The Realignment of Churches in America

It isn’t just a political realignment taking place in America. There is also a profound realignment of churches. 

For most of our nation’s history, we have categorized churches into two broad categories: denominational and nondenominational. It was neat, easy, and comfortable. If you were a Christian, you were connected to a church in one of two major groups. The labels fit nicely. 

Then, in the denominational category, we had two main groups: mainline and “other” (not all churches in this latter category considered themselves “evangelical”). 

There was also the assumption, mostly correct, that the mainline churches were declining and the “other” churches were not. Those assumptions do not hold today. Mainline churches are not just declining; they are rapidly declining. In 1970, mainline churches accounted for 30% of the U. S. population with about 62 million members. By 2000, the mainline percentage was cut in half to 16% of the