One has to look at the losses experienced by the ELCA since 1988 to understand the extent of people leaving. However the statistics printed below from the ELCA's own web site do not show the full extent of the losses they have suffered. Many congregations still count members on their rosters who left the ELCA long ago. And the information below does not reflect the losses for 2011.
ELCA Membership by Year
Statistics compiled by the ELCA Office of the Secretary
Year
Members Change % Congregations Change %
1987 5,288,048 11,133
1988 5,251,534 -36,514 -0.69% 11,120 -13 -0.12%
1989 5,238,798 -12,736 -0.24% 11,067 -53 -0.48%
1990 5,240,739 +1,941 0.04% 11,087 +20 0.18%
1991 5,245,177 +4,438 0.08% 11,074 -13 -0.12%
1992 5,234,568 -10,609 -0.20% 11,055 -19 -0.17%
1993 5,212,785 -21,783 -0.42% 11,023 -32 -0.29%
1994 5,199,048 -13,737 -0.26% 10,973 -50 -0.45%
1995 5,190,489 -8,559 -0.16% 10,955 -18 -0.16%
1996 5,187,363 -3,126 -0.06% 10,936 -19 -0.17%
1997 5,185,055 -2,308 -0.04% 10,889 -47 -0.43%
1998 5,178,225 -6,830 -0.13% 10,862 -27 -0.25%
1999 5,149,668 -28,557 -0.55% 10,851 -11 -0.10%
2000 5,125,919 -23,749 -0.46% 10,816 -35 -0.32%
2001 5,099,877 -26,042 -0.51% 10,766 -50 -0.46%
2002* 5,038,006 -61,871 -1.21% 10,721 -45 -0.42%
2003 4,984,925 -53,081 -1.05% 10,657 -64 -0.60%
2004 4,930,429 -54,496 -1.09% 10,585 -72 -0.68%
2005 4,850,776 -79,653 -1.62% 10,549 -36 -0.34%
2006 4,774,203 -76,573 -1.58% 10,470 -79 -0.75%
2007 4,709,956 -64,247 -1.34% 10,448 -22 -0.21%
2008 4,633,887 -76,069 -1.61% 10,396 -52 -0.49%
2009 4,543,037 -90,850 -1.99% 10,348 -48 -0.46%
2010 4,274,855 -268.182 -5.90% 9,995 -353 3.41%
* Only congregations existing on December 31 are included in the overall membership statistics. Prior to 2002, all congregations that existed during the course of the previous year were included.
Well this certainly shows how upset many Lutheran's are about the August 2009 CWA policy changes. Still, kind of shocking to see it in black and white.
ReplyDelete1988-2001 lost 11,700 members per year
ReplyDelete2001-2008 lost 66,600 members per year (six-fold increase)
2009 lost 91,000 members
2010 lost 268,000 members
Hanson's remarks at CWA 2011:
"I have come to this Churchwide Assembly more hopeful and grateful for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America than I have ever been.”
“We are a church clear about who we are and about our engagement in God’s mission for the life of the world.”
We were very active ELCA members, very active. My wife taught sunday school and I served a variety of functions, including stewardship chairman. I assisted in building campaigns that raised a million dollars. For what? I told people that they should contribute to the Lord's work here. Why? Well, so that the ELCA could become another sodomite sect. There will be no revival in the Lutheran Church. It will dwindle and dissolve; it is salt that it no longer salty; fit only for being thrown out and trampled under foot. We left a few weeks after the ELCA recommended sodomite parishioners and pastors.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the interesting statistics! Since it's beginning in 1987 the ELCA has lost roughly one out of every five of its original members.
ReplyDeleteThe long-term issues for the ELCA have nothing to do with current social issues. The organization is losing because, unlike Lutheran churches in Asia & Africa (which are growing), American Lutheranism is not a missionary movement, but an immigrant movement. The immigrant cultures American Lutheran churches served are now irrelevant. The ELCA, like LCMS, is in denial of the fact that it is likewise irrelevant. Liberals & conservatives point fingers at each other ...like re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. That only speeds the losses, because the bickering is very unpleasant for members and distracting from the Gospel.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the last comment contains much truth, I also want to add the perspective that when it came to European immigration, only relatively small percentages of these nationalities became Lutheran in America, even if "Lutheran" was the state church in the homeland. Only about 30 percent of Norwegians became Lutheran over here, about 16 percent of Swedes, and about 9 percent of Danes. Many of these people, though officially Lutheran in the homeland, were really quite ambivalent about religious questions. So, they became nothing or joined different denominations that were more prevalent in their particular areas. These numbers seem small, but they would have been even smaller were it not for missionary pastors. For many years, Lutherans in this country were very active in mission and did so well and effectively. Granted, this mission work served the immigration, but the simple fact that immigration existed does not account for all of the people who found their way into Lutheran churches. For more detail, see my doctoral advisor Mark Granquist's article "Exploding the Myth of the Boat" in one of the editions of Lutheran Forum last year. Tom Jacobson
ReplyDeleteMy family (along with half the congregation) left an ELCA church in 2009 because it refused to accept the Bible as true. Then the LCMC church which splintered from that church banned us...ironically, for claiming the Bible is true! Perhaps the underlying problem is not so much organizational structures as it is the extreme lack of Lutherans who actually understand (or have even read) the Bible they claim to follow.
ReplyDeleteHmm. David, would you post similar statistics for your own denomination? How do your numbers compare to the ELCA?
ReplyDelete