Survey research, most recently the Pew Forum’s United States Religious Landscape Survey, shows plainly that we and most other mainline traditions are losing ground. In our case, for every seven people entering an Episcopal church, 10 are leaving. That’s not a sustainable trend.<\/p>\n
The survey points up an interesting countertrend worth pondering. The one bright light of significant growth in the mainline group of churches is \u201d\u201c are you sitting down? \u201d\u201c”nondenominational.”<\/p>\n
We might summarize the trends the report identifies in a simple statement: The denominational structures that we inherited, those traditions once central to shaping our identity and sense of community, are answers to a question fewer and fewer people are asking.<\/p>\n
In this era of spiritual air travel, the giant ocean liners of our traditional denominational polities are seen as inefficient, slow and generally unpleasant means of getting to where seekers \u201d\u201c and even a good number of people born into our traditions \u201d\u201c want to go.<\/p>\n