When Joyce Gibbs began attending Zion Lutheran in Phillipsburg, Kan., in 1954, the congregation had to set up extra chairs in the aisle during worship services. In 1964 a new building was constructed to accommodate the rapidly growing congregation.
“We were really a thriving congregation. We had good attendance, an active junior and senior Luther League, a couples group ...,” said Gibbs, who lives in rural Phillipsburg, with a population of about 2,500.
Today, Zion's average attendance has dwindled to about 50 and Sunday school is now a one-room class with a handful of mixed-aged youth. Lorna Paulus, the pastor who divides her time between Zion and nearby St. John Lutheran Church in Kensington, Kan., attributes the decline to several factors, including the loss of industry in the town, elderly members who have died and lack of young families coming up behind them.
What we're seeing is not just a backlash against hymnals and potlucks. Nearly every U.S. Christian denomination has seen membership declines in the past two years, including Southern Baptists, who seemed invincible in the '70s, '80s and '90s.
And in 2012 the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reported for the first time that the number of Americans identifying as Protestant dipped below half, to 48 percent. Only Roman Catholics seem to be hanging on, which experts attribute to a growing Latino population.
Read more: The Lutheran | The shrinking church: Congregations look for solutions as they face declines in membership, attendance
