New American church stats

Last week Gary Walter, the president of the Evangelical Covenant Church, told us at the gathering of Asian missionaries that the Covenant grew by about 6% last year. We're a small denomination (about 800 churches -- maybe a constituency of 350,000 people) so we don't show up on too many radars. But maybe being small and low-flying is a good thing in such matters.

The figures for other groups are out and this is what the National Council of Churches' 2009 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches is reporting -- the top 25 North American religious groups (in terms of size -- but not necessarily vitality or impact). Some of these bodies are listed as "no changed reported" year after year -- which suggests that they are not being totally honest about their statistics or they have no clue as to what is happening. Either way I am guessing that they are in decline (and denial), too. These figures also do not take into account the phenomenal growth of non-denominational churches.

• The Roman Catholic Church, 67,117,06 members, down 0.59 percent. (Ranked 1)
• The Southern Baptist Convention, 16,266,920 members, down 0.24 percent. (Ranked 2)
• The United Methodist Church, 7,931,733 members, down 0.80 percent. (Ranked 3)
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5,873,408 members, up 1.63 percent. (Ranked 4)
• The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members, no change reported. (Ranked 5)
• National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., 5,000,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 6)
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,709,956 members, down 1.35 percent. (Ranked 7)
• National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., 3,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 8)
• Presbyterian Church (USA), 2,941,412 members, down 2.79 percent (Ranked 9)
• Assemblies of God, 2,863,265 members, up 0.96 percent. (Ranked 10)
• African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 11)
• National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, 2,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 11)
• Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., 2,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 11)
• The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS), 2,383,084 members, down 1.44 percent. (Ranked 14)
• The Episcopal Church, 2,116,749 members, down 1.76 percent. (Ranked 15)
• Churches of Christ, 1,639,495 members, no change reported. (Ranked 16)
• Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 1,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 17)
• Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., 1,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 17)
• The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1,400,000 members, down 3.01 percent. (Ranked 19)
• American Baptist Churches in the USA, 1,358,351, down 0.94 percent. (Ranked 20)
• Baptist Bible Fellowship International, 1,200,000, no change reported. (Ranked 21)
• United Church of Christ, 1,145,281 members, down 6.01 percent. (Ranked 22)
• Jehovah's Witnesses, 1,092,169 members, up 2.12 percent. (Ranked 23)
• Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, 1,071,616 members, no change reported. (Ranked 24)
• Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.), 1,053,642 members, up 2.04 percent. (Ranked 25)