The Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches assembles various data on churches and denominations across North America. I recently gleaned the top 15 denominations by membership in the United States from their reports:
- Southern Baptist Convention: 16.2 million members
- The United Methodist Church: 7.8 million members
- The Church of God in Christ: 5.5 million members
- National Baptist Convention: 5.0 million members
- Evangelical Lutheran Church, U.S.A.: 4.5 million members
- National Baptist Convention of America: 3.5 million members
- Assemblies of God: 2.9 million members
- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): 2.8 million members
- African Methodist Episcopal Church: 2.5 million members
- National Missionary Baptist Convention of America: 2.5 million members
- The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS): 2.3 million members
- The Episcopal Church: 2.0 million members
- Churches of Christ: 1.6 million members
- Pentecostal Assemblies of the World: 1.5 million members
- The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church: 1.4 million members
Neither the Yearbook list nor this blog infers that bigger is better. To the contrary, I have noted on a number of occasions how church membership, unfortunately, is fast becoming a meaningless number. Only the Assemblies of God on this list reported membership growth from the previous year, and their growth rate was only one-half of one percent.
Nevertheless, the numbers are interesting. Does your church belong to one of these denominations? Are you in a non-denominational church? What are your reflections on this list?
Posted on March 26, 2013
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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49 Comments
Thom,
thanks for this as always. is there anyway to glean the stats from Bible churches and non-denom’s? are they growing? curious.
Bill Elliff
Bill –
Thanks. I don’t have access to those numbers. Sounds like a good future research project.
Where are the evangelical reformed denominations? For all the discussion of a “reformed revival” it seems there is no denominational upswing reflection.
Not in the denominations per se Dave. Perhaps within existing denominations and non-denominational churches.
I would differ with this list. You have stated the “churches of Christ” are a denomination. However, that is completely untrue, unless some congregations have denominated themselves (i.e., The Hills in Richland Hills, TX). The church of Christ is the only church of the New Testament. It is not a denomination. It goes back to 33 A.D. (even further than the Catholic Church) and was established by the Holy Spirit through the apostles of Jesus on the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. Further, Jesus foretold of His church in Matthew 16:18-19. The only way to be added to this church is through immersion in water for the remission of one’s sins (Acts 2:38) and added by God Himself as stated in Acts 2:47. The church of the New Testament had no man-made creeds or doctrines, no catechisms. If we want to be true to God’s word we will organize the church the way God has commanded us to do so, not how we want to do it. Peace and blessings.
Bro, I agree with your sentiments. Historically though, Thom Rainer is talking about the American expression of it. I think 1800s might be a better date for that expression. We all date our roots to 33 A.D. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churches_of_Christ
Thanks Bruce.
You can’t say that all the denominations date their roots for the 30s a.d. Look at the Lutheran church, it was started by Martin Luther and he wasn’t even born until 1483. Look up all the men (notice I said men and not God) that started the southern baptist church. They weren’t even born till 17-1800s. The body of Christ which is the Church (also know the church of Christ Romans 16:16) was established in acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. Look in Matt 16:18 and you’ll see where it is Christ’s church not mans. And you see it was bought by Jesus’s blood in 20:28. So the church of Christ was established on the day of Pentecost.
My apologies. The men who started the southern baptist was born in the 1700s and in the 1800s but the point is still mande.
I wonder if these membership figures include the adjustments that have had to be made for the losses the Episcopal Church, the PCUSA and the Evangelical Lutherans (ELCA) have experienced over the past five years as entire districts, dioceses and groups of churches have left over various issues, mainly having the ordination of gays and lesbians forced on them by their clerical leadership. I know that in my area, Western Pennsylvania, the PCUSA district has seen two thirds of its churches exit the denomination in just a few years.
Lee –
The numbers are self-reported by the denominations. Beyond that, I wouldn’t know.
Baptists in Canada number less than a million. But then again, our population is 30+million.
With very few exceptions across the nation, many local churches are declining, even the AoG-related PAOC (Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada). The growing movements “within” Christianity are: the Roman Catholic Church (due to immigration), and the Mormon church. Non-Christians groups like Buddhism and Islam are growing too. Evangelicalism, with exceptional pockets, has remained stagnant.
In my town of 30,000, only 3000 people consider themselves regular church goers. Of the 11 Protestant/Evangelical churches in town, only ONE church reported “profession/baptism” growth. The Baptist church in town in the last month grew from 650+ to 850+ in worship attendance, many of whom are “seekers” with little or zero church exposure. By small-city-in-the-middle-of-the-prairies standards, that is a megachurch! Membership in that church, however is at 170. It has recently held a membership class and 15 newly converted/baptized people have joined formally in the last month. In that church baptism does not equate membership as understood in many Baptist churches. The church stresses involvement/commitment over “formal” membership which is not the norm in the denomination to which the church belongs, the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptists.
Just curious, where is the Church of God Cleveland, TN? I’m probably just mistaken in my application of the information but I understood that we were 7 Million members strong around the globe.
Thanks for your research.
Travis –
Church of God Cleveland reports 1.1 million members in the U.S. Your number is a worldwide total.
Thanks!
Good morning, Thom.
In my most recent experience with pastoring a traditional SBC church, we would typically see less than 25% of our total membership in worship on any given Sunday morning (maybe 300 in attendance of 1400 members). So, so sad.
Over a period of 2 years, I attempted to bring about some accountability in what it meant to be a “church member”. Then I was looking for another job.
In planting a new church 28 months ago, we instituted a membership covenant that our members sign annually. I’ve since learned by experience that genuinely born-again people have no issue with spiritual accountability.
Membership needs to matter again in the SBC. Lord, send a revival.
Regards,
Tony Foeller
Anna, IL
Dear Tony:
In the church where you tried to institute membership accountability how many board members and influential people had bowed their knee to another secret god?
Just wondering.
Martin
It would be interesting to see a map that charted the geographical concentrations of each of these churches. Being from the South, I don’t hear much about other baptist conventions or see any of some of these mentioned.
Christian –
My guess is that you are not African American. The Baptist denominations on the list, other than SBC, are predominantly African American. They have several thousand churches in the South.
Hopefully my youth can excuse my ignorance…
No problem Chris. That is why I write these posts. I hope to inform others, and my readers certainly inform me.
And my dominant spiritual gift is ignorance!
The SBC churches I know anything about can’t find half their members; many of them have gone to other denominations which don’t ask for a “letter” or to a non-denomination or even died. I personally believe the numbers are all wrong. I recently attended a large church with a membership of 18,000 which had to worship services and the worship center seated 3,200, you do the numbers. But who wants to purge a membership list? I did. We will never get the numbers from non-denominational churches probably, they are growing in this area, popping up everywhere. We have thieves standing in pulpits.
I would be very interested in knowing how many of the 16 million SBC members (or any of the big 15) are in Sunday school (or a small group Sunday Bible study) on a typical Sunday morning. We are currently focusing hard on SS in my church and have achieved 75% of those in worship are in SS on an average Sunday morning and I think we can reach 80%. Of course numbers are just numbers but they are a means of measuring discipleship, commitment, effectiveness, etc. What is a typical in SS vs. in corporate worship %?
Sean –
Typical Sunday school to worship attendance in the SBC is 60%.
I had been wondering the same thing. Now, I know my church is “average.” 🙂
Denominationalism has taken a beating in recent years. Critics say the body of Christ is not divided and they certainly are right about that. But a denomination is nothing more than the gathering of like minded believers around certain beliefs like submersion as a proper mode of baptism, or the bread and wine being only symbolic of the body and blood of Christ. Non-denoms also have distinctive beliefs. I think the reason some groups are larger (without suggesting any divine blessings) is that they hold a high view of Scripture. These faith groups make the claim that the Bible is their sole authority for what they believe and how they practice the faith. That claim lifts Christ up and a lifted Christ draws people to Himself.
I wonder if some of our 16.2 million SBC members are “SBC members” like most of America is “Christian?” They were raised AROUND an SBC church and will even possibly attend on this Sunday (Easter), but never around otherwise. This can make it difficult to see people saved if they don’t believe/know they are lost.
Andrew –
For sure. Less than a majority of the members attend a worship service on a given week.