News

LCMS statistics for 2016: membership down, contributions up

Comments (6)
  1. David Brugge says:

    It seems to me that the response rate might be a referendum on the overall satisfaction with synod.

  2. Mark Werling says:

    The smaller LCMS churches need to band together, either through consolidation or informal networking across congregations. I recently ran the Detroit marathon for United Way and was amazed to see the suburban mega church teams competing in the marathon — large numbers of people in colorful matching shirts, with impressive fund raising totals for great causes. Lutherans need to keep up with that, or our membership will continue peeling off to the mega church Calvinists.

  3. Carl H says:

    I’ve seen something like this in other organizations: Headquarters wants data for high-level planning and budgeting, but the benefit to the local office is neither immediate nor direct, and local concerns are always demanding attention. So the quality and timeliness of the data provided is lacking. Still, one might reasonably expect that members of an organization that purportedly pursues virtue and integrity — a church body, for instance — would largely heed their own bylaws or, if the administrative burden is excessive, change them.

  4. Jim says:

    I’m going to guess the reason the younger people are not coming to church is what they learn in school and collage. Its anti God pro science

  5. The article did not say when this survey went out, but if it is like other questionnaires from Synod, it was likely long, incredibly detailed, and complicated. Please take a lesson from industry, the best survey is one that will have excellent participation, can be followed up by phone and assistance given, and gives raw data needed. Results are available quickly, addressing the perceived issues, and identifying trends that maybe addressed not ignored. Don’t spin the results, learn from them! Don’t try and validate Synod actions, recognize mistakes, change and adapt, and go forward. The Lutherans who are farmers and ranchers know this all to well. We have had to change, adapt, meet market conditions while staying true to our core values. Get with the program, address the obvious, or be content with trends and be ready to have wholesale belt tightening at all levels of governance! Look at our churches, the ones that normally are the worker bees have aged and can no longer work. We have brought in our farm crew to do the heavy lifting on several projects.

  6. Alan G. says:

    We are seeing major decline and change in demographics in N Idaho. Lots of locals leaving or dying and the new people coming in are mostly weekenders: coming to town Friday night, playing all day Saturday, and heading home Sunday.

    It poses a major challenge on how to sustain the congregation as our elderly people move on when the new people moving in are only here a couple of weekends a month and come to play, not go to church…..