. . . ? e e r s i a c m S o r e P r u e t r Fu r Futu o H
This message was on billboards in Florida, Ohio and New Jersey.
by Kirk M. Clayton
Membership Losses
2010 Membership in Millions
Membership Loss Since 1990
Percentage Loss
American Baptist Church
1.6
-313,000
-16.7%
Episcopal Church
1.9
-493,000
-20.2%
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
4.1
-1.0 Million
-20.0%
Presbyterian Church in the USA
1.9
-1.1 Million
-31.0%
United Church of Christ
1.2
-709,000
-35.6%
United Methodist Church
9.7
-1.2 Million
-11.1%
Membership Losses in Mainline Churches
ave you seen signs of Christmas in the stores yet? Have you seen decorations, trees, tinsel and stockings filling the aisles? Have you heard Christmas music on the loudspeakers? If not, then give it another week or two, and you will. Between now and Christmas, notice something else: outright attacks on Christianity. It seems every year a new location with a Christian nativity scene on public property is challenged in court. Billboards have appeared during the season with slogans like “You Know it (the Christmas Story) is a Myth,” “This Season, Celebrate Reason,” “Don’t Believe in God? You Are Not Alone” or “All Religions Are Fairy Tales.” Every year the attacks on Christianity seem to increase in frequency and ferocity. Is the future for the church one that is filled with threats, doom and despair, or is the future of the church filled with bright hope and eager expectation? Does the church face a future promise — or a future scare? Atheist attacks on Christianity and the “signs against the season” certainly don’t seem to paint a rosy picture. The effects are being felt in congregational membership. The previous issue of The Lutheran Layman featured an article (“The State of Outreach….By the Numbers,” p. 3-7) that outlined dramatic declines in membership for churches in the United States. Membership in mainline Protestant churches is in devastating free-fall, with some church bodies losing as much as 35 percent of their membership in the last decade! While numerical decline may not be quite so pronounced in the LCMS or the LCC, it is still prevalent, and we know it. In many ways the future of the church does not look promising, and a pall of unease and uncertainty covers many Christian hearts. Militant atheist attacks have an effect. Members like Josh Peterson, choir director at my congregation, sense it: “Attacks seem to drive Christians into silence. Anyone who is in favor of Biblical values is shunned, fired, blackballed, picketed, boycotted and labeled as hateful, so I find that the temptation to do nothing in see next page The Lutheran Layman November - December 2012 9