Yesterday as I waited for my audiologist appointment, I read the report on the future and pastors in the ELCA; you can read it too, if you'd like (go here for the PDF). It seems well-researched to me, and the implications also seem well-reasoned. I say "seemed" because I didn't do a deep dive. I was in a waiting room, reading the document on my phone, which is not a good way to read for me. I tried turning the phone sideways, but the document did not shift to a more readable position.
The information isn't new to me. I know that churches have been shrinking in terms of attendance and money. I know that there are far more pastors retiring than seminarians graduating.
What was new to me: more churches are now very small. Very small was defined as 50 or fewer worshipping each week, and online worshippers weren't included in that count.
Here are the latest numbers, for 2022:
58% worshipping fewer than 50
35% worshipping 50-150
4% worshipping 151-250
2% worshipping more than 250
in contrast, here are the numbers for 2015:
32% worshipping fewer than 50
47% worshipping 50-150
12% worshipping 151-250
9% worshipping more than 250
There are many reasons for the decline, the pandemic chief among them. Many of the people who stopped worshipping in person did not come back to worshipping in person; there wasn't analysis of those numbers, but there was reference to another study which concluded that those absent worshippers aren't as involved in 2022, even if they worship remotely.
The study, as we might expect, was most interested in how that plays out in terms of money. I will spend some days thinking about the spiritual implications for the people who aren't in church. Do they have other systems in place to help them see God at work in the world? They might. Do they have support systems that will get them through life's hard times? They might.
But for the majority, I imagine that there's not an institution that has replaced the Church, at least not one that's healthy. And that's what worries me.
No comments:
Post a Comment