Church membership

[Shoku]

Here is an interesting article. Ans yes, it is copy paste for your convenience:

By Brittani Hamm
Religion News Service

Jehovah's Witnesses are the fastest-growing church body in the U.S. and
Canada, now with more than 1 million members, according to new figures that
track church membership in the U.S. and Canada.

Although Jehovah's Witnesses ranked 24th on the list of 25 largest churches,
they reported the largest growth rate -- 2.25 percent -- of all churches.
The badly divided Episcopal Church, meanwhile, reported the largest drop, at
4.15 percent.

The 2008 Yearbook of Canadian and American Churches, produced by the New
York-based National Council of Churches, recorded growth trends in 224
national church bodies, with a combined membership of 147 million Americans.

The 2008 Yearbook is based on self-reported membership figures for 2006, the
most recent year available.

The Roman Catholic Church, with 67.5 million members, remains the largest
U.S. church body, with a 2006 increase of 0.87 percent. The second largest
church, the Southern Baptist Convention (16.3 million) has more than twice
the number of members as the United Methodist Church, the third largest,
which documented 7.9 million U.S. members.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at 5.7 million U.S. members
(1.56 percent increase) and the Church of God in Christ, with a steady 5.5
million, round out the top five.

Only the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Catholic Church, Southern Baptists,
Mormons, the Assemblies of God (2.8 million) and the African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church (1.4 million) reported increases; all others either
posted declines or flat membership from 2005.

Historically African-American churches make up six of the 15 largest
churches, with a three-way tie for the No. 11 spot among the National
Missionary Baptist Convention of America, Progressive National Baptist
Convention Inc., and African Methodist Episcopal Church -- each having 2.5
million members.

Several historically black churches, such as the 5 million-member National
Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., have reported the same figures for several
years running. The Rev. Eileen W. Lindner, who produces the annual Yearbook,
explained that many black denominations \"estimate\" the number of people in
the pews.

\"They aggregate the whole of their members because many of their
congregations are dually affiliated\" with multiple denominations, Lindner
said. \"The accuracy doesn't come from the count, but from the year-to-year
census or estimations.\"

The 2008 Yearbook also tracks the time and resources spent by churches on
responding to health care needs, and financial figures that show an increase
in per-capita financial giving by 65 churches that reported figures. The
report showed an average increase of $28.47 given per member over the past
year.

The Yearbook also reported a decline in Canadian and African-American
seminary enrollment. African-American enrollment in seminaries has declined
6.75 percent, but there has been an increase in part-time enrollment in both
the U.S. and Canada.

According to the Yearbook, the 10 largest church bodies in the United States
are:

-- The Catholic Church (67.5 million)

-- The Southern Baptist Convention (16.3 million)

-- The United Methodist Church (7.9 million)

-- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (5.7 million)

-- The Church of God in Christ (5.5 million)

-- National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (5 million)

-- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (4.7 million)

-- National Baptist Convention of America (3.5 million)

-- Presbyterian Church (USA) (3 million)

-- Assemblies of God (2.8 million)

http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2008/02/ ... stgrow.php

[Testiculese]

Several have been declining of late. Interesting indeed!

(I thought Catholicism was the worst, why does it have the highest membership?)

[TIGERassault]

(I thought Catholicism was the worst, why does it have the highest membership?)

If you heard it was the worst, then you heard wrong.

[Testiculese]

I've heard the most complaints about it. Unending, vicious guilt trips and drawn out, pointless rituals (like Lent, eating some bread, etc). Might be better than the Baptist burn-in-hell-you-are-all-diseased attitude, but I'm not sure...

[TIGERassault]

I've heard the most complaints about it.

I'm pretty sure that's because it's the only religion there is to complain about! I mean, it's over four times as big as the second-biggest church after it.

Unending, vicious guilt trips and drawn out, pointless rituals (like Lent, eating some bread, etc).

People like that stuff.

[Foil]

Unending, vicious guilt trips and drawn out, pointless rituals (like Lent, eating some bread, etc).

People like that stuff.

It can be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on how it's done.

From the church background I grew up in, I used to think that almost all church rituals (like the observance of Lent, etc.) were just dead meaningless tradition. And oftentimes that's the case.

However, when my favorite pastor in the world started integrating some of the traditional observances from the Christian seasons (Lent, Advent, the various days of the Easter season, etc.) with his messages, I began to see some real meaning and value in them.

So, whether those traditions are good or bad depend quite a bit on how they're used.

[WillyP]

Several have been declining of late. Interesting indeed!

(I thought Catholicism was the worst, why does it have the highest membership?)

I think the Catholic church counts anyone who's parents had them baptised (at birth) as a Catholic, whether you go to church or not.

[roid]

The figures in this article are from 2006, but 2007 was an even BETTER year for the JWs with a 3.1% increase WORLDWIDE (not just USA)! I'm not sure why the increase. And i'd have to track down the 2006 figures to see USA's increase (it may not have been good, generally internet access nations have poor growth for JWs)
http://www.jw-media.org/people/statistics.htm <-- an official JW page btw

you can use archive.org on that page to see the Global stats, and broken down by country - for each year:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www ... istics.htm - Global Stats
http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.watcht ... report.htm - Country by Country. (oddly 2006 data is missing)
You'll have to copypaste those entire urls, the stars muck it up.


The article says a 2.25% increase from 2005-2006 in USA. But worldwide it was only a 1.6% increase, only 0.4% if you factor population growth. 2005 was a terrible year for JWs - worldwide they almost went backwards (in USA they probabaly DID go backwards - but it would have been offset by increases in 3rd world countries).

In every country with widespread internet access, the ranks of Jehovah's Witnesses are dropping harshly. It's barely above the 1.2% population growth rate*.

Information is their worst enemy, i remember them actively discouraging researching their religion online from anything other than their official websites (lol). Pretty funny for a religion that calls itself "The Truth".

The REAL Truth stands up to critisism, and does not fear questioning.


from http://www.jwfacts.com/index_files/statistics.htm

This shows global yearly increases in JW numbers. Note the low in 2005 (no-where to go but up eh? - perhaps influencing the USA increase in 2006 as reported in OP) and the very large increase in 2007 as i mentioned in the first paragraph of this post.

please note: the graph shows global figures, the article talks just about USA figures. Counter to first impressions, the global figures are generally better than USA figures, which as an internet access country are generally poor.

Only the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Catholic Church, Southern Baptists, Mormons, the Assemblies of God (2.8 million) and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (1.4 million) reported increases; all others either posted declines or flat membership from 2005.

That is interesting. I imagine this recent growth is due to polarisation. After i was a JW, i didn't want to be anything else - i became an athiest. It was JWs or nothing, it was polarising.
I imagine that people, as they try and fail to justify their beliefs in less extreme religions, are searching for something more concrete. They are either leaving religion entirely, or they are moving into religions that offer a more robust hardliner viewpoint. So i imagine that JWs are absorbing new members that are leaving less extreme religions as part of the general drop in religion on a whole. (George W Bush, and the internet that allows us to talk about these things, have been a terrible blow to religion as of late IHMO)

* Keep this in mind: You have to factor in the population growth rate into these figures. A religion with a flat membership is actually loosing members from familys, because more new members are born than die - to have a flat rate means that members (mostly children) are actually leaving. To be gaining no new members, and only gaining members as they are born into church familys, a religion would have to have to be growing at 1.2%. It's like inflation, gotta keep up.

Something else to keep in mind is that it's self-reported figures. The Roman Catholic's HUGE amount of reported members - i wonder if they are simply counting everyone who was ever baptised, minus deaths. Various churches would have different ways of self reporting.


The comments below on that article are interesting. I recognise some big names such as Danny Haszard and Brenda Lee.

[Jeff250]

The statistics can favor smaller religions. If I've started my own religion and recruit one other person, then I've seen a 100% increase.

[Zuruck]

Where is Westboro Baptist Church in all that?

[Grendel]

Or the Relevant Church ?

[roid]

The statistics can favor smaller religions. If I've started my own religion and recruit one other person, then I've seen a 100% increase.

i think they only counted "mainstream" religions. They probably needed more than a certain amount of members.

You are right - it's the fringe religions that always have the biggest growth.

[dissent]

It can be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on how it's done.

From the church background I grew up in, I used to think that almost all church rituals (like the observance of Lent, etc.) were just dead meaningless tradition. And oftentimes that's the case.

However, when my favorite pastor in the world started integrating some of the traditional observances from the Christian seasons (Lent, Advent, the various days of the Easter season, etc.) with his messages, I began to see some real meaning and value in them.

So, whether those traditions are good or bad depend quite a bit on how they're used.

Yeah, I find if you don't engage your intellect with your ritual observance, then it's no effort in - boredom out. To nobody's surprise really. To reap the value of the investment, you have to invest something of real value up front. Many of the rituals are some of the most emotionally satisfying parts of Catholicism for me.