Many people assume that there has been a steady decline in worship attendance for all the mainline denominations since the mid-1960s””the era when most of them began to see their memberships decline. But trends in attendance””usually thought to be a better indicator of church vitality than trends in membership””have actually followed their own patterns.
For example, the Episcopal Church re ported higher attendance in 2000 than in any year since 1991, the year the denomination began recording attendance figures. The United Methodist Church re ported worship attendance figures in 2000 that were higher than those in the mid-1980s. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America had relatively flat attendance rates in the years before 2001, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the 1990s had several years showing modest gains in attendance.
But the years following 2001 have shown a deep recession in worship attendance (see graph below). The losses in worshipers year after year were more dramatic than what data from the previous decade would have predicted.
I am surprised that the writer misses a lot of what is going on at the local level. The competition for Sunday morning is a lot stiffer than it was a decade ago: youth sports leagues (football, year-round baseball, soccer) are all demanding children’s participation “or else” on Sunday mornings. Add to that weekend family travel in not only upscale but average families and you begin to realize what an impact the entertainment culture has on religious life. It’s not just that the churched populations are aging but that the younger populations have found substitute behaviors that provide identity and even meaning which denominational loyalties previously supplied, as well as excitement and healthy exercise.
There are new gods in the land, and we have been slow to name them and rather afraid to confront them. I have suggested to some of the parents in my congregation that they can expect to find themselves treated in their senior/nursing home years as they taught their children to treat God on Sunday morning. I’ll let you know how that plays out.
I agree, there are indeed many new gods. A few years ago when a local high school scheduled graduation on a Sunday morning my local pastor spoke out, but it was a lone voice.
I see a lot of stressed out parents and kids living a “checklist” life. It works out for some but not the vast majority.
Neither the author nor the commenters so far have identified a most significant factor: controversy in mainline churches (particularly over doctrinal deviation) that leads to individual and group departures. This is especially true of TEC during the last decade. I suspect that ELCA’s losses will accelerate in the next few years, far beyond what one might expect without taking the controversy element into account.
I see TEC have updated their charts to include 2009
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/109378_107383_ENG_HTM.htm
http://www.churchoftheword.net
Wow, I wonder what has happened in all these mainline Protestant denominations since roughly 2001 to explain this? 😉 Very odd indeed. They’ve all promised that the “new thing” the Spirit is calling them to do is more inclusive and will bring more people in the doors. Maybe someone should reassess some of their basic assumptions.
We have not answered the question, “Why should anyone bother to go to church when there is nothing necessary to a comfortable life therein? Science and technology give us what we want. And church cannot alter the job market. Why spend time uttering prayers when it is obvious that praying produces no results? If prayers worked, no one would get sick or lose a job. When God effects the job market, then we’ll listen.”
long as no one can refute convincingly the above, the decline will continue. Why eat brussels sprouts if you don’t like them? Larry