Church Statistics: The Slips Are Showing

Since churches use different time tables and computation methods, denominational records are not always the most reliable source on what is going on in the Church. But as reports filter in on membership, programs, and finances, evidence mounts that theologically liberal and politically activist denominations are in a period of crisis—not yet major, but growing.

The important fundamentalist and evangelical groups, in contrast, show marked upturns in membership, in finances, and particularly in missionary outreach. Mormons continue rapid growth. So do Roman Catholics (now 47.5 million strong—up 31.7 per cent in ten years), but they still are vexed with depleting educational funds.

The total religious membership gain for the year was less than half a per cent, reaching 126,445,110, or 63.2 per cent of the 1968 population. The 1967 ratio was 64.4 per cent of the population, which means churches aren’t keeping up with the nation’s growth.

Among the major denominations, Episcopalians, United Presbyterians, and Methodists appear to have much of the trouble. For the second year in a row, the Episcopal Church has had to make up deficits caused by undergiving. Less has been pledged this year.

Last month, Bishop Stephen Bayne told the Episcopal Executive Council, “This does not mean the end of the world,” but he qualified the veiled optimism: “We are facing unprecedented problems—unprecedented, at any rate, in our time. To have ten of our eighty-seven continental dioceses unable to meet their commitments in a given year is unprecedented. For our eighty-seven dioceses to pledge less for 1969 than they paid in 1968 is unprecedented.”

As a number of denominational leaders are saying lately, there is no easy diagnosis. “White backlash, resentment of unpopular decisions, a general mood of suspicion of ecclesiastical institutions, uncertainty as to the role of the Church in society, uncertainty as to the reality of the Christian faith, distrust of changes, lack of understanding of what the Church is doing, lack of common agreement as to the Church’s mission—all these enter into the problem, and all these must be faced,” Bayne said.

United Presbyterians nosedived in their giving for the general mission of the church, down by $1.3 million from 1967—the most sizable drop since the Depression. Translated into practical terms, this means sixty retiring missionaries won’t be replaced and the education staff has been cut by ten. It means spending at an inflated 1969 level on a 1963-level budget.

Stewardship Secretary Winburn T. Thomas interpreted an upturn in contributions in the denomination’s program for relief offerings (Biafra) and race relations as a sign of a marked change in the pattern of giving. But the ongoing ministry of the church gets even less, as he put it, “where it is the weakest.” What it also means, probably, is that the activists and the laissez-faire conservative forces have become more polarized: the conservatives hold back funds, while the activists direct them toward pet projects.

Fifty-nine Protestant groups reporting to the National Council of Churches for its 1969 Yearbook of American Churches got $3.6 billion in contributions, up $3.5 million over 1967. This, however, did not offset inflation, nor did it coincide with bigger take-home pay. While most theologically liberal churches showed losses or remained static, many conservative groups showed vitality, nearly all above the $73.95 per member giving recorded by the bulk of Protestantism (see box). Many fundamentalist splinter sects, however, have poor giving records. Of the bigger denominations, Seventh-day Adventists led with $315.62 per member.

Building slowed down—Southern Baptists by $25 million—according to Department of Commerce figures, although this is tempered by the fact that the previous fiscal year set an all-time high of $1.17 billion. Fiscal 1967’s total was 6.9 per cent lower, at $1.09 billion. Tight money and church crash programs for the poor account for the building slowdown.

Forty-nine per cent of members go to church at least once a week—not as high as ten years ago, but considerably higher than in the forties and fifties.

Episcopalians and Southern Baptists have shown appreciable drops in Sunday-school attendance. Methodists, while showing church membership gains since 1930, “have gradually ground to a halt and for several years have been trailing behind population growth,” laments former Indiana Bishop Richard C. Raines. Methodist giving is near the bottom among major denominations ($64.61 per member). Raines said “such a record would have caused a shakeup in administration” if it happened in business or education.

Although 350 Methodist clergymen retired or resigned last year, Episcopalians and their Anglican counterparts in Great Britain also are having leadership problems. Southern Presbyterians, too, have had fewer seminary graduates entering parish or church-related ministries. Southern Baptists report that more than 10,000 of their pastors hold other full-or part-time jobs.

A real problem may be in the making for Episcopalians. Although there are 11,362 Episcopal clergymen, baptisms fell to their lowest since 1947 and confirmations are at their lowest since 1955. Future problems in leadership are suggested by a sharp drop in ordinations to the diaconate (down 11 per cent) and to the priesthood (down 9 per cent). Attractions of specialized and non-parochial ministries might account for part of this, but one editorial indicated “a lack of unanimity on our priorities” might be the clincher.

By contrast, the 465,000-member Church of the Nazarene is riding high with a budget ($6 million) twice what it was ten years ago. Nearly 80 per cent of this goes to foreign missions.

It is in missions that the conservative churches and likeminded independent forces are making their biggest contributions. Of the top fifteen sending agencies (see box), most show strong conservative theological leanings. The same is true of the myriad smaller boards.

During the first eight years of the sixties, missionary activity increased far out of proportion to other church programs. Income for all American and Canadian agencies went from 1960’s $170 million to an impressive $299 million last year—a 75 per cent rise. The rate of inflation, meanwhile, was 20 per cent. Agencies affiliated with the Canadian and National Councils of Churches fared well in their efforts, even though their percentage of the overseas force is down to 32, compared to 38 eight years ago and 43.5 fourteen years ago, when the start of a big shift became noticeable. Their income went from $92 million to $127 million. Thus, for 32 per cent of the personnel, they have 42.5 per cent of the funds.

The United States and Canada send 33,270 Protestant missionaries, with the two national councils accounting for 10,930—up 670 from 1960. Almost all the other increase is in fundamentalist-evangelical groups such as Evangelical Foreign Missions Association and the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association, which foster 13,500 missionaries.

Independent boards account for more than half the increase of 6,051 personnel since 1960, and now count 8,406 in their ranks.

The United Church of Christ is evolving away from the didactic and spiritual mission functions to the boosting of economic programs. A new investment program will help in abetting the gains. Methodists are looking in much the same direction.

Although some statistics appear static, big church changes are under way.

Nevada ‘Marriage Industry’

Couples who pay a $1 marriage license fee to any Nevada county clerk may no longer need the ceremonial services of a preacher or judge. That is the gist of legislative proposal SB 81, backed by virtually all of Nevada’s clergymen.

Prime mover of the bill is Deputy Attorney General Don Winne, 38, a Methodist and president of the Nevada Council of Churches. He predicts two benefits: improved images of the Church and of marriage.

Rector Henry Jesse of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Reno traced the measure to the “degrading operations of self-ordained wedding-chapel profiteers” and the “uncomfortable clergy role as [marriage] officer of the state.” The couple can still have a religious ceremony if they want it, he noted. They simply arrive at the church already married in secular eyes.

A spokesman for Episcopal Bishop William G. Wright said he hopes it is “the start of a national movement.”

“The churches and chapels should have the integrity to do away with the clever ruses that encourage people to enter when they would not otherwise choose to do so,” editorialized the Carson City Appeal. It concluded that justices of the peace should again be judges instead of “marriage brokers” (some reportedly earn over $100,000 annually in fees).

In urging legislators not to heed opposition from Clark County (Las Vegas) justices and the chapel operators, the paper assured them that the move “will not interfere with Nevada’s marriage industry.”

EDWARD E. PLOWMAN

Presto—A Million Ministers

California Attorney General Thomas Lynch has declared war on Universal Life Church minister-maker Kirby J. Hensley, 57, who is delighted with the action. Hensley, arrested on charges of illegally dispensing honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees, hopes to take his case to the U. S. Supreme Court. The publicity en route, Hensley says, will help accomplish his five-year goal of “ordaining” one million “ministers.”

The ULC—America’s biggest little church—operates out of a ramshackle garage in Modesto, California. Seldom do more than fifteen persons (mostly relatives) show up for Sunday-morning discussions, but since 1962 Hensley has ordained more than 20,000 mail-order applicants. Business has been brisk since he gained recent national news attention. He makes no charge for ordination certificates, though “love offerings” are often enclosed.

The honorary degree is sent with a series of ten lessons costing twenty dollars. Whether he is serious or just lucratively lampooning the establishment is anybody’s guess. Conceivably, the certificates could be used to gain clergy benefits.

Born of devout Baptists, the semiliterate Hensley was ordained by an independent Baptist church in North Carolina. He later tried Pentecostalism (“I liked the getting turned on part but not the supernatural takeover or authoritarians parts”), then worked his way through several cults while devising his own brand of back-woodsy humanism blended with epicureanism, pantheism, and reincarnationism.

Nobody has a corner on theological knowledge, he will claim in his forthcoming book Heaven Here Now. He reckons Billy Graham “is always laying his egg in somebody else’s nest.” But Graham’s day is over, he asserts, and the day of Hensley has dawned.

EDWARD E. PLOWMAN

The Vatican Issue Again

“Don’t do it, Mr. President!” an Americans United ad warned. Appended were signatures of a potpourri of worried Protestants from Andover Newton’s James Adams to the National Association of Evangelicals’ Clyde Taylor. Then the Southern Baptist Executive Committee issued its own statement. All enjoin Richard Nixon not to let them down by committing the biggest diplomatic faux pas conceivable to church-state separatists: recognition of the Vatican.

Columnist Marquis Childs spurred the current phobia, and others read their own conclusions into Nixon’s planned visit with the Pope. President Kennedy scotched the recurring phobia early by declaring strongly against recognition; Nixon has played it mum. The question has flamed anew with each change of administration in Washington since President Franklin Roosevelt’s hotly debated recognition entrees and a more brazen, poorly executed approach by Harry Truman.

Canada’s Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, overt in his Vatican intentions, has brought sharp reaction from Protestants, especially Lutherans. New Democratic (Socialist) Party leader T. C. Douglas, a Baptist preacher, scored the Liberal government plan. In the States, West Coast Seventh-day Adventists said recognition would relegate non-Catholics “to second-class status.”

Religious News Service’s man in Rome, Jesuit Robert A. Graham, thinks that any recognition overtures will have to come from Nixon: the Vatican was not overly pleased with the “arrangements of convenience” under Roosevelt and Truman.

Lesser Of Two Evils

Free Presbyterian Church preacher Ian Paisley, on leave from jail, nearly made the Catholic-Protestant tinderbox of Northern Ireland go aflame last month as Prime Minister Terence O’Neill narrowly averted an election upset. Paisley, with boosts from Bob Jones, Jr., and the American Council of Christian Churches, capitalized distrust of Catholics, and even though the Presbyterian Church of Ireland does not recognize him—they say Paisley “stole our good name”—many of them voted for him.

O’Neill, of the recognized Presbyterian body, had his hands full because he espoused a more tolerant stance toward Catholics, many of whom want to reunite with Ireland. Despite their dislike of O’Neill, many Catholics chose him as the lesser of two evils.

In an eleventh-hour performance, Jones described the “fumes of hell” to Paisley’s congregation and donated $1,000 toward a “flashy” national Church. Paisley, whose fiery style incited countrymen to riot against Catholics and landed him in jail for three months, had earlier been awarded an honorary doctorate from Bob Jones University.

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