{"id":511,"date":"2011-10-26T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T17:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/?p=511"},"modified":"2015-09-02T06:33:22","modified_gmt":"2015-09-02T11:33:22","slug":"church-membership-declining-in-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/church-membership-declining-in-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Church Membership Declining in U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"postBody\">\n<p><strong>Church Membership and Participation in the U.S. is Shrinking \u2013 Should We Care?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. &#8220;Mainline Protestant denominations in the United States continue to a decades-long decline, while the memberships of Pentecostal traditions are on the rise, according to new figures compiled by the National Council of Churches. The figures in the 2011 yearbook, compiled by churches in 2009 and reported to the council in 2010, show that mainline Protestant churches continue the decline in memberships that began in the 1970s. The newest numbers show that the membership drop in mainline churches led to a 1% decrease in total U.S. church membership, to 145.8 million.&#8221; \u2013 USA Today, 2\/15\/2011<\/p>\n<p>2. &#8220;The 78th annual edition of the Yearbook reports a continuing decline in membership of virtually all mainline denominations. And the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation&#8217;s second largest denomination and long a reliable generator of church growth, reported a decline in membership for the second year in a row, down 0.24 percent to 16,266,920.&#8221; \u2013 National Council of Churches<\/p>\n<p>3. &#8220;68% of churches in the West-South Central U.S., and 64% of churches in the East-South Central U.S. have expenses exceeding income. These are the best regions in the country.&#8221; &#8211; <em>Church Finance Today<\/em>, October 2011.<\/p>\n<p>We believe church membership and participation should be growing \u2013 not shrinking, and we believe churches that care can do something about it.<\/p>\n<p>We are committed to the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20: \u201c<em>Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jesus also said, \u201cT<em>he harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few<\/em>.\u201d \u2013 Matthew 9:37<\/p>\n<p>At RDS Advantage we are dedicated to help churches accomplish the plentiful harvest can be reaped. We offer an outreach plan that has been proven to help increase membership and participation. Contact us for information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"MainContent_2_2_pnlDate\" class=\"postInfo\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Church Membership and Participation in the U.S. is Shrinking \u2013 Should We Care? 1. &#8220;Mainline Protestant denominations in the United States continue to a decades-long decline, while the memberships of Pentecostal traditions are on the rise, according to new figures compiled by the National Council of Churches. The figures in the 2011 yearbook, compiled by&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/church-membership-declining-in-u-s\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Church Membership Declining in U.S.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8FugP-8f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1150,"url":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/is-your-church-revenue-all-you-need-need-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":511,"position":0},"title":"Is Your Church Revenue All You Need? Need More?","author":"admin","date":"10\/07\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Some churches struggle with budget problems. The cause can be expenditures are too high; contributions are too low; or both. There are churches reaching their budget goals, but would like to expand their ministries and outreach if they had more income. Here are some effective strategies to improve revenues without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":455,"url":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/nearly-80-of-u-s-noncash-payments-are-now-electronic\/","url_meta":{"origin":511,"position":1},"title":"Nearly 80% of U.S. Noncash Payments Are Now Electronic","author":"admin","date":"01\/08\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A study by the Federal Reserve 2009-2010: Electronic payments (those made with cards and by ACH) now collectively exceed three-quarters of all noncash payments while payments by check are now less than one-quarter. The increase in electronic payments and the decline of checks can be attributed to technological and financial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1148,"url":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/food-for-thought\/","url_meta":{"origin":511,"position":2},"title":"Food for Thought","author":"admin","date":"10\/07\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Research by Dr. Richard J. Krejcir - Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development (FASICLD) Every year more than 4000 churches close their doors compared to just over 1000 new church starts! Every year, 2.7 million church members fall into inactivity. The United States now ranks third (3rd) following\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":461,"url":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/credit-card-processing\/","url_meta":{"origin":511,"position":3},"title":"Credit Card Processing","author":"admin","date":"12\/16\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Credit\/Debit Card Application Integrates On-Line Receipts With Accounting As fewer people use checks and more use credit and debit cards, being able to offer the option of credit\/debit card contributions and payments is important for churches and organizations of all sizes. How it Functions: Place a link on your website\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":481,"url":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/church-planting\/","url_meta":{"origin":511,"position":4},"title":"Church Planting","author":"admin","date":"02\/26\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The apostle Paul dedicated his very life traveling, preaching and establishing and nourishing churches across Asia Minor, Palestine and Europe. He is surely our greatest example of a church planter. We do not need more reason to be involved in church planting than what we are admonished to do in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":499,"url":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/accounting-security\/","url_meta":{"origin":511,"position":5},"title":"Accounting Security","author":"admin","date":"06\/28\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Churches are not immune from the frailties of our human condition. It is just as important for churches to have in place procedures to help people be honest as it is for individuals to be honest. Under stress an individual might be tempted to do things they would not otherwise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":512,"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions\/512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdsadvantage.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}