The Southern Baptist Convention and the Roman Catholic Church – the two largest Christian communions in the country – have joined the ranks of mainline denominations in reporting membership losses, the latest church yearbook shows.
After years of continuous growth, membership in the Roman Catholic Church dropped by 0.59 percent and the Southern Baptist Convention decreased by 0.24 percent, according to the 2009 edition of the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, published this week.
Although the percentage losses are small compared to the total membership of the churches, the yearbook pointed out that the two communions had “grown dependably” over the years and “now they join virtually every mainline church in reporting a membership decline.”
The link above provides the top 25 largest churches, but here’s the top ten.
1. The Roman Catholic Church
2. The Southern Baptist Convention
3. The United Methodist Church
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
5. The Church of God in Christ
6. National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc.
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
8. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.
9. Presbyterian Church (USA)
10. Assemblies of God
I’m quite amazed at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church itself is only about 180 years old and is the fourth largest church. I wonder what things will look like in the next two hundred years, especially since they like to have many children and are very good when it comes to missions.