Only 5 of the 25 Largest US Christian Churches report Membership Growth in 2010 (high school, Mennonites)
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Total church membership reported in the 2011 Yearbook is 145,838,339 members, down 1.05 percent over 2010.
The top 25 churches reported in the 2011 Yearbook are in order of size:
1. The Catholic Church, 68,503,456 members, up .57 percent.
2. Southern Baptist Convention,16,160,088 members, down.42 percent.
3. The United Methodist Church, 7,774,931 members, down1.01 percent.
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6,058,907 members, up 1.42 percent.
5. The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members, no membership updates reported.
6. National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc, 5,000,000 members, no membership updates reported.
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,542,868 members, down1.96 percent.
8. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., 3,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.
9. Assemblies of God, 2,914,669 members, up .52 percent.
10. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 2,770,730 members, down 2.61 percent.
11. African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2,500,000 members, no membership updates reported. 11. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, 2,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.
13. The Lutheran Church-- Missouri Synod (LCMS), 2,312,111 members, down 1.08 percent.
14. The Episcopal Church, 2,006,343 members, down 2.48 percent.
15. Churches of Christ, 1,639,495 members, no membership updates reported.
16. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 1,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.
17. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., 1,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.
18. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1,400,000 members, members, no membership updates reported.
19. American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., 1,310,505 members, down 1.55 percent. 20. Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1,162,686 members, up 4.37 percent.
21. United Church of Christ, 1,080,199 members, down 2.83 percent.
22. Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), 1,076,254 members, up .38 percent.
23. Christian Churches and Churches of Christ , 1,071,616 members, no membership updates reported.
24. Seventh-Day Adventist Church. 1,043,606 members, up 4.31 percent.
25. Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. 1,010,000 members, down 59.60 percent (due in part to a new methodology of counting members).
1. The Catholic Church, 68,503,456 members, up .57 percent.
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6,058,907 members, up 1.42 percent.
9. Assemblies of God, 2,914,669 members, up .52 percent. 20. Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1,162,686 members, up 4.37 percent.
24. Seventh-Day Adventist Church. 1,043,606 members, up 4.31 percent.
Looks like three of the five churches that grew are often considered acceptable targets of slander.
Wow, I had no idea some of the individual Protestant churches were so small, there's so many in this country and combined they have a good lead on more followers than Catholics, but I thought it was more split between a few larger churches.
Quote:
Originally Posted by costello_musicman
It's that Catholic no birth control keeping the numbers up!
It depends, most of the Catholics I've known don't take that too seriously, and that's not to say they don't take the religion seriously, it's just a different kind of issue in the church. Out of my entire Confirmation class lots of kids took it all pretty seriously, more than half, but I could name like only two kids who took the no birth control thing seriously.
It's that Catholic no birth control keeping the numbers up!
I doubt it. Even in Malta, which is possibly the most Catholic nation in the modern world (abortion is illegal without exception and I believe they're only now thinking of allowing divorce), something like 80% of the population uses birth control.
I mean as a Catholic I'd like to think it's faithfulness to Church teaching and maybe conversions, but in reality it's almost certainly immigration. Mexico is much more Protestant and secular than it used to be, but it's still a majority Catholic nation last I checked. So that's adding plenty of Catholics. Also the Philippines is highly Catholic and I think Vietnamese immigrants might still be more Catholic than the Vietnamese who stay home. Or at least that would make sense as Catholics, Mennonites, and a couple others have often had difficult relations with the Vietnamese Communist Party. (Like China Vietnam's economically changing, but I'm pretty sure they're still ran by "The Party.") Southeast Asians are less numerically significant than Hispanics, but I think I read they're overrepresented among the priesthood. I live in a small 90%+ white town in the Plains, but my last priest was from Burma.
Mormon growth I think would be more a mixture of high birth-rates and conversion. Although there is some Mormon immigration to the US, I'm thinking that might be less of a factor than it would be for Pentecostals even. Mormonism, I think I read, doesn't actually forbid birth control. However Mormons place a high value on family and as I recall Mormons believe in "pre-existence" so value allowing the souls of the not-yet-conceived to have a chance at this world.
The Roman Catholic church uses a very different methodology. They include anyone who was ever baptised Catholic as an infant, this explains their inflated numbers.
Protestant churches by contrast only count current active members of congregations.
I assume #23 is some kind of new name for the "Disciples of Christ" ?
The Roman Catholic church uses a very different methodology. They include anyone who was ever baptised Catholic as an infant, this explains their inflated numbers.
Protestant churches by contrast only count current active members of congregations.
I assume #23 is some kind of new name for the "Disciples of Christ" ?
Actually I'm pretty sure they use the same method as thearda.com The Association of Religious Data Archives. The numbers are about the same. Their method kinda balances it out between denominations that count members differently because they count all adherents.
Quote:
What is the difference between adherents and members?
Members include only those who are designated as “full members” by the congregation. Congregational "adherents" include all full members, their children, and others who regularly attend services or participate in the congregation. When religious groups reported only adult membership, the following formula was used to derive the number of adherents: The total county population was divided by the total county population less children 13 years and under (derived from census), and the resulting figure was multiplied by the confirmed members. Using adherents allows for more meaningful comparisons between groups that count children as members (e.g., Catholics) and those that don't (e.g. Baptists).
So I'd say the numbers are pretty comparable. A lot of Protestant denominations count inactive members on their rolls. My brother is still a member of the local Baptist church even though he only went one time in high school and decided to join for whatever reason. A lot of Catholic churches dont count people as members until they actually register with the parish. So they could be baptized in another parish or country but they dont count as a member of the parish that they go to now.
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