Resources strong in spite of congregational withdrawals Report of the secretary
Despite the loss of several hundred churches, remaining ELCA congregations control assets worth more than $22 billion and that figure grew in 2010, ELCA Secretary David D. Swartling told the Churchwide Assembly.
"Undeniably, the ELCA has been affected by congregations leaving, but we continue to have enormous capacity for ministry," he said. "Based upon [annual] congregational reports, as analyzed by Research and Evaluation: approximately 95 percent of our congregations; 94 percent of baptized membership; 94 percent of total congregational giving and congregational assets remain," he said.
ELCA Secretary David D. Swartling. "We can do things together in ministry — do different things and things better — than we can do separately. Because of who we are as the ELCA, we have the potential for evangelical synergy."
Swartling also noted that congregations received $2 billion in contributions for mission and ministry in 2010, plus had more than $2.1 billion in endowment funds, memorials and cash.
Congregational withdrawals have taken a toll, he said. As of June 17, 2011:
• 832 congregations had taken a first vote to leave (51 of those have taken multiple first votes).
• 621 congregations have passed first votes.
• 517 congregations have passed second votes.
Eight synods had lost 10 percent or more of their congregations, while some had lost one or no congregations.
Most of the withdrawals resulted from passage in 2009 of a statement on human sexuality and the related opening of ELCA rostered positions to gays and lesbians in committed relationships. The ELCA now has roughly 10,000 congregations.
Swartling noted that 54 percent of departing congregations were from communities of 10,000 people or fewer. "Given the small size of these communities, profound questions exist about the long-term viability of many of these congregations and their capacity to be effective in ministry and to develop the kind of interrelationships that they had in the ELCA," he said.
Conversely, 25 percent of large congregations in urban and large suburban centers have left the ELCA, Swartling said.
About 61 percent of congregations that have disaffiliated reportedly joined Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ; 31 percent or about 160 congregations have joined the North American Lutheran Church; and the rest represent fewer than 2 percent each. Some of those church bodies allow multiple memberships, he said.
"Monitoring these data has sometimes been upsetting, particularly when I hear from bishops and synod leaders about their experiences on the ground. But this work has not shaken my faith," he said. "[The ELCA] is the church that it's always been, but at the same time it is being made anew. It is a 21st-century reformation church."
