How to Shrink Your Church in One Easy Step

on August 22, 2014

The following article originally was published on The Federalist and is cross-posted here with permission.

By now, we’ve all heard the refrain that U.S. churches need to liberalize their teachings on sexuality and homosexuality or rapidly decline. The logic behind the argument is simple: more and more Americans are embracing homosexuality and same-sex marriage, including growing numbers of religious Millennials. So long as churches remain the face of opposition to gay marriage, those churches will shrink into irrelevancy when gay marriage (inevitably, we are told) becomes a settled political issue.

These arguments often see church acceptance of homosexuality as a carrot as well as a stick. It isn’t so much that denouncing homosexuality will drive people away from church, but that embracing it will also lead people into church. LGBT individuals and their supporters, many of whom hold a dim view of religion after a decades-long culture war, will reconsider church if denominations remove their restrictions on gay marriage and ordination.

But a number of Christian denominations have already taken significant steps towards liberalizing their stances on homosexuality and marriage, and the evidence so far seems to indicate that affirming homosexuality is hardly a cure for membership woes. On the contrary, every major American church that has taken steps towards liberalization of sexual issues has seen a steep decline in membership.

The Episcopal Church

In 2003, Gene Robinson became the first openly gay, noncelibate man to be consecrated as a bishop of the Episcopal Church. In the wake of his consecration, entire dioceses severed ties with the Episcopal Church, eventually creating the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). But the Episcopal Church continued to liberalize its sexual teachings, lifting a moratorium on any more gay bishops and creating a “blessing ceremony” for gay couples in 2009.

In 2002, the number of baptized U.S. members of the Episcopal Church stood at 2.32 million. By 2012, that number had fallen to 1.89 million, a decline of 18.4 percent. Meanwhile, attendance has fallen even more steeply. Average Sunday attendance in its U.S. churches was 846,000 in 2002, but had fallen 24.4 percent by 2012 to only 640,000. Other signs of congregational liveliness have fallen even further. Baptisms have fallen by 39.6 percent, and marriages have fallen by 44.9 percent.

As for the ACNA? It’s seen its membership rise by 13 percent and its Sunday attendance rise by 16 percent in the past five years. Since 2009, the ACNA has planted 488 new congregations. In 2012, the entire Episcopal Church managed to plant four new churches.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) was formed in 1987, when three Lutheran denominations merged to create the largest Lutheran church in America. For most of its history, gay men and women were permitted to be pastors, so long as they remained celibate. But in a narrow vote at its 2009 Churchwide Assembly, ordination was extended to gay men and women in “committed monogamous relationships.” In addition, the Assembly passed an amendment allowing churches “to recognize, support and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same-gender relationships.”

From ELCA’s formation in 1987 to 2009, the average decrease in membership each year was only 0.62 percent. But after the liberalization of the ELCA’s stance on sexuality, membership declined a whopping 5.95 percent in 2010 and 4.98 percent in 2011. Since 2009, more than 600 congregations abandoned the denomination, with almost two-thirds joining conservative Lutheran denominations like the North American Lutheran Church and Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ.

By the end of 2012, ELCA had lost 12.3 percent of its members in three years—nearly 600,000 people. If the present rate of defections holds steady, ELCA will cease to exist in less than two decades.

The United Church of Christ

The United Church of Christ (UCC) has long had a reputation for unfettered liberalism, sometimes bordering on the radical. In 2008, for example, the pastor of the largest UCC congregations in the country was one Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The UCC’s tendency for pushing traditional boundaries has led to unquestionably positive developments (such as the first African-American pastor as early as 1785) and the unquestionably silly (such as the first hymnal that refuses to call Jesus male). Needless to say, in 2005 UCC became the first U.S. mainline Protestant denomination to support same-sex marriage, and has been an outspoken voice in the gay marriage debate ever since.

While UCC has been bleeding members for decades, its decline rapidly acceleratedafter the gay marriage vote. Since 2005, UCC has lost 250,000 members, a decline of 20.4 percent over seven years. While an average of 39 congregations left UCC annually from 1990 to 2004, more than 350 congregations departed in the following three years. The UCC’s own pension board called the 2000’s decline “the worst decade among 25 reporting Protestant denominations,” and admitted that “…the rate of decline is accelerating.”

2013 marked a particularly grim milestone for the denomination, as membership finally fell below one million. If the post-2005 rate in membership losses doesn’t taper out, the denomination will cease to exist in 30 years.

The Presbyterian Church U.S.A.

The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (PCUSA) was flirting with loosening its sexual standards as early as its 2006 General Assembly, when it voted to allow ordination boards to essentially overlook clergy marriage standards if a candidate “adhere[s] to the essentials of the Reformed faith.” By 2010, the General Assembly had passed an amendment to remove all clerical standards of sexual behavior entirely. This year’s General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to change their Book of Order to redefine marriage as a civil contract between “two people” and to allow ministers to perform same-sex marriages where legal.

Hopefully by now, you can see where this is all headed. In 2006, 2.2 million people were members of PCUSA, a number that dropped 22.4 percent to 1.85 million by 2013. PCUSA’s decline accelerated significantly after approving the ordination of non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy in mid-2011, which led to the creation of an alternative denomination in 2012 called ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. Over 100,000 members left the PCUSA in 2012 alone.

Once again, if post-2006 trends continue, the denomination will cease to exist by 2037.

Meanwhile, in Conservative Churches…

The familiar answer from liberal mainline Christians is to protest that church attendance and religiosity is on the decline across-the-board, not just in denominations that embrace homosexuality. But this excuse fails to account for conservative denominations like the Assemblies of God, which has been consistently and rapidly growing for more than 40 years. Despite much of the hand-wringing over the Catholic Church’s highly visible public advocacy against gay marriage, it has been consistently growing in the United States. Lord knows the Mormons haven’t had any trouble growing. Even theologically conservative denominations that are declining, such as the Southern Baptist Convention, began declining much later and much less drastically than other denominations. The Southern Baptist Convention has only declined by 3 percent since its peak in 2007—an average of less than 1 percent annually—and has actually been adding congregations.

In the end, Christian supporters of gay marriage will likely view its effects on church membership as a side issue. Christians have a responsibility to grow their churches, but also a responsibility to promote what they believe is just in God’s eyes. But for some strange reason, it seems like conservative Christians never have to sacrifice one responsibility to fulfill the other.

  1. Comment by Andrew on August 22, 2014 at 4:35 pm

    On any blog, when the subject of gay “marriage” comes up, the familiar line (and lie) is repeated: taking the traditional view on marriage will shrink the churches – despite the data proving just the opposite. Post some hard data, and the pro-gay crowd will manage to spin it, or suddenly decide that “numbers don’t really matter.”

    The plus side is: the more the liberal spiritual clubs (calling them “churches” doesn’t seem right) promote sexual perversion, the more Christian head for the exits, and toward the entrances of orthodox churches like my own.

  2. Comment by Susanaw on February 5, 2015 at 2:07 pm

    Andrew, what type of church do you go to? I have had such a problem finding a well balanced church, I am trying to research as much as possible. Thanks.

  3. Comment by John Thomson on August 22, 2014 at 5:55 pm

    In discussions of the numerical decline of liberal denominations and the growth of (some) conservative denominations, what gets overlooked are the many churches “under the radar,” the independent nondenominational churches, most of which are growing, and most of which are conservative on sex and family issues. It’s obvious that many Christians who leave the liberal denoms end up in the conservative ones, but many find a home in the nondenom congregations. I wish the ARDA and other religious websites would catch up with the times and start compiling and posting data on these new churches, many of which are the most vital churches in America.

  4. Comment by M Didaskalos on August 23, 2014 at 12:14 pm

    Richard Niebuhr describes the stones liberal Protestantism is offering in place of bread to its adherents: “A God without wrath brings man without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”

  5. Comment by Susanaw on February 5, 2015 at 2:08 pm

    Powerful words and meaning in this statement.

  6. Comment by M Didaskalos on August 23, 2014 at 12:05 pm

    LEAVING BEHIND

    “I do not believe it is as difficult to decide when to leave corrupted religious bodies as those who stay in them often make it appear. Typically, part of the official confession or constitution — to which all members by simple virtue of their membership automatically become party — is altered to oppose the faith at a single meeting or convention or ballot or publication. The point at which that is done — at which a person can no longer as a Christian subscribe to the entirety of the group’s stated beliefs or practice — is the point at which leave must be taken. If it is not, the sea of ambiguity on the conditions of departure immediately becomes bottomless, and no reason to withdraw except the ridiculous “some-further-outrage-or-other-will-be-the-last-straw” is any longer possible.

    “In cases where the noxious change is not formally instituted, it is not much more difficult to make the decision. When it is clear to honest observation that an Alteration of Desolation has become generally tolerated or accepted, it is time to withdraw.”

    — S. M. Hutchens (Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, May/June 2014)

  7. Comment by Susanaw on February 5, 2015 at 2:12 pm

    Had to read that a couple times to absorb it, very deep writing.

  8. Comment by Dave on August 4, 2018 at 11:40 am

    If memory serves (as so often it doesn’t) the quote was an “abomination that causes desolation.”
    In our case perhaps it could be the “altercation that causes desolation.”
    But I get what you were saying

  9. Comment by MarcoPolo on August 23, 2014 at 2:23 pm

    As with Archimedes’ principle of displacement, there will always be fluctuations within any organism, or organization that will either add, or subtract it’s volume/content.

    Nothing new here, just the same old natural laws that happen to everything on earth. Except, that Churches generally ‘think’ of themselves as rock solid and never changing…. and that defies Nature.

  10. Comment by Bruce427 on August 24, 2014 at 3:42 pm

    ** As with Archimedes’ principle of displacement, there will always be
    fluctuations within any organism, or organization. Nothing new here, just the same **

    Hi Marco,

    Not quite…

    It appears that you missed the point/empirical evidence. The churches that are embracing the moral tenets of the lost culture in order to attract the lost culture are not merely experiencing membership “fluctuations,” but are rapidly **accelerating** in loss of membership, loss of attendance, and even loss of whole church bodies/dioceses who are departing to join more Biblical branches of their denominations.

    The true Church (the body of Christ) must not embrace the morals of the lost culture in order to attract them, but must remain faithful to the teachings of Scripture.

    Those fellowships who think they must become like the lost World in order to attract the lost World surely give no credit to the renewing/regenerating/saving work of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit. In essence, they have become Man-centered rather than Christ-centered.

    And a Man-centered “church” saves no one.

    .

  11. Comment by M Didaskalos on August 25, 2014 at 9:09 am

    Any denomination (or related institution like a church college or seminary) that adulterates the Word to please the world soon finds the world an unyielding taskmaster. As one example, the ELCA has discovered that no new nadir of Bible-denying obeisance will ever make its secular overseer say, “That’s enough.” Heresy and apostasy call no timeouts.

    C. R. Wiley, in a Touchstone Magazine book review entitled “Fallen Family,” writes, “. . .We should remember that Christianity has already accounted for [human frailty]. Sinners need forgiveness and realignment with the healthful order of creation. That is what the Atonement does for us. A fundamentally different sort of realignment is occurring in the liberal churches, however, where the doctrines of the faith have been adjusted to bring them into accord with the modern spirit. But political correctness is a merciless spirit, as anyone who has begged for clemency from her can attest. In their attempts to placate her by wringing their hands and purging hymnals of offensive pronouns, liberals have only made themselves ridiculous.”

    Sadder still is that after years of serving the world, the ELCA has become an anti-Moses. Unlike Moses, who “refused to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin,” the ELCA and its institutions now appear to be rather enjoying the itch-scratching “benefits” of servitude under new ownership.

    http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/issue.php?id=178

  12. Comment by Susanaw on February 5, 2015 at 2:19 pm

    Couldn’t have been said better, thanks.

  13. Comment by MarcoPolo on August 25, 2014 at 9:10 am

    That was the most cogent explanation of the dynamic that I have yet to hear, with which, I agree!
    Thank you!

  14. Comment by Susanaw on February 5, 2015 at 2:16 pm

    So sad that the power of the Holy Spirit that regenerates us is lost on the people of these “religious” organizations. Then you have the false word of faith movement that has perverted the use of or understanding of the Holy Spirit and are using the unholy spirit as the counterfeit. It is not encouraging to see what they are doing, and where they are heading, but I know that God is still in control and His remnant are still here and going about His work. So many more lost, seeking Him in the church and finding the enemy there. To make them feel more comfortable.

  15. Comment by John S. on August 25, 2014 at 7:50 am

    I think the better point is; if you make the church like the surrounding culture you will shrink it. Now its about LGBTQ, 60’s & 70’s Sex, before that money/prosperity.

  16. Comment by krehlaw7204 on August 26, 2014 at 6:19 pm

    If I believed that supporting gay marriage was God’s will for the church (which I don’t), then I would support gay marriage regardless of impact on membership. Our positions are based on God’s will, not popular support. I appreciate Alexander Griswold for his paragraph which, essentially, makes that point.

  17. Comment by dott on June 28, 2016 at 9:51 pm

    Update please.

  18. Comment by William C. Hensel on July 28, 2018 at 11:51 am

    Amen. The article and discussion thread came to my attention via a tweet from Maxie Dunnam on July 28, 2018. An update on the matters discussed in Mr. Griswold’s feature would be very helpful.

  19. Comment by diaphone64 on July 29, 2018 at 2:24 pm

    Still waiting for groups like ELCA and PCUSA to explain why the number two is still so important to marriage when male+female isn’t and marriage is just a “partnership”.

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