The Disciples of Christ has reported a decline in membership for the year 2017, over a quarter of a million fewer members than it did a decade ago.
For the 2017 calendar year, the mainline Protestant denomination, which is also called the Christian Church, reported 411,140 members and 139,936 average worship attendance.
By contrast, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives, in 2007 the Disciples of Christ reported approximately 689,500 members, representing a loss of nearly 280,000 members in 10 years.
The 2017 numbers are also about half of the reported numbers for the theologically liberal denomination in 2000, when according to ARDA they had approximately 820,000 members.
Cherilyn Williams, spokesperson for the theologically liberal denomination, told The Christian Post on Tuesday that the current numbers are “skewed from previous years” due to their recent decision to “quit adding in estimates for congregations that do not report, which includes some of our newer communities.”
“Losses in membership and attendance can lead to…
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