United Church of Christ lost over 286K members, 550 churches in last decade: report
The United Church of Christ declined by over 286,000 members from 2012 to 2022, according to recently released statistics on the theologically liberal mainline Protestant denomination.
A recent report by the UCC Center for Analytics, Research & Development and Data found that, from 2012 to 2022, the denomination experienced a net loss of 286,610 members and 551 congregations.
Additionally, from 2020 to 2022, the UCC went from having 4,794 congregations to 4,603 congregations, with membership dropping from approximately 773,000 to approximately 712,000.
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The 2022 membership numbers also represented a sharp decline from 1960, when the denomination reported approximately 2.24 million members, over three times its current count.
According to the report, 128 congregations were removed from UCC records in 2022, an increase of 50.6% compared to 2021, when 85 congregations were removed.
The report states that this sharp increase could be “related to a new policy from the UCC’s Board of Directors that removes churches from records after two years of being marked inactive unless the Conference requests an extension or otherwise updates an inactive designation.”
“Since this was the first year the policy was enacted, the number of inactive churches removed is not expected to be as high in subsequent years; future years of data collection will demonstrate whether removals return to previous levels,” the report reads.
The UCC report acknowledges a considerable decline from 2005 to 2007, when “the UCC experienced a loss of nearly three congregations per week on average” due to its 2005 General Synod passing a resolution supporting same-sex marriage.
CARDD Director Erica Dollhopf said in a statement last week that she hopes the report, which details data on a host of trends in the UCC, can help local congregations “identify places where their church might have particular strengths and to find inspiration for how their church might find new pathways to flourishing.”
Dollhopf also noted that, according to the report, smaller UCC congregations tended to have the highest percentage of volunteer engagement for their assorted projects and ministries.
“This finding highlights the particular gifts of smaller churches — they tend to be close-knit, highly involved communities,” she continued. “The smallest churches by membership size tend to have the most people attending in-person worship relative to membership.”
“While not everyone who attends worship is necessarily a church member, this calculation is another way to approximate engagement, which generally is highest within smaller churches.”
The statistical report also shows that 83.1% of the denomination is white, while 4.8% is African American, 4% is Asian or Pacific Islander, and less than 1% is Hispanic.
The Great Lakes region, an area that includes Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, had the highest percentage of UCC members at 30.6%.
Behind the Great Lakes region is the Mid-Atlantic region, with 20% of UCC members; in third place is the New England region, which has 19.7% of the denomination’s members.
The Western region, which includes the West Coast and goes as far east as Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming, has only 9.4% of the members and 13.1% of the congregations.
Last July, at their 2023 General Synod meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, the UCC elected the Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson to be its first female president and general minister.
In her nomination speech before the General Synod last year, Thompson said that “hope springs forth” within the UCC, with the denomination being “the place where we have seen the Spirit of God poured forth among us in many ways.”
“Here is where we honor the resilience of those who came before us, took risk and oftentimes did more with less than we currently have. And here is the place we identify as now, as we ponder the call of God to be salt and light to the world,” Thompson stated.
