The recent book “The American Church in Crisis” by David Olson reports some jarring statistics. The following summary of these statistics comes from church planter Gary Rohrmayer’s Your Journey Resources.
1) Less than 20% of Americans regularly attend church – half of what the pollsters report. There are approximately 330,000 churches in America; out of those churches approximately 17.7% (52 million) of Americans attend church on an average Sunday.
2) American church attendance is steadily declining.
- Evangelical 9.2%
- Catholic 5.5%
- Mainline 3.1%
3) Only one state is outpacing its population growth. Hawaii.
4) Mid-sized churches are shrinking; the smallest and largest churches are growing.
- Churches under 50 and over 2,000 are growing
- Average attendance of Protestant church: 124
- 1,250 mega-churches in America/one emerges every three days
5) Established churches, 40-190 years old – are, on average, declining. New church starts reach more people better, faster, cheaper than existing churches.
6) The increase in churches is only ¼ of what’s needed to keep up with population growth.
- 3,000 churches close every year
- 3,800 new church starts survived
- Net annual gain: 800 new churches
- Net annual gain needed to keep up with population growth:10,000 new churches
7) In 2050, the percentage of the U.S. population attending church will be almost half of what it was in 1990.
- US Population in 1990: 248 million/20.4% church attendance
- US Population in 2050: 520 million/11.7% church attendance
I suspect people will see these statistics differently.
- Some in the Organic or House church movements might see this exodus from the “institution” as a revival. But is that really happening?
- Others might see these stats as deeply flawed and rebuff them as a misrepresentation of what is actually happening in the American Church. Are these statistics painting an accurate picture?
- Still a third group of people I suspect will see these statistics as an indication that the American Christian is in rebellion against Jesus and His church. But is that a fair assessment?
How do you see it?
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