Growing Churches

Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion, by the University of California Press. Finke is co-author with Dr. Rodney Stark, professor of sociology and comparative religion at the University of Washington.

Finke notes that the mainline Protestant churches, at the time of their founding, served a conservative and sometimes even an ultra strict constituency. A classic example would be the Methodist Church, which began as a sect during the 18th century "Great Awakening" in England and was imported by the Wesleys to the American colonies. Famed for its camp meetings, American Methodism flourished in the 19th century, founded dozens of colleges and universities and in 1850 made up one-third of all churchgoers in the United States -- in that year, it had 117 members out of every 1,000 Americans.

"Throughout most of the 20th century, the Methodist clergy have pressed for increased `relevance' and liberalism while downplaying the core Christian doctrines of sin and salvation,’ says Finke. "Their success in doing so has been mirrored by a corresponding decline in membership, with the result that by 1990 only 36 out of 1,000 Americans were Methodists."

In 140 years Methodists went from 117 members per thousand-mpt-to 36 mpt or a loss of 87 mpt.