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'Non-mainline' Protestant churches gaining membership in United States
by Chris Herlinger
Ecumenical News International
4/2/2006
NEW YORK - Pentecostal and so-called "non-mainline" Protestant denominations are continuing to grow in the United States while mainstream churches lose membership, according to the latest annual figures from the National Council of Churches (NCC).
The largest U.S. Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, showed a decline in membership while the Roman Catholic Church, the largest single church body, showed a slight increase.
The NCC this week released the figures in its 2006 Yearbook of American and Canadian churches.
Of the 25 largest churches in the United States, those showing the largest increases in membership were the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination, up by 1.81 percent, to 2.78 million; the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, up by 1.74 percent, to 5.99 million; and the Roman Catholic Church, up by 0.83 percent, to 67.82 million.
The Southern Baptist Convention, with 16.27 million members, reported a decrease of 1.05 percent.
Only three Protestant churches often referred to as "mainline" - the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) - are listed among the 10 largest churches in the United States, according to the yearbook statistics.
The United Methodist Church ranked third, with a membership of 8.19 million, a decrease of 0. 79 per cent; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ranked seventh with a membership of 4.93 million, a decrease of 1.09 per cent; and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ranked ninth with a membership of 3.19 million, a decrease of 1.60 per cent.
The yearbook includes baptized children in its PC(USA) membership figure.
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