The 2006 directory, compiled by Carl H. Royster in consultation with Mac Lynn, reports 12,963 a cappella churches of Christ at the end of 2005.
Those congregations had 1,265,844 baptized members, according to the directory, published by 21st Century Christian in Nashville, Tenn. Both figures represent declines from 13,155 congregations and 1,276,621 baptized members when the last edition of the directory was published in 2003.
“As a general rule,
it seems like the smaller congregations were getting smaller and the larger
congregations were getting larger,” Royster said. “But there were plenty of
exceptions to that.
“To say I had
something definite to attribute (the decline) to, I can’t.”
The number of
adherents — which includes children of members — fell to 1,639,495, down from
1,656,717 three years ago.
Some of the decline
could be attributed to a cappella churches that started using instruments since
2003 and fell off the list, Royster said. Since 1980, the overall U.S. population has risen about 25 percent, but
the non-instrumental fellowship has increased only about 2 percent, said Flavil
Yeakley, director of the Harding Center for Church Growth in Searcy, Ark.
By comparison,
instrumental Christian Churches/Churches of Christ grew by 19.6 percent in the
1990s, the second-fastest rate among 15 religious groups in the U.S. that
identify themselves as “Christian” and have 1 million or more adherents,
Yeakley said.
“Only the Mormons
grew faster,” Yeakley said.
The five states with
the most a cappella congregations and members in the 2006 edition are Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
• Texas: 2,137 churches and 284,512 members
(down from 292,646 members in 2003).
• Tennessee: 1,452 churches and 168,876
members (down from 169,992 members in 2003).
• Alabama: 888 churches and 91,551 members
(down from 93,065 members in 2003).
• Arkansas: 748 churches and 68,640 members
(down from 68,784 members in 2003).
• Oklahoma: 593 churches and 62,322 members (down from 63,581 members in 2003).
TO SEE MORE FIGURES from the 2005 survey, go online to www.christianchronicle.org.
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