One reason for writing the book Faith in a Changing Climate is to provide suggestions as to how we can reverse declining membership and participation.
Church attendance has always gone up and down — America may not be as religious a nation as it thinks it is. In an article entitled America’s on again, off again, relationship with God Stephen Minh notes that church attendance has always fluctuated, from the beginnings of the nation.
Even the Puritans, religious zealots of the highest order, lost much of their initial enthusiasm by the late 1600s. By the 1690s, church membership in the region had plummeted to 15%.
Minh also notes that ‘roughly half the people who claimed they went to church didn’t’.
Nevertheless, the decline in attendance in today’s church seems to be more structural. It is not just part of the normal ups and downs in religious enthusiasm — something deeper seems to be taking place. The sketch shows attendance for the Episcopal Church in the United States from 2011 to 2023.
A simple linear extrapolation tells us that attendance reaches zero somewhere around the year 2040. In fact, before that happens, it is likely that the Episcopal church will merge with another denomination, or that attendance will stabilize. Nevertheless, the trend is ominous.
There are, of course, many reasons for the decline in church participation and religious belief. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic caused permanent losses. However, the decline has gone on for so long, and the trends are so steady, that we have to conclude a major shift in attitudes and beliefs is taking place, and that the church has failed to react to these changes.
It goes without saying that, if the church is to reverse these trends, it needs to attract more young people. It could be that one way to do so is by addressing their concerns to do with climate. Young people believe, quite rightly, that the older generations have failed to care for the planet.