ELCA membership continues downward slide

by Daniel Burke
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON — Continuing a 14-year slide, membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America dropped in 2005 to just over 4.85 million baptized members, according to a church news release.
   
     The ELCA’s baptized membership declined by 79,663 in 2005, or 1.62 percent, the largest such drop in at least 15 years, according to a report issued Aug. 1 by the Rev. Lowell Almen, the church’s secretary.
   
     Since 1990, the number of baptized members in the ELCA has declined by about 390,000, the report said. The last time the church reported an increase in baptized members was 1991, according to the church news release.
   
     The church also lost about 48,000 “communing and contributing” members — a category that indicates regular active participation in the church — falling to approximately 2.26 million in 2005.
   
     Church income, however, continued to grow, according to a separate ELCA news release. Total receipts grew by almost $76 million to $2.7 billion in 2005, the church reported.
   
     Of the total 2005 congregational income, about $1.85 billion was received through offerings, a 2.6 percent jump from 2004. In 2005, ELCA congregations held about $1.88 billion in savings, investments, endowments and memorial funds, according to the church.
   
     “Mission support” — money passed from congregations to the ELCA’s 65 synods and to church headquarters to support national and international ministries — decreased slightly in 2005 to about $132 million.
   
     The decline in church membership was due to a decrease in the number of new members, the disbanding of 31 congregations and a “roll cleaning” in many congregations, the church reported. “Roll cleaning,” or removing inactive members, resulted in a drop of 208,436 members in 2005.