Mainline Protestant Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Contrast with other Protestant denominations=== While various Protestant denominations have experienced declining membership, the most pronounced changes have occurred among mainline churches. Demographic trends for evangelical and historically [[African-American church]]es have been more stable. According to the Pew Research Center, mainline churches could claim 14.7 percent of all US adults compared to 25.4 percent who belonged to evangelical churches in 2014.{{Sfn | Pew Research Center | 2015b | p = 20–21}}{{Sfn | Hout | Greeley | Wilde | 2001 | p = 469}}<ref name="Chang">Chang, Perry. "Recent Changes in Membership and Attendance. " Presbyterian Church (U. S. A.) Nov. 2006. Web: [http://www.pcusa.org/research/reports/denominational_size.pdf Presbyterian Church (U. S. A.)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100202221428/http://www.pcusa.org/research/reports/denominational_size.pdf |date=2010-02-02 }}</ref> Demographers Hout, Greeley, and Wilde have attributed the long-term decline in mainline membership and the concomitant growth in the conservative Protestant denominations to four basic causes: birth rates; switching to conservative denominations; departure from Protestantism to "no religion" (i.e. secularization); and conversions from non-Protestant sources.{{Sfn | Hout | Greeley | Wilde | 2001 | p = }} In their analysis, by far the main cause is birth rates—low for the mainline bodies, and high for the conservatives. The second most important factor is that fewer conservatives switch to mainline denominations than before. Despite speculation to the contrary, Hout, Greeley, and Wilde argue that switching from a mainline to a conservative denomination is not important in accounting for the trend, because it is fairly constant over the decades. Finally, conservative denominations have had a greater inflow of converts.{{Sfn | Hout | Greeley | Wilde | 2001 | p = }} Their analysis gives no support for the notion that theological or social conservatism or liberalism has much impact on long-term growth trends.{{Sfn | Hout | Greeley | Wilde | 2001 | p = 494-5}} Evidence from the [[General Social Survey]] indicates that higher fertility and earlier childbearing among women from conservative denominations explains 76% of the observed trend: conservative denominations have grown their own. Mainline denomination members have the lowest birthrate among American Christian groups. Unless there is a surge of new members, rising death rates are predicted to diminish their ranks even further in the years ahead.<ref name="Struckmeyer" /> ====Trends==== {{See also|Protestant work ethic}} [[File:Forest Hills Gardens, Queens, NY.jpg|thumb|right|[[Forest Hills, Queens]] in [[New York City]] area is an affluent area with a population of wealthy mainline Protestants]] Some other findings of the Barna Group: * From 1958 to 2008, mainline church membership dropped by more than one-quarter to roughly 20 million people—15 percent of all American adults. * From 1998 to 2008, there was a 22 percent drop in the percentage of adults attending mainline congregations who have children under the age of 18 living in their home. * In 2009, nearly 40 percent of mainline church attendees were single. This increase has been driven higher by a rise in the number of divorced and widowed adherents. * From 1998 to 2008, volunteerism dropped 21 percent; adult [[Sunday school]] participation decreased 17 percent. * The average age of a mainline pastor in 1998 was 48 and increased to 55 by 2009. * Pastors on average remain with a congregation for four years compared to twice that length for non-mainline church leaders.<ref name="Barna"/> Recent statistics from the Pew Forum provide additional explanations for the decline. * Evangelical church members are younger than those in mainline denominations. Fourteen percent of evangelical congregations are between 18 and 29 (compared to 2 percent), 36 percent between 30 and 49, 28 percent between 50 and 64, and 23 percent 65 or older. Not paralleling the decline in membership is the household income of members of mainline denominations. Overall, it is higher than that of evangelicals: * 25% reported less than a $30,000 income per year. * 21% reported $30,000–$49,999 per year. * 18% reported $50,000–$74,999 per year. * 15% reported $75,000–$99,999 per year. * 21% reported an income of $100,000 per year or more, compared to only 13 percent of evangelicals.{{sfn|Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life|2008b}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page