UMC Remains Third Largest Denomination

March 16, 2007
Newscope

The United Methodist Church ranked third in membership in the 75th edition of the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, published this month by the National Council of Churches and Abington Press. The 2007 edition reports on a record 224 national church bodies and ranks the 25 largest churches by membership. With membership listed at almost 8.1 million people, the UMC follows the Roman Catholic Church and Southern Baptist Convention.

UMC Membership Declines, Giving Grows

April 17, 2007
Newscope

UM membership in the United States has been dropping, but giving is on the rise. So says the new report by the General Council on Finance and Administration. U.S. membership has dropped more than 19% from 1974 to 2005. At the same time, attendance as percentage of membership has increased from 36% in 1974 to nearly 42% in 2005. Professions and restorations of faith are more than 51% of new members today. About half of those are from confirmation classes, whereas 78% were from confirmation classes in 1975. The GCFA report said: “In 2005, giving adjusted for inflation increased for the fifteen consecutive year.” Half of these funds came through pledge giving.

The Church Numbers Game

July 2007
Religion News Service

Differences in theology and accounting make it nearly impossible to really know how many members a denomination has, or whether they are active or occasional worshippers. Roman Catholics, forming the largest U.S. church with a reported 69 million members, start counting baptized infants as members and often don’t remove people until they die. To be disenrolled, Catholics must write a bishop to ask that their baptisms be revoked. That means it is possible to be born Catholic, married Methodist, die Lutheran and still be listed as a Roman Catholic.

The Southern Baptist Convention has 16.2 million members on the books, as many of its churches enroll people after they respond to an altar call. Yet its official reports have only 6 million attending church on an average Sunday. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), 13 million members worldwide, enroll children at baptisms at age 8. United Methodists claim 8 million members in the U.S. Those numbers represent only the “professing membership” – not merely people baptized into the church.