{"id":840953,"date":"2024-12-04T05:00:42","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=840953"},"modified":"2024-12-03T10:54:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T16:54:47","slug":"the-realignment-of-churches-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"The Realignment of Churches in America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-preview\"><p>It isn\u2019t just a political realignment taking place in America. There is also a profound realignment of churches.\u00a0<\/p> <p>For most of our nation\u2019s history, we have categorized churches into two broad categories: denominational and nondenominational. It was neat, easy, and comfortable. If you were a Christian, you were connected to a church in one of two major groups. The labels fit nicely.\u00a0<\/p> <p>Then, in the denominational category, we had two main groups: mainline and \u201cother\u201d (not all churches in this latter category considered themselves \u201cevangelical\u201d).\u00a0<\/p> <p>There was also the assumption, mostly correct, that the mainline churches were declining and the \u201cother\u201d churches were not. Those assumptions do not hold today. Mainline churches are not just declining; they are rapidly declining. In 1970, mainline churches accounted for 30% of the U. S. population with about 62 million members. By 2000, the mainline percentage was cut in half to 16% of the<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block-login login-toggle\">Already a member? <a href=\"#\">Log in<\/a><\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block-content\">\n\t\t\t\t<h2>Unlock premium content!<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Get access to all Church Answers premium content from our expert contributors plus many other membership benefits.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<h3>$9.97 per month<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Unlimited access<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/join\/\" class=\"button\">Join Now<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-preview\"><p>It isn\u2019t just a political realignment taking place in America. There is also a profound realignment of churches.\u00a0<\/p> <p>For most of our nation\u2019s history, we have categorized churches into two broad categories: denominational and nondenominational. It was neat, easy, and comfortable. If you were a Christian, you were connected to a church in one of two major groups. The labels fit nicely.\u00a0<\/p> <p>Then, in the denominational category, we had two main groups: mainline and \u201cother\u201d (not all churches in this latter category considered themselves \u201cevangelical\u201d).\u00a0<\/p> <p>There was also the assumption, mostly correct, that the mainline churches were declining and the \u201cother\u201d churches were not. Those assumptions do not hold today. Mainline churches are not just declining; they are rapidly declining. In 1970, mainline churches accounted for 30% of the U. S. population with about 62 million members. By 2000, the mainline percentage was cut in half to 16% of the<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block-login login-toggle\">Already a member? <a href=\"#\">Log in<\/a><\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block-content\">\n\t\t\t\t<h2>Unlock premium content!<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Get access to all Church Answers premium content from our expert contributors plus many other membership benefits.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<h3>$9.97 per month<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Unlimited access<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/join\/\" class=\"button\">Join Now<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[193,1,183,184,175,186,177,178,14796,180,194,18058,176],"tags":[19837,104,19835,19836,19834],"class_list":["post-840953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-administration-and-finance","category-church-answers","category-communications","category-discipleship","category-grow","category-health-and-metrics","category-lead","category-membership-and-assimilation","category-monday-wednesday-featured","category-outreach-and-evangelism","category-preaching","category-premium","category-revitalize","tag-categories-of-churches-in-america","tag-church-membership","tag-denominational","tag-nondenominational","tag-realignment-of-churches-in-america","membership-content","access-restricted"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Realignment of Churches in America | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It isn\u2019t just a political realignment taking place in America. There is also a profound realignment of churches. For most of our nation\u2019s history, we have categorized churches into two broad categories: denominational and nondenominational. It was neat, easy, and comfortable. If you were a Christian, you were connected to a church in one of two major groups. The labels fit nicely. Then, in the denominational category, we had two main groups: mainline and \u201cother\u201d (not all churches in this latter category considered themselves \u201cevangelical\u201d). There was also the assumption, mostly correct, that the mainline churches were declining and the \u201cother\u201d churches were not. Those assumptions do not hold today. Mainline churches are not just declining; they are rapidly declining. In 1970, mainline churches accounted for 30% of the U. S. population with about 62 million members. By 2000, the mainline percentage was cut in half to 16% of the U. S. population or 34.5 million members. Mainline church membership in 2024 is about 33 million. Frankly, that\u2019s a generous estimate, and attendance estimates today are dismal. We who were in non-mainline churches were often comforted that we were reaching people with the gospel and growing numerically. Not so fast, my friend. Most denominations today are declining. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination, has dropped from its peak membership of 16.3 million in 2006 to under 13 million today. Average attendance has declined commensurately. In fact, it is difficult to find a growing denomination in America today. One of them is the Assemblies of God, which grew from 2.6 million adherents in 2000 to almost 3.0 million adherents today. Another exception is the Presbyterian Church in America, which has grown by 28% since 2000. However, the PCA is not a large denomination, and the fast growth rate is predicated on a relatively small membership of just under 400,000 members. This excursion brings me back to my primary point. We are not looking at the dynamics of American churches correctly if we simply look at denominational churches and nondenominational churches. The times have changed. A realignment is taking place before our eyes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Realignment of Churches in America | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It isn\u2019t just a political realignment taking place in America. There is also a profound realignment of churches. For most of our nation\u2019s history, we have categorized churches into two broad categories: denominational and nondenominational. It was neat, easy, and comfortable. If you were a Christian, you were connected to a church in one of two major groups. The labels fit nicely. Then, in the denominational category, we had two main groups: mainline and \u201cother\u201d (not all churches in this latter category considered themselves \u201cevangelical\u201d). There was also the assumption, mostly correct, that the mainline churches were declining and the \u201cother\u201d churches were not. Those assumptions do not hold today. Mainline churches are not just declining; they are rapidly declining. In 1970, mainline churches accounted for 30% of the U. S. population with about 62 million members. By 2000, the mainline percentage was cut in half to 16% of the U. S. population or 34.5 million members. Mainline church membership in 2024 is about 33 million. Frankly, that\u2019s a generous estimate, and attendance estimates today are dismal. We who were in non-mainline churches were often comforted that we were reaching people with the gospel and growing numerically. Not so fast, my friend. Most denominations today are declining. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination, has dropped from its peak membership of 16.3 million in 2006 to under 13 million today. Average attendance has declined commensurately. In fact, it is difficult to find a growing denomination in America today. One of them is the Assemblies of God, which grew from 2.6 million adherents in 2000 to almost 3.0 million adherents today. Another exception is the Presbyterian Church in America, which has grown by 28% since 2000. However, the PCA is not a large denomination, and the fast growth rate is predicated on a relatively small membership of just under 400,000 members. This excursion brings me back to my primary point. We are not looking at the dynamics of American churches correctly if we simply look at denominational churches and nondenominational churches. The times have changed. A realignment is taking place before our eyes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-12-04T11:00:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Lots-of-people-all-holding-blocks-spelling-out-church_Thom_120424.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thom S. Rainer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Thom S. Rainer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Thom S. 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There is also a profound realignment of churches. For most of our nation\u2019s history, we have categorized churches into two broad categories: denominational and nondenominational. It was neat, easy, and comfortable. If you were a Christian, you were connected to a church in one of two major groups. The labels fit nicely. Then, in the denominational category, we had two main groups: mainline and \u201cother\u201d (not all churches in this latter category considered themselves \u201cevangelical\u201d). There was also the assumption, mostly correct, that the mainline churches were declining and the \u201cother\u201d churches were not. Those assumptions do not hold today. Mainline churches are not just declining; they are rapidly declining. In 1970, mainline churches accounted for 30% of the U. S. population with about 62 million members. By 2000, the mainline percentage was cut in half to 16% of the U. S. population or 34.5 million members. Mainline church membership in 2024 is about 33 million. Frankly, that\u2019s a generous estimate, and attendance estimates today are dismal. We who were in non-mainline churches were often comforted that we were reaching people with the gospel and growing numerically. Not so fast, my friend. Most denominations today are declining. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination, has dropped from its peak membership of 16.3 million in 2006 to under 13 million today. Average attendance has declined commensurately. In fact, it is difficult to find a growing denomination in America today. One of them is the Assemblies of God, which grew from 2.6 million adherents in 2000 to almost 3.0 million adherents today. Another exception is the Presbyterian Church in America, which has grown by 28% since 2000. However, the PCA is not a large denomination, and the fast growth rate is predicated on a relatively small membership of just under 400,000 members. This excursion brings me back to my primary point. We are not looking at the dynamics of American churches correctly if we simply look at denominational churches and nondenominational churches. The times have changed. A realignment is taking place before our eyes.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Lots-of-people-all-holding-blocks-spelling-out-church_Thom_120424.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Lots-of-people-all-holding-blocks-spelling-out-church_Thom_120424.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":628,\"caption\":\"Lots of people all holding blocks spelling out church\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Realignment of Churches in America\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\",\"name\":\"Church Answers\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/47ecb0b82afa1c1b6a9d1003673d2e90\",\"name\":\"Thom S. 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For most of our nation\u2019s history, we have categorized churches into two broad categories: denominational and nondenominational. It was neat, easy, and comfortable. If you were a Christian, you were connected to a church in one of two major groups. The labels fit nicely. Then, in the denominational category, we had two main groups: mainline and \u201cother\u201d (not all churches in this latter category considered themselves \u201cevangelical\u201d). There was also the assumption, mostly correct, that the mainline churches were declining and the \u201cother\u201d churches were not. Those assumptions do not hold today. Mainline churches are not just declining; they are rapidly declining. In 1970, mainline churches accounted for 30% of the U. S. population with about 62 million members. By 2000, the mainline percentage was cut in half to 16% of the U. S. population or 34.5 million members. Mainline church membership in 2024 is about 33 million. Frankly, that\u2019s a generous estimate, and attendance estimates today are dismal. We who were in non-mainline churches were often comforted that we were reaching people with the gospel and growing numerically. Not so fast, my friend. Most denominations today are declining. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination, has dropped from its peak membership of 16.3 million in 2006 to under 13 million today. Average attendance has declined commensurately. In fact, it is difficult to find a growing denomination in America today. One of them is the Assemblies of God, which grew from 2.6 million adherents in 2000 to almost 3.0 million adherents today. Another exception is the Presbyterian Church in America, which has grown by 28% since 2000. However, the PCA is not a large denomination, and the fast growth rate is predicated on a relatively small membership of just under 400,000 members. This excursion brings me back to my primary point. We are not looking at the dynamics of American churches correctly if we simply look at denominational churches and nondenominational churches. The times have changed. A realignment is taking place before our eyes.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Realignment of Churches in America | Church Answers","og_description":"It isn\u2019t just a political realignment taking place in America. There is also a profound realignment of churches. For most of our nation\u2019s history, we have categorized churches into two broad categories: denominational and nondenominational. It was neat, easy, and comfortable. If you were a Christian, you were connected to a church in one of two major groups. The labels fit nicely. Then, in the denominational category, we had two main groups: mainline and \u201cother\u201d (not all churches in this latter category considered themselves \u201cevangelical\u201d). There was also the assumption, mostly correct, that the mainline churches were declining and the \u201cother\u201d churches were not. Those assumptions do not hold today. Mainline churches are not just declining; they are rapidly declining. In 1970, mainline churches accounted for 30% of the U. S. population with about 62 million members. By 2000, the mainline percentage was cut in half to 16% of the U. S. population or 34.5 million members. Mainline church membership in 2024 is about 33 million. Frankly, that\u2019s a generous estimate, and attendance estimates today are dismal. We who were in non-mainline churches were often comforted that we were reaching people with the gospel and growing numerically. Not so fast, my friend. Most denominations today are declining. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination, has dropped from its peak membership of 16.3 million in 2006 to under 13 million today. Average attendance has declined commensurately. In fact, it is difficult to find a growing denomination in America today. One of them is the Assemblies of God, which grew from 2.6 million adherents in 2000 to almost 3.0 million adherents today. Another exception is the Presbyterian Church in America, which has grown by 28% since 2000. However, the PCA is not a large denomination, and the fast growth rate is predicated on a relatively small membership of just under 400,000 members. This excursion brings me back to my primary point. We are not looking at the dynamics of American churches correctly if we simply look at denominational churches and nondenominational churches. The times have changed. A realignment is taking place before our eyes.","og_url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/","og_site_name":"Church Answers","article_published_time":"2024-12-04T11:00:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Lots-of-people-all-holding-blocks-spelling-out-church_Thom_120424.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Thom S. Rainer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Thom S. Rainer","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/"},"author":{"name":"Thom S. 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There is also a profound realignment of churches. For most of our nation\u2019s history, we have categorized churches into two broad categories: denominational and nondenominational. It was neat, easy, and comfortable. If you were a Christian, you were connected to a church in one of two major groups. The labels fit nicely. Then, in the denominational category, we had two main groups: mainline and \u201cother\u201d (not all churches in this latter category considered themselves \u201cevangelical\u201d). There was also the assumption, mostly correct, that the mainline churches were declining and the \u201cother\u201d churches were not. Those assumptions do not hold today. Mainline churches are not just declining; they are rapidly declining. In 1970, mainline churches accounted for 30% of the U. S. population with about 62 million members. By 2000, the mainline percentage was cut in half to 16% of the U. S. population or 34.5 million members. Mainline church membership in 2024 is about 33 million. Frankly, that\u2019s a generous estimate, and attendance estimates today are dismal. We who were in non-mainline churches were often comforted that we were reaching people with the gospel and growing numerically. Not so fast, my friend. Most denominations today are declining. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination, has dropped from its peak membership of 16.3 million in 2006 to under 13 million today. Average attendance has declined commensurately. In fact, it is difficult to find a growing denomination in America today. One of them is the Assemblies of God, which grew from 2.6 million adherents in 2000 to almost 3.0 million adherents today. Another exception is the Presbyterian Church in America, which has grown by 28% since 2000. However, the PCA is not a large denomination, and the fast growth rate is predicated on a relatively small membership of just under 400,000 members. This excursion brings me back to my primary point. We are not looking at the dynamics of American churches correctly if we simply look at denominational churches and nondenominational churches. The times have changed. A realignment is taking place before our eyes.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Lots-of-people-all-holding-blocks-spelling-out-church_Thom_120424.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Lots-of-people-all-holding-blocks-spelling-out-church_Thom_120424.png","width":1200,"height":628,"caption":"Lots of people all holding blocks spelling out church"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-realignment-of-churches-in-america\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Realignment of Churches in America"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/","name":"Church Answers","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/47ecb0b82afa1c1b6a9d1003673d2e90","name":"Thom S. 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