wfn.org | Attendance up, membership down for U.S. United Methodists

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Nov. 16, 1999 News media contact: Joretta Purdue·(202)546-8722·Washington
10-21-71B{613}

By United Methodist News Service 

United Methodists in the United States are attending Sunday worship services
more frequently, but fewer church members are in the pews.

The decline in membership continues a downward trend that extends over
decades but has slowed in recent years. The United Methodist Church's
membership peaked at 11.5 million when the denomination was formed by the
union of the Methodist and the Evangelical United Brethren churches in 1968.

Final statistics just released by the denomination's General Council of
Finance and Administration (GCFA) show that average Sunday attendance in
United Methodist churches in 1998 was 3,495,641, an increase of almost
13,000 or a gain of 0.37 percent.

"I think the statistics about attendance do not point to a trend yet,"
cautioned the Rev. Ezra Earl Jones, staff head of the United Methodist Board
of Discipleship.

The numbers are encouraging because they may indicate that spiritually
uplifting things happening in United Methodist churches are attracting
people, Jones said. However, some of these people will never be church
members, he added. "I think we ought to rejoice in what we are seeing but
keep watching to see if it is really significant in the long term."

Lay membership in the United Methodist Church dropped 40,727 to 8.36
million, according to GCFA. This represents a decrease of 0.48 percent, or
just under half of 1 percent. The addition of 43,688 clergy members and
4,043 military personnel who do not hold membership in a U.S. congregation
brings the total U.S. membership to 8.4 million. 

The United Methodist Church claims an estimated 1.2 members in Europe,
Africa and Asia. Membership growth is particularly strong in parts of Africa
and the Philippines. Several congregations have been established in areas of
the former Soviet Union.
# # #

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://www.umc.org/umns