ELCA membership slips below 5 million

Lutheran, The, Oct 2004

"The statistical back door is far too large in our congregations. Back-door losses muffle front-door gains," said ELCA secretary Lowell G. Almen in announcing the ELCA's membership statistics for 2003. "Too many members slip out the back door and disappear ... each year."

ELCA baptized membership slipped below 5 million in 2003, with 4,984,925 parishioners in 10,657 congregations-a reduction of 53,081-Almen reported. Since 1990, membership has decreased a quarter million from 5,240,739. About half that decline occurred in 2002-03, with a combined decrease of 114,952.

Reports showed the loss was due to fewer new members, the disbanding of 36 congregations and "roll cleaning." In 2002-03, roll cleaning (inactive members who indicate no interest in continued participation are removed from congregational rolls) resulted in a combined loss of 367,184 members. In addition, eight congregations with a combined membership of 11,020 withdrew from the ELCA in 2003.

The decrease in ELCA membership reflects a pattern reported by many U.S. church bodies during this period, Almen noted.

Other 2003 findings:

* The average number of people in worship on Sundays dropped slightly. About 1.5 million or 30 percent of all baptized members participate in worship each week. Average worship attendance has fluctuated in the ELCA between 30 percent and 31 percent.

* Confirmed membership decreased by 33,402 to 3,724,321.

* Communing and contributing membership fell 44,730 to 2,349,855, following a decline of 65,911 in 2002.

* Almost 3 percent of ELCA baptized members were identified as people of color or whose primary language is other than English, a slight increase from 2.75 percent in 2002.

Congregational income grows

The Office of the secretary reported that income for ELCA congregations in 2003 was nearly $2.6 billion.

Total receipts amounted to $2,554,509,414, up 2.45 percent or :. $61.2 million from 2002. The 2003 increase exceeded the 1.7 percent growth experienced in 2002. In 2002-03, congregation receipts grew more than $100 million.

Other income findings for 2003 include:

* Funds held by congregations in endowments and investments almost matched regular giving. Congregations held nearly $1.7 billion in savings and investments, endowments and memorial funds-up $55,085,966 from 2002.

* The average regular giving per confirmed member was $550, up nearly 3 percent. The increase in 2002 over 2001 was 1.54 percent, and 2001 over 2000 was up almost 4 percent.

* Total disbursements by ELCA congregations for local operating expenses amounted to nearly $1.7 billion. That represented an increase of $51 million (3 percent) over 2002. "Mission support"-funds passed from congregations to synods and the churchwide organization to support national and international ministries-decreased 1.25 percent following a decline of 1.7 percent the previous year.

* Synodically related "special benevolences" grew by 6 percent or nearly $1 million to $16,918,758. Income for community benevolent causes was up almost 2 percent to $33,545,914 in 2003.

* Sixty-four percent of ELCA congregations reported that they had no debt in 2003. Estimated value of assets owned by congregations exceeded $16 billion.