Declining Membership in the United Methodist Church

Declining Membership in the United Methodist Church

On January 28, 2006, the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church gathered at Morningstar United Methodist Church, in Chelsea, Alabama, for a special meeting of all pastors and lay delegates from roughly 850 churches comprising its membership. The purpose of the meeting was to vote on a re-districting plan to address the decline in conference membership over the last twenty years. The conference membership roles had shrunk by 30,000 since 1986. With much hand wringing, and over some small but determined opposition, the proposal to reallocate the churches in twelve districts among ten new districts passed by a large majority.

Whether changing the number of districts in the conference will stem the tide of membership losses is still in doubt. There is no doubt about the shrinking membership roles in the North Alabama conference, the United Methodist Church, and most mainline Christian denominations in the United States.

What once was a robust, dynamic church has become an institution in decline. When John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, appointed the first two bishops to lead the Methodist church in North America, he started a movement that swept across the face of the newly formed United States. As the country moved westward, the church moved too. At one time in the nation’s history, a Methodist church existed in 96 of every 100 counties. By the end of the twentieth century, membership in the United Methodist Church and other mainline denominations was in decline.

One possible reason for the church’s decline is the cultural backlash against the scandals which have rocked mainline denominations in the recent past. Sexual predation by Roman Catholic priests, the extramarital affairs of Protestant church leaders, and unethical financial dealings by both has eroded the public’s trust of Christian churches and their leaders. Though these scandals are not specific to Methodism, they cause the public view of religious organizations in general to be negatively skewed.

Another explanation for the decline in membership might be the demographic shifts that have occurred as people have migrated from rural areas to urban and suburban settings. At its zenith, the church dotted the countryside with small, white steeples in much the same way a gardener might decorate a plot of land. The people who once populated these now fading congregations have moved away, are graying, or have died. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, railroads dominated the development of cities and as a result, served as the rows which defined church planting. The advent of the automobile brought the highway system, which replaced the railway system, as the matrix for population growth. As a result, many United Methodist Church buildings are located where the people are not.

Scandal and demographic changes are compelling reasons for the decline in