Evangelicals Lead Growth in America's Church Attendance
Episcopal News Service. September 18, 2002 [2002-216-6]
A new study has revealed that evangelical and charismatic churches led church growth and attendance in the 1990s as mainline Protestant denominations struggled with continuing losses.
'Religious Congregations and Membership: 2000,' compiled by a broad group of religious bodies, revealed that Catholics, Mormons and the Assemblies of God reported double-digit growth rates. For the first time, the study made an attempt to estimate the number of Muslims in the U.S., reporting a total of 1.6 million, a figure rejected by many Islamic groups that claim the actual number is four times larger. The American Muslim Council says that there are 7 million Muslims in the country, based on a study last year by a coalition of Islamic groups.
The Muslim count was the most controversial feature of the report. Mosques typically don't keep membership rolls, so the estimate was based on reports from about a third of the country's 1,209 mosques and the results were carefully compared with statistics on immigration and conversion rates to Islam. A study last year by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York said there were 1.1 million Muslims--not including children--and the American Jewish Committee has estimated 2.8 million.
While the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the country, did not grow at the same rate as the population, mainline Protestant churches lost more members and watched the average age of their members rise. Very few of them benefited from immigration that helped Roman Catholics and Pentecostals.
'The churches that are demanding in some way--that expect you to come two or three times a week, or not wear lipstick, or dress in a certain way--but at the same time offer you great rewards--community, a salvation that is exclusive of other faiths--those are the churches that are growing,' said Kenneth Sanchagrin, director of the Glenmary Center. That's why the Mormons were the fastest-growing church in the nation, he pointed out.
The study, conducted every decade, was compiled by 149 denominations and research groups and published by the Atlanta-based Glenmary Research Center. It is based on information provided by the denominations.