Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches 2012

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Overview

The Yearbook of American&Canadian Churches has been published continuously since 1916 and contains information about denominations, churches, clergy, seminaries, and other religious organizations in the United States and Canada. The Yearbook of American&Canadian Churches is the single best, most complete and accurate compilation of essential information about religious organizations in North America.

The Yearbook features:

statistics of church membership and finances
descriptions of denominations
listings of denominations by families
names, postal and e-mail addresses of church leaders, denominational headquarters, and regional offices, national and regional ecumenical organizations
listings of theological schools and Bible colleges
statistics of seminary enrollment
listings of religious periodicals
calendar of religious holidays and festivals
listings of sources of religion-related research
listings of church archives
extensive indexes (including an index of names)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426756108
Publisher:	Abingdon Press
Publication date:	04/01/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Clare J. Chapman, Deputy General Secretary and Chief Operating Officer, 212-870-3366, is contact person for our use of the NRSV bible translation.

Read an Excerpt

Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches 2012

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By Eileen W. Lindner

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2012 Eileen W. Lindner
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4267-5610-8

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CHAPTER 1

PERSPECTIVES ON AMERICA'S RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE

Trends & Developments, 2011

Methodological Considerations

The Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches reports annually on data gathered from national religious bodies that reflect the religious affiliations and financial giving patterns of hundreds of millions of Americans. However, these data generally represent information gathered two calendar years prior to the year of publication. For instance, data reported in this 2012 edition of the Yearbook reflects information for 2010 that was collected by national church structures in 2011 and reported to the Yearbook at the end of 2011 for publication in this 2012 Yearbook. This "lag time" often leads our readers to ask if such data is out of date by the time it is printed. In response we would give a qualified "no." Massive national agencies such as the churches reporting through the Yearbook move in their institutional lives at nearly imperceptible rates of speed. Moreover, given the vast size and complexity of such diverse organizations, partial data reported more frequently might well have the unintended effect of conveying a sense of "trend" to momentary or regionally isolated patterns of reporting, affiliation and/or financial giving. Now in the 80th edition, the Yearbook believes that an annual review of data continues to provide an appropriate interval for tracking the changes in institutional patterns.

No single standard for data collection exists across the variety of ecclesiastical structures reported in the Yearbook. Moreover, the definitions of membership and related terms differ widely from one church structure to another. This lack of universal definition and collection methodology has frequently led to questions about the validity and reliability of self-reported data. Recognizing the limitations of the data reported herein, we continue to have confidence in the overall value of trends and other findings based on these figures and this methodology. While church data collection and analytical practices differ across various institutional and organizational margins, they tend to be remarkably consistent within specific organizations over time. (Where we are made aware of changes in a particular church's reporting methods, we will note them for the reader.) This consistency within organizations brings a greater degree of confidence to the relative data of a given church over time. For the same reason the relative size of one church to another as reported here, we believe, provides an accurate picture even while lacking a degree of absolute precision of membership statistics, particularly over time. Thus, we believe that the Southern Baptist Convention is roughly twice the size of the United Methodist Church, for example, and that changes relative to each other over several years are probably an accurate reflection of actual membership trends. Moreover, these data are the most exacting figures presently available, and thus serve as the national standard.

The first eight decades of record keeping represented by the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches is contained on a comprehensive Historic Archive on CD-ROM (which contains membership and financial data from 1916–1999). This CD provides a longitudinal backdrop for the analysis that follows. Only through such a longitudinal study of growth and decline in membership are we able to capture and analyze the emerging patterns. Our annual trends analysis should be regarded as a snapshot taken at a discrete moment in history. The meaning of the figures within that snapshot will best be given definition by the larger and longer context of which they are a part.

The reader is invited to utilize both the current edition and the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches' historic CD to test and amplify the analysis that follows. To obtain the Historic Archive on CD-ROM call [phone].

Table 1 Longitudinal Inclusive Membership

This Table represents a longitudinal view of aggregated membership totals for all churches reporting to the Yearbook. These data do not reflect the entirety of national church membership since some churches either do not gather such data, or do not report them to the Yearbook. These figures moreover do not include membership of independent congregations including megachurches. Substantial numbers of church members, therefore, are not accounted for in nationally-gathered membership data. With almost 160 million adherents, the churches collectively continue to maintain a substantial organizational and institutional presence within the United States. Despite this institutional constancy this year's figure reflects a small decline in reported membership of 164,407 or -0.1%, but suggests a confirmation of a trend in the aggregate to fewer members.

Table 2 U.S Membership Church Ranking

This table allows comparison in size as determined by membership of the largest twenty-five churches in the nation. Dwarfing any single other church is the Catholic Church, reporting over 68.2 million adherents. The Southern Baptist Convention, with 16 million members is the largest Protestant denomination and is more than twice the size of the third ranked United Methodist Church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints is ranked 4th with 6 million members. With the exception of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese which is ranked 17th, and the Jehovah's Witnesses which is ranked 20th, the remainder of the top 25 are Protestant Churches.

The patterns of affiliation reflected in this table offer a numerical view and summary of American church history. Protestantism has, since the founding of the republic and until the present moment, enjoyed cultural hegemony accompanied throughout by a consistent substantial Catholic presence.

Four of the twenty-five largest churches are Pentecostal in belief and practice. Strong figures from the Assemblies of God, and a big jump in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (which reflects fours years of growth from last report in 2006), balanced against relatively modest losses from the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), might suggest a continuing increase in total numbers of adherents to Pentecostal groups. It is difficult to conclude, however, that a broad trend in Pentecostal groups is under way from this table since the largest Pentecostal church in this ranking has not reported since 1991. The four largest Pentecostal churches are: The Church of God in Christ, Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., and the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)

The last column in Table 2 presents increases (decreases) as a percentage change from the 79th Edition's reported membership figures. As the figures indicate, the direction of membership (growth or decline) remains very stable. That is, most churches which have been increasing in membership in recent years have continued to grow and likewise, those churches which have been declining in membership in recent years have continued to decline in membership.

Among the churches reporting increases in membership the largest single-year increase reported was 3.99% by the Assemblies of God, which has reported relatively more modest growth rates in recent years. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continued a steady growth pattern, posting a solid 1.62% gain. Seventh Day Adventists also reported continued growth at 1.61%. The largest increase in this table of the 25 biggest groups was 20% reported by the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., which increased its membership by 20% reflecting 4 years growth since last report in 2006. The National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. also reported a large, albeit multi-year increase of 3.95%, having last reported figures for 2004.

Among the churches reporting a decline in membership, two large churches, the Catholic Church (-0.44%), and the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) (-0.21%), reflect a single year reversal from increases to decline. Of the other groups reporting declines, the four biggest declines were reported by mainline protestant denominations. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (-5.90%) shows an acceleration of the rate of decline. The second fastest decline was reported by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at -3.42%. The third and fourth fastest decliners were The Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ, reporting -2.71% and -2.02% respectively. Rounding out the list of decliners are the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (-1.45%), The United Methodist Church (-1.22%), the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. (-0.19%), and the Southern Baptist Convention (-0.15%).

In terms of ranking, the 14 biggest groups maintained their places in the order, while the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World jumped from 17th place to 15th place. The Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) rose to 21st largest, and the Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, as well the Seventh Day Adventist Church each rose one place in the ranking, to 22nd and 23rd respectively. The most significant drop in ranking was a move from 21st to 24th by the United Church of Christ.

Further discussion of these patterns is found in relation to Table 3 reported below. It should be noted that in the context of overall declining membership in the broadest aggregate in Table 1, all five mainline protestant denominations in this Table 2 are reporting declining membership. In the last quarter century there has been much analysis and debate concerning the decline of "mainline" Protestantism. Despite the pattern of membership decline which predominates among these churches and in the aggregate, this ranking illustrates a continuing significant presence of mainline Protestantism in the American religious landscape. Of the top ten largest churches three are mainline protestant (The United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Presbyterian Church U.S.A.). In the top twenty-five churches, six are mainline protestant. In addition to the three noted above the mainline churches in the top twenty five largest churches include: American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., The Episcopal Church, and the United Church of Christ.

The top fifteen churches, those with membership exceeding 1.5 million members, are reflective of the constancy of the Historic Black Churches. Five of the fifteen largest churches (The Church of God in Christ, National Baptist Convention USA Inc., National Baptist Convention of America Inc., African Methodist Episcopal Church, National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church) are predominately African American churches. This of course is reflective of the historic and continuing strength of the church within the African American community.

Table 3 Patterns of Membership Gains and Losses

Table 3 offers longitudinal data on rate of growth or loss of church membership of a selected group of large churches for four years, 2007-2010.

The large churches reporting growth measured as a percentage of membership are: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1.62%), and the Assemblies of God (3.99%). Each of these churches report a steady trend of membership growth. Among the seven churches reporting a decline in membership, only one has reported any year- over-year growth since 2007, while four report faster rates of decline over the previous year (The United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Evangelical Lutheran Church, and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) and two churches (The United Methodist Church, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) report an accelerated rate of decline in every successive year reflected in this reporting period. Some will wish to argue that the overall pattern of declining membership and sustained decline is evidence of an increasing secularization of American postmodern society. The finding reported for Table 1 (above) concerning an overall decline of -0.2% of membership offers further support for such a conclusion. Yet, caution in drawing such a conclusion is warranted. American society as whole has not experienced the kind and rate of secularization so clearly demonstrated during the last quarter century in Western Europe. Indeed, American church membership trends have defied gravity particularly when the Pentecostal experience is included. Alternative explanations for slowed membership growth are offered in this edition's focus chapter on the religious participation patterns of the Millennial Generation. These shifts in the ways young adults identify spiritually and relate to institutional religion must be carefully considered during the next few years if we are to make sense of the patterns which are now emerging.

Several factors will need to be weighed afresh including the very centrality of the concept of church membership itself. For the age cohorts known as Gen X'ers and Millennials (people now in their 30s and 20s respectively) formal membership may lie outside of their hopes and expectations for their church relationships. For both of these age cohorts membership and commitment to institutions is no longer perceived as a mark of maturity or assumption of generational responsibility. Membership is sometimes perceived as an unnecessary and even undesirable exercise in over- institutionalization. Hence, for some young adults, church attendance, participation in fellowship or mission activities and even financial support of a local congregation does not translate into a desire to formally "join" and be listed among those in membership. Several other factors are at play, including diminished denominational structures and authority, which in turn, produce less complete membership reports, and emerging patterns of affiliation with independent congregations whose membership is not aggregated and reported, must be further explored in assessing overall decline in church membership.

Table 4 Financial Trends

Second only to the interest in membership trends is the interest of media and the church world alike in the financial trends reported in the Yearbook. While not all churches report their financial information to the Yearbook, 63 churches have provided full data for this 2012 edition providing an important glimpse into United States church giving. Over $34 billion dollars are accounted for in the reports of these churches and this is, of course, but a portion of the whole of church giving.

The financial reporting for this 2012 Yearbook is based on the financial income reports of 63 churches reporting essential figures. The records of those reporting churches are detailed in Table 4. The almost 45 million inclusive members contributed a total of almost $29 billion, marking a decrease in the total amount of income to the churches by $1.2 billion. This enormous loss of revenue dwarfs the $431 million decrease in giving reported last year and provides clear evidence of the impact of the deepening economic crises in the reporting period. All categories of Financial information declined: Total Giving, Giving to Congregations, and Giving for Benevolence.

Given that these figures reflect only a sample of churches, and that the number of churches reporting this year is reduced from 65 to 63, it is particularly useful to view this decrease in its per capita terms. The $763 contributed per person is a decrease of about $17 per person from the previous year. This 2.2 % decrease in per capita giving took place in the context of ongoing high unemployment and a protracted economic downturn. Yet it must be remembered that many individuals are contributing to parishes with a declining number of members. In such settings an increase in giving would be required to offset the financial loss associated with membership decline.

Benevolence giving for 2010 in our sample of United States churches is consistent with the last report and over several years, at 15%, but remains at the low end in the range of benevolent giving over the longer period of the last decade. A decline of -2.20% in the total funds contributed to congregations per capita was accompanied by a relatively lower decrease in per capita giving toward benevolences (-1.39%.) Overall, less total funding is available to support church-sponsored day care, soup kitchens, emergency help to persons with medical problems, or transportation to the elderly, even as the material need increases. In the midst of economic distress such decreases in benevolent giving are visited upon those least able to accommodate them. However, this year's reporting suggests that support for charitable purposes is not as adversely affected as the other parts of congregation's budgets: denominational support, buildings, salaries, etc.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches 2012 by Eileen W. Lindner. Copyright © 2012 Eileen W. Lindner. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Editor's Preface,
I PERSPECTIVES ON AMERICA'S RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE Trends & Developments, 2010,
II DIRECTORIES,
III STATISTICAL SECTION,
IV A CALENDAR FOR CHURCH USE,
V INDEXES,
Organizations,
Individuals,