Membership Losses

Dr. Henry K. Carroll of Plainfield, N. J., secretary of the continuation committee of the Interchurch Conference, last week bluntly described the present baleful condition of Protestant evangelical churches of the U. S. Those churches lost 500,000 members during 1926, he estimated. In 13 communions with total membership of 15,160,170, the losses aggregated 268,065. As the total membership of U. S. evangelical churches "is upward of 29,000,000, the total yearly loss, if other communions besides the 13 were included, would approximate about half a million."

Some Losses:

Presbyterian: 50,000 yearly.

Methodist Episcopal: No loss, but a net gain of only 13,729 in a total membership of 5,177,467, after the total of lost members was subtracted from the total of new.

Congregational: 30,000 yearly.

Methodist Episcopal, South: No loss; net increase only 4,199 in membership of 2,533,311.

United Lutheran: 9,354.

Disciples of Christ: 5,000.

Protestant Episcopalian: 22,000.

Reformed Church of the United States: 11,000.

Reformed Church in America: 3,416.

United Brethren: No loss; net gain 11,000.

Northern Baptist: "Appalling."

Cause. For these losses pastors were bluntly blamed: "They are the leaders in all the congregations. Unless they lead, there will be no followers. They must not be leaders to get people out of the churches, but to get them in."*

Other causes brought forth were: migration of church members (Congregationalists have a "follow up" system to keep account of itinerant members); the War, "with its profound political, social and industrial disturbances"; materialism, "which has brought indifference, neglect and disregard of religious obligation to the very altars of the church"; organization assessments, which induce individual congregations to prune the "inactive" membership rolls (they are taxed according to the size of their rosters).

Cure. With a direct honesty like that of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America in its reports, Dr. Carroll's Interchurch Conference' study of these church losses recommends a cure: "The discovery that members are straying away from the flock while church and pastor are busy with matters of far less moment and that wanderers are increasing at an alarming rate, must seem a grievous thing demanding immediate attention from those still in the fold. . . . Take away the materialistic character of the shekels needed for the sanctuary. Do not use such terms as 'assessments,' taxes' and 'per capita rates.' Merge money matters into acts of spiritual worship and service."

* Methodist ministers by tradition are not permitted to remain in their charges long enough to become local leaders. However, the success of Mareellus B. Fuller in making the Lakewood M. E. Church (at Cleveland) the largest of that denomination's congregation and of Merton Stacher Rice in making the Metropolitan Church of Detroit the second largest, each after several years with the same congregation, makes a change in Methodist clerical practice seem imminent, says editor W. B. Leach of Church Management.