Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada

Much has been made of the decline of moderate and liberal churches in North America. The prevailing wisdom is that conservative churches, on the other hand, are on the rise. Is this really the case? In a brief article at Ekklesia.co.uk, Martin E. Marty (columnist for the Christian Century, professor and pastor) asks whether the U.S. is following the pattern of Western Europe - a decline in church membership and attendance across all denominations, both liberal and conservative. Both the U.S. and Canada are both generally seen as secular societies. The U.S. in particular, however, has had a much stronger religious 'streak.' Could this now be changing?

According to Marty, decline is real across the theological spectrum, but selective. "Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Assemblies of God, and the Church of God of Cleveland, Tennessee were 'up' a bit or two bits in 2000, remaining the four exceptions in a field of scores of church bodies." Marty cites Dean Kelley's 1972 Why Conservative Churches Are Growing as the beginning of a series of studies that were turned into "prescriptions that became manuals-of-arms in denominational conflicts," leading  to a general counsel of conservativism-for-growth, and bashing of moderate and liberal churches. "There is enough to that counsel for it to be taken seriously," Marty says, "but some cultural trends in America have shown that that strategy for winning wars in denominations has a limited pay-off value in the new America." 

Marty presents three case studies of conservative decline in the U.S.:  the Southern Baptist Convention,  the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). In each case, conservative denominations that have seen consistent growth over the past two to three decades are now seeing their first losses. Although still significant, it seems premature to declare conservative churces in the US to be 'in decline' based on these numbers alone. If these churches are in decline, it is primarily a 'Western' cultural phenomenon, since conservative churches (especially Pentecostals) are still seeing growth across the 'global south.'  

Whatever the case may be for these North American churches, however, Marty adds this needed reminder: "Many 'winning' conservatives in these and other bodies have long rejoiced in the missteps or misfortunes of others. It would be unfortunate if the demeaned moderates and liberals, in a turn-about, indulged in schadenfreude in this round. They are all in the same culture, battling its trends, some perhaps wise enough to get serious, neither boasting or whining."  

Read Marty's full article here:
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/10839