging, bracing, shocking. It demands an answer. And then the clergy involved can call it divisive because they are confronted with the demand for an answer. “What shall we then do?” or, as Cheng Ching-yi said in his famous 7 and 1/2 minute speech at the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference, “O Lord, Revive Thy Church beginning with me” (a phrase the young pastor apparently was teaching Chinese Christians, and the phrase which Sam Shoemaker used as the title for his 1948 book).
Think of it: the bishop of Nebraska, or Wyoming, or Iowa, or South Dakota, or Kansas, selects a book such as Shoemaker’s, purchases a copy for every teen and adult member of the diocese, perhaps with a grant from the UTO or from a generous giver, and asks that every member read it during Lent and finds a way to discuss it with other fellow parishioners (such as the book was selected by Henry Sherrill as a Lenten Reading Selection back then).
Surely by some it would seem intrusive and divisive. But the benefits to the Kingdom would eventually be measurable – positively, of course.
I am sure of this, though, that the strategy of combining declining dioceses into larger geographical areas (which data like this for Nebraska and all the other surrounding dioceses I included above will be called for) is not the answer.
Dale,
What, no hands yet?
Don’t worry, I was being obnoxious and playful in my posts 7 and 9 after what Sarah said in sarcasm in 6.
Post 12 however is quite serious; I have no doubt you will be affirming.
Hey Rob and Everybody:
Our people are not children from whom we should hide the truth. To do so would be patronizing at best, and dishonest at worst. We can all take the reality of the destruction of our Church. Laying the truth out is what Jesus is all about, except if you have something to hide. With regards to TEC’s plummett and reasons….”it is what it is”.
I suspect that Kendall+ only picked out DioNB because My Most Gracious Lord Nebraska, +Joe Burnett, has recently announced his retirement. I think that other dioceses have been profiled in the past under similar circumstances.
Not to be divisive, but I would point out that in my little Midwestern county seat town, the RC church located on the same block as my parish as an ASA of over 3200.
And it’s not the only Roman Church in town….(a lot of Midwestern communities, such as mine, have a historically Irish RC church, usually named St. Mary’s or St. Patrick’s, and a historically German RC church, frequently with Boniface as its patron).
Choir Stall,
Regarding “our people”, that’s what I’m saying. And that’s what Sarah has always said.
However, “it is what it is” as a phrase is escapism, and not particularly true, either. Isn’t that exactly what you are arguing against in your first four sentences? Where we is is the result of clear actions and behaviors and responses.
Otherwise, it looks like we agree on the solution, as long as the truth that you want to lay out is in fact and in wholeness Jesus?
Kevin,
Why only 7 years?
RE: “In response to Sarah, when a church gets our membership, attendance, volunteer time, or money, its leaders are responsible for overseeing the church well.”
What a divisive statement!!!
Further, are we now to descend to crassly materialistic means of discovering or determining spiritual success??? It is quite possible that TEC has “grown” more than any other church in the world in the most important way — spiritually!!!!! And that is unmeasurable and invisible. So there is no way for us to know if something is “wrong” anyway.
In response to Rob Eaton — at this point you are just being divisive.
RE: “I think that other dioceses have been profiled in the past under similar circumstances.”
Right — in a repeated and constant and Most Divisive fashion.
And KevinBabb too.
I am? Dang. You know I just want everyone to get along.
I’m totally with Sarah on this one. Frankly, Kendall’s insistence on publicising [i]facts[/i] is totally irresponsible.
Whatever next? Texts from actual sermons preached?
Numbers don’t lie. They point to a truth that is hard for some to grasp or accept.
These beautiful charts, so useful and easy to read, are really wonderful. They allow one to see at a glance the trend in the figures, in this case decline, and are way ahead of anything the CofE produces.
Now if they showed attendance going up, instead of down, they would be even more wonderful.
The years of 2002 through 2008 were not kind to this diocese. Members were down 16.3 percent, ASA was down 21.0 percent, and Plate & Pledge (adjusted for inflation) declined by 13.6 percent. Based on these data I ranked Nebraska at 76 out of 95 dioceses considered. And the future looks bleak. In 2008 there were 119 Infant Baptisms and 161 Burials. And the Money issue does not look any less dismal. In 2008 there were 40 churches (of 56) that had ASA of 70 or less. (Using the TEC 2008 Median of 69, one would expect 28.) After looking at hundreds of TEC Charts, I would state that less than ONE percent of churches with an ASA of 70 or less will have a Plate & Pledge of more than $150 thousand. For Nebraska only 20 percent (11 of 56) had that level of Plate & Pledge in 2008. This means that there were four “poor” churches needing help from each “rich” church. This diocese is losing the Aging and Money battles. In 2008 there were 22 churches with ASA of less than 20. The future is a sad one with numerous closures. Statmann
Nothing more to see here. Off to look at midling poetry and prose at Preludium; the site where escapism has become enshrined as wisdom and dissent means quiet shrieks while our Church is dissected.
Thanks, Statmann (#25), for weighing in here.
I hoped when I invoked your screenname above (#4), that you’d add to this thread some of your always insightful observations. Much appreciated, as always.
And yes, Sarah is right. Highlighting facts about TEC’s decline and other unpleasant truths that our foes wish to keep safely out of sight is indeed a [i]Highly Divisive[/i] thing.
Keep it up, Kendall.
David Handy+
[blockquote]For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.[/blockquote] (Heb. 4:12)
Deacon Dale I thank you for saying it. I was looking for Mt 10:34. A sword divides or is divisive when applied.