<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by webmaster:
A newly released study of American congregations reveals that almost 67% are strongly loyal to their religious denomination.
This flies directly in the face of the prevailing view that we are in a "post-denominational" period.
Source: Washington Post National Weekly Edition<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Not necessarily. If that figure was 80 or 90 percent a decade ago, then we are moving toward postdenominationalism pretty fast. And that figure probably does not include people who attend post-denominational churches. According to Barna, about 30 percent of all churches in America today are non-denominational, and they hold about 35 percent of the total membership and participation.
Also, the people who tend to be more loyal to their denomination are older, senior adults. Have you looked around to see how many senior adults there are in the typical Baptist church these days? Younger people look at what's inside rather than the name on the door.
I've been on the membership committee of my church for several years, now, and we are seeing a major change in the transfer of membership from and to other churches. Less than half of the people who joined our church by transfer of letter in the past year came from another Baptist church, and close to half of those who moved or left joined a church of either another denomination, or no denominational affiliation. The very existence of a membership "committee" is an acknowledgement of the fact that people, especially younger people, no longer automatically join a church of "like faith and order" but instead look for a church where they will feel part of a community, regardless of the denomination.
We will still have denominations and denominational churches, but a lot of people inside them will have experience in more than one brand of church.
