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| Changer John Lawrenz, WELS, anointed Changer Steve Witte, to keep the WELS Asian porta-sem apostate. ELCA started its decline the same way, with the buddy system. It only takes one generation. |
David R. Barnhart: ELCA MEMBERSHIP FROM 1987 THROUGH 2010:
'via Blog this'
Geoerge Erdner summarized the statistics this way:
Pastor Barnhart posted some stats on the number of members and congregations for each year of the ELCA's existence, obtained from ELCA Office of the Secretary. If anyone disputes the data, let him kvetch to the Office of the Secretary, not those who repeat that information.
In 2010, based only on reported losses of membership, the ELCA lost 268,182 members. That's 6% of the membership from the prior year. The two preceding years only saw losses of 2%. (All percentages rounded to whole numbers.)
From 1988 to 1998, the ELCA's losses were less than 1 single percent. Those small losses added up, but it was still a rather slow rate. From 2000 onward, it was at least 1% for most of the first years of the decade, then 2% a year for the latter half of the decade, then the dam burst.
One can only imagine how much worse the losses would be if congregations didn't usually wait a few years to consider people who just stopped showing up as gone.
When it comes to congregation losses, there were only two years when the losses came to more than 1%. Then, in 2010, it jumped to three percent. There was a net loss of congregations in 2010 of 353. There are already 309 congregations gone this year, and it's only October.
Also from George Erdner, same thread:
Here's what the totals are up to, as of today:
Left ELCA = 583
Leaving ELCA = 57
Total Left & Leaving = 640
New Non-ELCA Start = 218
ELCA New Wine = 22 [apparently new ELCA parishes where the old one left ELCA and took the property with it]
