decline of mainline churches
Study: Attendance hemorrhaging at small and midsize US congregations
By Yonat Shimron — October 14, 2021
(RNS) — The Faith Communities Today survey finds that half of the country’s congregations had 65 or fewer people in attendance on any given weekend, a drop from a median attendance level of 137 people in 2000.
More young adults are leaving religion, but that’s not the whole story, say researchers
By Jana Riess — May 19, 2020
(RNS) — More young adults are leaving organized religion, but there are also some pockets of good news, even for mainline Protestant churches.
Philadelphia Episcopalians explore what happens when church is separated from Sunday
By Caroline Cunningham — June 20, 2019
(RNS) — Rather than focusing on Sunday attendance, the once-shuttered St. Stephen's is invested in being present for the community.
Amid decline, one Lutheran church strives to live up to its namesake’s spirit
By Yonat Shimron — October 16, 2017
CARY, N.C. (RNS) — Christ the King, located in a bedroom community to Raleigh, is pushing forward with a new vision, one that has less to do with Luther's theology and more with the spirit of his reform.
A church closes, but where does its pipe organ go?
By Holly Meyer — May 5, 2017
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A glut of organs up for grabs is in part a consequence of declining church membership across denominations.
Organists declining but still in demand for Easter
By Adelle M. Banks — April 13, 2017
(RNS) One organist had to decline three out of four invitations to play the instrument on Easter Sunday: 'I simply can only sit on one organ bench at a time.'
Martin Marty: Measuring religious intensity
By Martin E. Marty — December 10, 2012
Mainline Protestantism and Catholicism in America rise together, hold steady together, and decline together. The reasons for the decline may vary, from group to group, but few in church life have it easy today. “Decline,” it turns out, is contagious.
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