Decline in US Churches and church members, CoC as a case study.

The rate at which people are leaving the Churches of Christ denomination accelerated markedly over the past 3-4 years.

The denomination was already losing members and congregations at an astounding rate.

The Churches of Christ shrunk by an average of over 930 adherents a month every single month over the past 18 years.

And about 5 Church of Christ congregations dissolved every month, on average, during that time frame.

Still more News

The news gets worse: Data released earlier this year by 21st Century Christian, a publisher that tracks Church of Christ demographics, indicates the rate of decrease greatly accelerated over the last 3 years. In that time, the number of Church of Christ adherents decreased approximately 5% — by far the largest decrease in Church of Christ history that I could find.

That is over 2000 people departing and over 9 congregations dissolving each and every month, on average, for the last 3 years.

The two pictures (Fig.1 and 2) bellow are graphical illustrations of the U.S. Church of Christ Congregations and Members respectively, 1990 – 2017 (Data Source: 21st Century Christian) (see note re error in 2000 membership number in Notes)