[SmithL]

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,542,868 members, down 1.96 percent.

Yeah, sure, whatever. I think they're lowballing their losses.

[Gamecock]

agreed.

I am surprised to see the Southern Baptists and LCMS down. The more recent trend has shown conservative (read Gospel preaching) do much better than liberal churches (read social justice types)

[hinckley buzzard]

Whatever else the ELCA is and does, they keep pretty accurate records. Of course, the aggregate numbers are only as good as the sum of the reports of the individual churches. Some of them I wouldn't throw a stick at.

I'm reflecting on the UCC. I grew up in the UCC during the fifties and sixties, in a small village in Ohio of about a thousand people. Probably a good hundred and fifty were UCC church members. Maybe more. Now, The UCC members are nationally, 1 in 300. That means my old church on average would now have three members in it.

What a statement about the viability of political indoctination replacing the Gospel.

[Cronos]

not trying to flame-bait, but why is the LCMS down 1.08%? I was praying and hoping that they would get more adherents escaping from the ELCA.