Mainline churches to disappear in U.S. in 40 years?

The Baptist Standard reports:

• Self-identified Baptists have dropped from 19.3% to 15.8% of the population.
• Mainline Protestants have dropped from 18.7% of the population to only 12.9%; Methodists went from 8% to 5%. At that rate, the mainline will die within 40 years.

Survey Offers In-Depth Look at Mainline Protestant Clergy| Christianpost.com

From Christianpost.com: "Survey Offers In-Depth Look at Mainline Protestant Clergy."

Almost half (48 percent) of all surveyed clergy from the seven largest mainline denominations say they are liberal while 34 percent identify as conservative. Also, 56 percent of mainline clergy identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared to 34 percent of those who affiliate with the Republican Party, results from the Mainline Protestant Clergy Voices Survey (CVS) show.

The survey, released Friday, was conducted by Public Religion Research and is reported as the largest survey of mainline clergy in seven years and the broadest ever in scope. The research group, which studies the intersection of religion, values, and public policy, surveyed senior clergy from the United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, American Baptist Churches USA, Presbyterian Church USA, Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

With the exception of United Methodist and American Baptist clergy, a majority of clergy in every denomination identify as liberal. Clergy from United Church of Christ (74 percent) and the Episcopal Church (66 percent) are most likely to say they are liberal.

Survey Finds Drop in Percentage of Americans Identifying as Christian

From washingtonpost.com: "Trinity College Program on Public Values Survey Finds Drop in Percentage of Americans Identifying as Christian."

The percentage of Americans who call themselves Christians has dropped dramatically over the past two decades, and those who do are increasingly identifying themselves without traditional denomination labels, according to a major study of U.S. religion being released today.

Survey: Non-Religious Americans on the Rise in Every State| Christianpost.com

From Christianpost.com: "Survey: Non-Religious Americans on the Rise in Every State."

The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), released on Monday, shows that the percentage of Americans claiming no religion, which jumped from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 14.2 in 2001, has now increased to 15 percent.

America's Unfaithful Faith

From Time Magazine: "America's Unfaithful Faith":

"Americans are some of the most religious people in the world — but a huge survey noted that the religion in question changes with astonishing frequency. A 35,000-person poll by the Pew Forum for Religion & Public Life found that 28% of U.S. adults have left their cradle faith for another one — 44% if you're talking about denominations rather than faiths. The poll suggests great national piety coupled with remarkable disdain for the multi-generational doctrinal and ethnic ties that used to define American religion.

Many Christians Claim Unbiblical Spiritual Gifts, Survey Finds| Christianpost.com

From the Christian Post, "Many Christians Claim Unbiblical Spiritual Gifts, Survey Finds"

About one-fifth (21 percent) of respondents who said they have heard of spiritual gifts claimed to have gifts such as a sense of humor, singing, health, life, happiness, patience, a job, a house, compromise, premonition, creativity, and clairvoyance – ones that are not among those deemed to be spiritual gifts in the passages of Scripture that teach about gifts, according to a Barna Group report released Monday.

Pew Forum survey on religion in United States

In February 2008, The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released a "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" and posted online in PDF format. It is full of interesting statistics and tidbits of inormation bound to become sermon fodder in a pulpit near you.