LITTLE ROCK — The Assemblies of God, a denomination born in Arkansas, posted the largest jump in membership among church groups in the newly released 2012 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches. The church topped the 3 million member mark for the first time, but George O. Wood, general superintendent of the Pentecostal group, isn’t satisfied.
“We are seeing growth in a time when other bodies are barely growing or declining, but we’re not proud of that at all,” Wood said. “We wish we were growing faster.”
It’s not that Wood isn’t happy about the growth. He’s grateful but also worried about the future of Christianity in the country.
“We are concerned America is increasingly moving to a post-Christian era and we don’t want that to happen,” he said.
The annual report on denominational trends is based on membership figures from 2010. According to the yearbook, the Assemblies of God grew almost 4 percent that year, its largest increase in membership since 1983. Formed in Hot Springs in 1914, the Assemblies of God ranks ninth among the nation’s largest denominations.
The 80th edition of the yearbook shows a continued decline in mainline Protestant churches with the steepest drop occurring within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Membership for the denomination fell almost 6 percent, from 4.5 million in 2009 to 4.2 million in 2010. The number of churches also declined, from 10,348 to 10,008.
The ELCA isn’t alone. Other mainline churches have also been losing members for years and this year’s report shows a continuation of the downward trend. The United Methodist Church, the nation’s third-largest denomination, was down a little more than 1 percent. The United Church of Christ, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and American Baptist Churches USA also fell. Sharper drops were recorded by the Presbyterian Church USA, down 3.45 percent, and the Episcopal Church, down 2.71 percent.
STATISTICS AREN’T SURPRISING
Eileen Lindner, editor of the yearbook, said the membership statistics aren’t surprising.
“Mainlines continue to decline,” she said. “Part of that is age-driven. They are an olderage cohort than evangelical churches, but it’s important to note that even the Southern Baptist Convention shows a decline in membership.”
Southern Baptists, the nation’s second-largest denomination, had a small drop of 0.15 percent, the fourth consecutive year the yearbook has reported a decline for the evangelical group.
The country’s largest denomination, the Roman Catholic Church, declined by 0.44 percent.
“Many will say that is a mark of the secular tendency of our culture — is America becoming secular,” Lindner said. “There are two ways to address that. One is to say, ‘Yes, it’s true.’ There is hard, consistent evidence that church plays a less central part in American culture, but it’s also true that America is a highly religiously identified culture.”
Other church groups fared better.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grew 1.62 percent to 6,157,238 and Seventh-day Adventists grew 1.61 percent to 1,060,386. Jehovah’s Witnesses also grew by 1.85 percent to 1,184,249.
Jeff Bennett, regional building committee chairman for the western half of Arkansas, said the state has 142 congregations and 96 kingdom halls, the Jehovah’s Witnesses designation for churches. Most kingdom halls are home to more than one congregation and, as they grow, buildings are constructed by volunteers. Four new structures are planned this year, along with four remodeling projects. Nine other buildings are in the design phase.
Bennett said Witnesses’ legwork visiting door to door is the key to their growth, but it’s not about numbers. They evangelize to fulfill what they consider the Lord’s mandate.
“Sharing biblical truths with them, it reaches their heart and they are drawn to worship,” he said.
YOUNGER ORGANIZATIONS
Lindner said the growing churches, particularly the Assemblies of God and Seventhday Adventists, are much younger organizations, which is a factor in their success.
“These are people not in their 80s and 90s but in their 40s and 50s with children and their children having children,” she said. “The other thing is, they have an appeal to people of more diverse racial and ethnic and income backgrounds .... As America becomes more pluralistic, racially and ethnically, churches that appeal to that diversity can be predicted to grow.”
As for the Assemblies of God, Wood attributes the growth to a combination of the supernatural and the natural — the work of the Holy Spirit and the hard work of leaders, ministers and church members planting and revitalizing churches. Last year, the church had a goal to build 365 churches — one a day. They exceeded it by three.
They are also, as the yearbook editor pointed out, a young denomination.
“In the United States, 39 percent [of members] are under 25 and that’s just a terrific number,” Wood said.
Thirty-three percent are ethnic minorities, which Wood said also contributes to the denomination’s growth.
“This has been a real strength to us,” he said. “Our traditional Anglo churches are increasingly responding to the integration that has occurred in their community.”
Wood said the worldwide fellowship has 64 million adherents in 360,000 churches. Their goal for 2020 is 100 million members in 500,000 churches and he thinks they are on pace.
“In one of our earliest declarations, we resolved to do the greatest evangelism the world has ever seen,” he said. “That’s the DNA of the Assemblies of God ... and it continues to this day.”
LOSS IS STAGGERING
The yearbook also includes a report on contributions to churches that shows a $1.2 billion loss of revenue from 2009 to 2010, far more than the $431 million decrease reported in 2009. Lindner said the loss is staggering.
“It dwarfs any other oneyear account of decline,” she said, adding that the yearbook staff will be on alert to see if giving improves. “What we would expect to see is another big drop when we see the 2011 data, and then we would expect to see a leveling off following the pattern of the economy. But another concern is that sometimes losses are unrecoverable.”
The loss translates to an effect on the communities these churches serve, Lindner said.
“When we think of the local church and we think about delayed maintenance, or they didn’t have money to repair a leak in the roof or they stopped having a food pantry ... this tells a story that is not a numerical story but a human story,” Lindner said. “And that’s where I believe the church’s focus ought to be.”
Religion, Pages 14 on 03/31/2012