I received a email this morning from Terasa Cooley, Director for Congregational Life for the UUA, forwarding an email from Harlan Limpert, UUA VP for Ministries & Congregational Support, reporting on growth in the denomination. As you’ll see, “growth” isn’t exactly the correct word since our Association of Congregations has actually declined in four important areas: number of congregations, adult membership, religious education registration, and average Sunday attendance. Here are the “highlights” from the report.
UUA growth highlights from the past year:
- The number of congregations has declined from 1,048 to 1,046 in the past year. Since 2002 the number of congregations has increased from 1,041 to 1,046.
- Adult membership has declined 1,400 from 164,196 to 162,796 in the past year, or 0.9%. This is the second consecutive year of decline.
- Religious education registration has declined 1,175 from 55,846 to 54,671, or 2.1%. This is the fourth consecutive year of decline.
- Average Sunday attendance has declined 1,539 from 102,232 to 100,693, or 0.2%. This is the first year of decline.
National growth highlights from the past year:
- Conservative churches like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh-Day Adventists tend to be increasing in membership (4.37% and 4.31% respectively) while liberal churches like the United Church of Christ tend to be decreasing in membership (-2.83%).
- The direction of membership growth or decline remains stable, meaning churches that have been growing in recent years continue to grow and those that are declining continue to decline.
Note: The chart does not include megachurches, which do not report membership changes to the National Council of Churches.
And for those of you who are more visually inclined, here’s a chart from National Council of Churches Yearbook:
Denomination Growth from 2011 National Council of Churches Yearbook
So, what does this all mean? Simple: I believe we’ve joined our mainline Protestant cousins in an inevitable and perpetual state of decline. And the bottom line is that continuing to “do” church the way we always have is a guaranteed way to hasten that decline. Only those UU congregations that are willing to rethink everything they do (worship, social justice, religious education, etc.) will have a chance of surviving. Those who rethink everything and actually make some significant changes in the way things are done may have a chance of thriving. You can find more of my musings on this topic here and here.
Phil's Little Blog on the Prairie 
17 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 17, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Chris Walton
I continue to think that the numbers from the NCC Yearbook are misleading, since the “growing” denominations use radically different reporting standards than the “declining” denominations. (Some denominations count children; others don’t. Some count converts as members whether or not they retain a congregational affiliation; the UUA doesn’t count active participants in congregations who haven’t formally joined.) That isn’t to deny the drop in members in the denominations that report congregational membership figures, but it is to say that UUs shouldn’t simply compare our rate of decline to, say, the very different numbers behind Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormon claims of growth.
Self-reporting surveys, like the American Religious Identification Survey, show the number of people disaffiliating from Mormonism essentially equal to the number of people converting to Mormonism—a flat rate of growth. ARIS does show increasing self-reported affiliation with Seventh-Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, however, with especially strong growth among immigrants.
March 17, 2011 at 12:54 pm
Phil on the Prairie
Yeah, we’re probably not comparing apples to apples here, Chris. However, I’m more interested in which side Unitarian Universalism shows up on the growth/decline divide. Four years ago we would have been patting ourselves on our collective back because we were showing some growth. Now we’re on the other side with our mainline Protestant cousins. What’s a denomination to do?
March 17, 2011 at 5:15 pm
RalfW
“…inevitable and perpetual state of decline…”
Yikes. I agree that a static, ‘this is what we do’ response will keep us on the decline. I wonder how we’re doing in terms of growth by region?
The things we’re doing in places like Minneapolis, Houston and Portland (and a lot of other places) can, I believe, mean that growth can happen denomination-wide. But it will require significant change in the areas you outline. Change ain’t easy.
I hope your phrase above is a wake-up, not an accurate prognostication.
March 17, 2011 at 8:06 pm
Phil on the Prairie
I’m hoping that districts and regions will be able to buck this trend, but it is going to take some changes in the way we do things. One thing’s for sure: denominations don’t grow unless they start new congregations. We need new Quillen Shinns and Monroe Husbands! (BTW, did you know if you do a Google search for “Monroe Husbands,” you get a list of Marilyn Monroe’s husbands!)
March 17, 2011 at 5:29 pm
Robin Edgar
“Four years ago we would have been patting ourselves on our collective back because we were showing some growth. Now we’re on the other side with our mainline Protestant cousins. What’s a denomination to do?”
How about taking its claimed principles and purposes and other ideals seriously for a change?
And I am still convinced that the anti-Christian sentiment, and broader anti-religious sentiment, that is still found in many UU “churches” is a major contributing factor to UU decline. I have been warning UUs about this for well over a decade now. . .
March 17, 2011 at 7:47 pm
Phil on the Prairie
I think it’s pretty clear that in order for Unitarian Universalism to thrive, we’re going to have to look closely at the values that underlie the very foundations of our religious beliefs and find a way to live them out in the world, both as individuals and as religious communities. Thanks for the comment, Robin.
March 18, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Robin Edgar
You’re welcome Phil.
March 17, 2011 at 10:25 pm
Tom Schade
We have not yet found our voice — A compelling way of testifying that re-orienting your life around liberal religious values — honesty, humility, community, reverence, gratitude, service, openness — will make your life better and help make the world better. Until we know how to persuade people one at a time, we will never persuade many.
March 18, 2011 at 4:17 am
Phil on the Prairie
Agreed, Tom. And the place from which we can “persuade people one at a time” is the local congregation. All of the best resources I’ve found on faith development (which is really about giving people the resources to reorient their lives around the values you mention) emphasize the congregation over district, regional, or denominational structures. Very Unitarian Universalist when you think about it. We are, after all, an Association of Congregations!
March 18, 2011 at 5:27 am
Tom Schade
Actually, Phil, I think that the crucial event for growth is the persuading people to make the decision to re-orient their lives around the values of liberal religion. That comes before they make a commitment to a congregation. The problem is in our preaching and messaging. We are saying “come join our community and together we will change the world.” We should be saying, “Change your life and change the world — our community can help you.” Our preaching now is coaching congregational life; it needs to be directed at the uncommitted person, challenging them to make the values commitments that will change their lives.
March 18, 2011 at 7:54 am
Phil on the Prairie
Good point. Yes, commitment to a congregation should be the result of making a decision to commitment oneself to living out liberal religious values.
March 23, 2011 at 11:11 pm
Mark Erickson
I’d been reading the RSS feed and wow! This is an awesome site.
I came back to this post because I stumbled upon the Methodists’ Rethink Church campaign. It’s not generating much interactive responses, but certainly cost them a lot of money. Check out the videos, if they were persuasive, they would be sending everyone to the nearest megachurch. At least uus haven’t spent much money for the negative growth!
March 24, 2011 at 10:30 am
Phil on the Prairie
Thanks, Mark. I’ll check out the Rethink Church videos. Spending money on negative growth is definitely something to avoid! But as I’ve commented elsewhere, the question becomes, “What’s a denomination to do?” I’m not sure if any mainline Protestant group has come up with a decent answer.
March 28, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Jon
UUism does not offer anything for spiritual seekers to feast upon. Until UUism
becomes a “religion” and not a secular left wing political action society it will fail to grow. There is no there there….what radical faith? What faith period?
My local church by way of example has this offering for the few UU Christians:
“Easter seen through the eyes of Liberation Theology” …..yack!
Where is the One God of historic Unitarianism today? Gone.
March 28, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Phil on the Prairie
I do think the few UU congregations that are growing have found a way to offer spiritual seekers something to sink their teeth into. But that’s definitely a minority.
March 28, 2011 at 12:40 pm
Jon
“…liberal religious values — honesty, humility, community, reverence, gratitude, service, openness — will make your life better and help make the world better. ”
For me, that is a total non-starter. These values are not uniquely religious…other than possibly “reverence” depending on the meaning.
Reverence of what?
Spiritual holes are not filled with such values. The big questions need answering or at least a method(s) for approaching them…be it prayer, meditation, art , etc. If we ignore God, even minimally defined, we are nothing more than a secular charity. Why get out of bed on Sunday for that?
I see nothing that will stop the slow free fall. As the older generations die off UUism will end up like the Shakers…quaint and forgotten.
March 28, 2011 at 3:04 pm
Phil on the Prairie
“Why get out of bed on Sunday for that?” Exactly the question the members of every UU congregation should be asking themselves about what they offer. Thanks for the comment, Jon.