With well more than a third of the congregations in the UUA reporting, a trend is setting in that bodes ill: 1% growth. The 398 congregations that certified have a combined membership of 64,519 members, but have only added 667 to “the family.” Again, 310 of those are the Church of the Larger Fellowship, meaning that the CLF plus the top five growers could be acclaimed as contributing all the new growth to the UUA. (If that was fair. Which it isn’t.)
Another growing church of note, and this time we know its (student) pastor from the blogosphere. The First Universalist Church of Eldorado, Ohio (a.k.a. First Unitarian-Universalist) grew from 25 to 34 members, growth of 36%. Cheers to Derek Parker and his church!
Scott – God bless you for noticing our work in Eldorado. Wish I had time to resume the blog, but as you know I have some recent “fish to fry”, and some plans to hatch. The real scandal of Eldorado is our rural location, in a farm town of about 800.
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Anybody got figures on US population growth? That would be a useful comparison…
As a non-member for 12 plus years of a fast growing church I would suggest that people now having children that have recently occupied housing owned by ‘parents’ are finding that ‘going to church’ isn’t a bad thing after all. It also may have to do with a safe place for people to be themselves…
(and i may have something on run on sentences.)