Is Christianity in the US Dying or is Something Else Happening?

[SVPete]

Sometimes seeing something you know, generally, is happening plotted on a graph is still startling. From https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/05/the-daily-chart-from-mainline-to-sideline.php :



The trend for theologically liberal "mainline Protestant" churches may be slightly worse, if theologically conservative denominations like the Missouri and Wisconsin synod Lutheran churches, which have been holding stead or only declining slightly are included in that chart.

Looking at a chart for the Southern Baptists and data for the Assemblies of God shows very different trends:

https://news.lifeway.com/2024/05/07/southern-baptist-membership-decline-slows-baptisms-and-attendance-grow/

file:///C:/Users/PeterStorz/Downloads/Major%20Worship%20Service%20Attendance%201978%20through%202022.pdf

The SBC had been growing steadily until ~2006, and since has declined some. The AoG had been growing pretty steadily until 2020 and 2021, when a group of churches started reporting their statistics separately.

A less easy to measure group among Protestants is "non-denominational", and it looks like there may be a shift of people from Evangelical denominational churches to Evangelical non-denominational churches.

[FlaGator]

I'm not sure that Christianity is dying so much as church membership is declining and I firmly believe that those aren't the same thing. A lot of people attended church merely out of habit because that is the way they were raised. The youth of our nation aren't as devout about their faith so many aren't continuing in their church attendance as they age. They are not filling in the pew space that is vacated when their elders pass away.

With that said, I believe the truly faithful are remaining and probably at the same numbers we've seen in the past. Just because someone claims to be a Christian doesn't mean that they are. What is happening is that the ratio of the truly faithful to the marginal believers is shifting as people decide it is better to sleep in on Sundays.

[enslaved1]

https://www.arizonachristian.edu/culturalresearchcenter/research/

These folks have been polling American's worldviews for a while, and the results keep trending downward.  Many Americans say they are Christian, but asking them what they actually believe reveals usually a buffet mentality, picking stuff from Christianity and other belief systems to create a "plate" they are happy with. 

Actual Christianity is definitely falling off in America.  Just look how many churches are flying rainbow flags and not being abandoned.  Jesus said "many are called, but few are chosen" and “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."  We are seeing lots of that here. 

[SVPete]

A concept I grew up with was that there are two "churches" - the "visible church", people in the pews, and the true church, all true believers. Using those terms, I think the visible church is probably shrinking, but those leaving aren't really believers. Their churches no longer served some desired social purpose and they moved on. The true church is probably stable or growing a little, but I do think the level of understanding of the Christian faith is diminishing.

[FlaGator]

A concept I grew up with was that there are two "churches" - the "visible church", people in the pews, and the true church, all true believers. Using those terms, I think the visible church is probably shrinking, but those leaving aren't really believers. Their churches no longer served some desired social purpose and they moved on. The true church is probably stable or growing a little, but I do think the level of understanding of the Christian faith is diminishing.

That is the belief that I have as well. Some people in all denominations are saved but being a member of any specific group doesn't save you.