If its current rate of decline continues, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination could lose half its membership over the next 10 years, according to an Institute on Religion and Democracy blog post by Jeffrey Walton.
Numbers provided by the DOC’s Office of General Minister and President show that total membership declined 7 percent from 2017 to 2018, from about 411,000 to around 382,248. Likewise, average worship attendance declined 11 percent, from 140,000 to 124,000, Walton wrote on IRD’s blog, Juicy Ecumenism. Also, baptisms dropped from 4,344 to 3,782, down 13 percent, while other additions (including transfers in) declined 6.4 percent, from 7,441 to 6,969.
Walton
said the Disciples—led by “denominational officials [who] strongly embrace
social justice causes”—likely were the fastest-declining major U.S.-based church
last year.
Walton
acknowledged that the denomination’s switch to an online reporting format led a
smaller number of congregations to report their attendance figures.
“A universalist theology appears to be sapping the evangelistic vigor of clergy [among the Disciples],” Walton told the Christian Post. He cited research that indicates the denomination’s clergy is more liberal than the overall membership.
“On
a more anecdotal level, I’m hearing from Disciples members who are tired of
political lectures in general from their clergy during Sunday worship services.
. . . They’d like to hear the gospel preached, but their clergy are more
focused upon social witness and, in the words of one Disciples’ congregant,
‘milquetoast sermons.’”
The
Disciples and two other church groups trace their roots back to the Restoration
Movement forged by Barton W. Stone, Alexander Campbell, and others in the early
1800s. The noninstrumental churches of Christ peeled off in 1906 (they remain
nondenominational), and the Disciples broke away in the 1960s (the Disciples
became a denomination in 1968). That left the nondenominational Christian
churches and churches of Christ, the main constituency of Christian Standard.
If the “Disciples of Christ” would focus on actually making disciples (instead of pursuing left-wing beliefs and causes), they would grow, not decline.
John, l think the decline can’t be attributed to a single cause (not that I’m opposed to preaching the gospel!)
But there’s a social backdrop of massive decline in church attendance across the board.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/248837/church-membership-down-sharply-past-two-decades.aspx