Future of the Church: Session 1 Notes

Session 1: Where We are Today

I.                    Pew Research Report—Spring 2015

a.     Persons who identify as Christians are down 8% since 2007

b.     Those who identify having no religion: 23% (up 36 %)

c.      Organized Church Across the Board seeing decline

                                                              i.      Mainline is down (especially PCUSA has shrunk)

                                                            ii.      Also conservative churches are down

1.     SBC has 9^th consecutive year of losses

2.     Declining as fast as UMC

a.     (Pastor note: UMC Dakotas is growing)

                                                          iii.      Decline manifests itself in

1.     Attendance

2.     Membership

3.     Baptism

II.                 Research on people who have left church

a.     31% of Americans consider themselves “dechurched”

                                                              i.      65 million adults

                                                            ii.      Were active but no longer active

1.     No plans to come back

b.     Not done with faith or wanting to pursue faith, just done with “structured” church

III.               Supreme Court ruling on Same Sex Marriage

a.     People want “pelvic autonomy”

b.     Churches are all dealing with this issue and how to speak to it