Americans have fewer Protestant churches to attend, a recently released survey shows. While 3,000 churches were started in the United States, 4,500 closed in the year before COVID-19.
The Lifeway Research 2019 survey covered 34 denominations and groups. Just five years earlier, 4,000 Protestant churches opened while 3,700 closed.
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The numbers coincide with a bleak 2020 poll by Gallup that showed a decline of membership of all churches, synagogues, and mosques to less than 50% for the first time in 80 years, data shows.
Gallup started collecting data in 1937, when church membership was 73%, compared to 47% last year, as the country was in the throes of the COVID-19 lockdown. Although most states had stay-at-home orders except for essential services at some point in 2020, 10 states refused to allow church services of any kind.
“Certainly, the pandemic will show even more challenging numbers, and though they may be a blip, the larger trend is concerning,” said Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center.
Gallup asks more than 6,000 adults a series of questions on their religious attitudes and practices twice each year. The data is compiled for three-year time periods, and from 1998 to 2000, the membership averaged 69%.
The decline is based on respondents who said they had no religious preference.
Newly opened churches are usually more effective at drawing members who don’t attend a church, the study showed. However, economics make it more feasible to revive struggling churches.
“Over the last decade, most denominations have increased the attention they are giving to revive existing congregations that are struggling,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “This has been more than a fad. This has been a response to a real, growing need to revitalize unhealthy congregations.”
Whether church membership can rebound remains to be seen.
California had the nation’s most severe lockdown, with Gov. Gavin Newsom refusing to declare the churches essential and thereby shuttering most of them for a year. About 10% opened on a limited basis due to a sliding scale based on the number of COVID-19 infections in each county.
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Newsom recently lost a federal lawsuit that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. He was ordered to pay $1.35 million in costs and attorney fees to Harvest Rock Church, which remained open during most of the shutdown.
