RT Article
T1 God is Doing a New Thing in the ELCA: Trends from the FACT Data
JF Theology today
VO 78
IS 3
SP 256
OP 266
A1 Coe, Deborah L.
A1 Petersen, Brad
LA English
PB Sage Publ.
YR 2021
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1772719617
AB For decades, mainline Protestant denominations in the United States have experienced steady membership declines. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is no different, and our research team has been exploring this topic for years. Faith Communities Today (FACT) is an interfaith project consisting of a series of surveys conducted by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, of which the ELCA is a long-standing member. In this article, we examine data collected from the three decennial FACT surveys to discern where, despite declining membership, God is, to quote the prophet Isaiah, “doing a new thing.” We find that over the past twenty years, the typical ELCA congregation has had a gradually increasing: sense of vitality, belief that it is financially healthy, desire to become more diverse, willingness to call women to serve as pastors, openness to change, and clarity of mission and purpose. Because there are multiple possible explanations for these positive trends, we recommend approaching such trend lines cautiously, viewing them through a critical-thinking lens. Even though there is an increased perception of congregational well-being, overall finances and the number of people involved in the church continue to decline. There is still much work to be done.
K1 Vitality
K1 Survey
K1 Faith Communities Today
K1 mainline
K1 Lutheran
K1 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
DO 10.1177/00405736211030225