wfn.org | Lutheran Church Missouri Synod's membership flat, financial gifts

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rise for 1999

Contact -- joe.isenhower@lcms.org
October 25, 2000

Total membership figures reported by Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod
congregations for 1999 continue to be "flat" compared with previous years.
But financial gifts rose to the highest figure ever, passing the $1 billion
mark for the second straight year.

Congregations report their membership and contribution figures each year via
a printed "parochial report" form that they receive from and return to the
Synod's Office of Rosters and Statistics for tabulation.  Statistical data
for 1999 will be printed in "The Lutheran Annual" for 2001, to be published
and distributed by Concordia Publishing House near the end of this year.

Statistics for 1999 show the Synod's total baptized membership at 2,582,440.
That is down by 11,964 from the figure that congregations reported for the
end of 1998.

Confirmed membership for 1999 declined by 6,174 from the previous year, to
1,945,846. For 1998, confirmed membership rose by 6,129 from the year
before.

Also showing a decline for 1999 was average weekly attendance at worship
services held by Synod congregations.  That number was 155.1, down by 1.5
from the 1998 figure.

Congregations reported that members gave a combined total of $1,109,927,685
for work at home and at large through worship-service offerings and other
sources for 1999.  That is $54,441,893 more than the $1.05 billion figure
reported for 1998, when the number passed the $1 billion mark for the first
time in the Synod's history.

Of that total for 1999, congregations retained $986,295,136 for their own
"at-home" use, which is $52,345,570 more than for the year before.

The remaining "at-large" amount (sent on to districts) of $123,632,549 was
$2,096,323 more than reported for 1998.

Average amounts given per-confirmed member in 1999 were $506.87 for work at
home (up $28.43 from 1998); $63.54 for work at large (up $1.28) and $570.41
for combined work at home and at large (up $8.61).

The percentage of congregations that reported baptized and communicant
membership, and average worship attendance for 1999 is considerably higher
this year (about 94 percent), compared to the "slightly over 60 percent"
that reported those numbers last year, according to Synod Secretary Raymond
Hartwig.

Hartwig said that is due to efforts by workers from his office and the
Office of Rosters and Statistics, through phone calls to congregations that
had not reported by this year's March 15 deadline for returning the forms.

He said he felt that "we should be able to do better than that [60 percent],
especially given that we're at the turn of the century.  But beyond that,"
Hartwig continued, "it is important to have accurate membership figures with
the synodical convention coming up [next summer]." Delegates to the
convention are elected according to representation based on congregational
memberships.

"We surely are thankful to all the pastors and church secretaries who
participated and cooperated when we reached them by telephone," Hartwig
said. "We believe that this allows us to be more precise when it comes to
delegate elections, and it gives us more valid numbers in the long run."

If congregations do not report membership and other figures for the previous
year, the Rosters and Statistics office normally uses the most recent
numbers reported.  That was the case for 1999 statistics, except in the
membership figures gathered by phone. The overall rate of return for 1999
figures reported via the parochial report form was "right at 75 percent,"
according to Hartwig.

Dr. John O'Hara, research analyst for the Synod's Department of Planning and
Research, said that the occurrence of higher contributions and lower
membership figures is "fairly common."

"If you have an aging membership, as in the Missouri Synod, and a  smaller
membership total, what you have remaining is people who are relatively more
committed to the church and are giving more," O'Hara said.

He indicated that the median age of the Synod's adult membership is
"probably close to 40," based on data from various surveys conducted among
members of Synod congregations over the past decade.  He said that figure is
about four years higher than the median age of the U.S. white, non-Hispanic
population.

O'Hara said that currently about 13 percent of the U.S. population is 65 or
older; but that surveys indicate about 20 percent of LCMS church members are
over 65.

Other statistics gathered for 1999 to be reported in the "Annual" include:
-- 8,722 men on the clergy roster (nine more than in 1998);
-- 6,220 congregations and preaching stations (up two);
-- 1,010 elementary schools operated by congregations (up 16);
-- 182,087 students enrolled in those schools (down 1,638);
-- 1,538 men teachers in the schools (down 435);
-- 8,074 women teachers in the schools (up 488);
-- 71 community high schools with LCMS congregations participating (down
three);
-- 18,300 students enrolled in those high schools (down 2,402);
-- 1,239 on the high-school teaching staffs (up 106);
-- 5,645 Sunday schools (down 43);
-- 492,005 Sunday-school pupils and teachers (down 80,863);
-- 4,601 weekday religion schools (down 101);
-- 135,407 enrolled in weekday religion schools (down 4,891);
-- 7,899 children of non-members enrolled in weekday religion schools (down
1,977);
-- 4,145 vacation Bible schools (down 12);
-- 45,901 children baptized (down 907);
-- 32,195 children confirmed (down 286);
-- 29,479 adults confirmed or baptized (down 70); and
-- 54,627 gained from outside (adult confirmations or baptisms, professions
of faith, non-member juniors confirmed, and those received from non-LCMS
Lutheran congregations) (up 1,409).