(By Ed Stetzer, The Washington Post). Christians recently celebrated Easter, a Sunday where many churches are robust and full. But, if current trends continue, mainline Protestantism has about 23 Easters left. The news of mainline Protestantism’s decline is hardly new. Yet the trend lines are showing a trajectory toward zero in both those who attend a…
By Mark Tooley, Juicy Ecumenism. Princeton Seminary President Craig Barnes, former pastor of evangelical-leaning National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., urges in Christian Century that Mainline Protestants stop obsessing over their decline. Most of the people who used to fill the pews of the mainline congregations long ago decided that the church has little relevancy to…
Greg Smith of Pew Research and the principle researcher on the massive report released today on America’s Changing Religious Landscape said his number one takeaway from his research is the “pace of continued growth of religiously unaffiliated. The so-called ‘nones’ have been growing for some time but it’s up 7 percent in seven years.” The…
By Richard Ostling, Get Religion The U.S. Supreme Court’s April hearing and June ruling on same-sex marriage will be historic for the nation’s religions as well as for partisan politics, law, and society. There’s sharp division in this case among faith groups, and sometimes within them, so reporters will want to carefully monitor the inflow…
By Cathy Lynn Grossman WASHINGTON (RNS) Who are the mainline Protestants today? Vintage Protestants? The VPCC — Vanishing Progressive Christian Church? The Legacy Church? Half a century ago, the denominations under the mainline umbrella dominated the American faith landscape. Now, after decades of declining numbers, only about one in five U.S. adults identifies with a…
By Cathy Lynn Grossman Could re-branding rouse the dwindling mainline Protestant troops? The dozen church groups under the mainline umbrella — including United Methodists, Episcopalians, Evangelical Lutherans, Presbyterians (USA) and American Baptists — have been flagging for years. Mainline Protestants made up 18 percent of U.S. adults in 2008. Fifty years ago, its members were…