First person: Are churches facing a ‘demographic winter’?

The aging faithful within our congregations are a blessing and an essential resource that is too often overlooked. However, it is also true that within a few decades, much of this cohort will have entered eternity. If Ryan Burge’s chart is correct, there will not be enough GenXers, Millennials and Zoomers to sustain many of these denominations.
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First person: Are churches facing a ‘demographic winter’?

In January, statistician Ryan Burge posted demographic breakdown of 20 Protestant denominations, showing the percentage of “Boomers” in each. Across Protestant denominations, both mainline and evangelical, a disproportionately large number of congregants are in their 60s, 70s and 80s.

The aging faithful within our congregations are a blessing and an essential resource that is too often overlooked. However, it is also true that within a few decades, much of this cohort will have entered eternity. If Burge’s chart is correct, there will not be enough GenXers, Millennials and Zoomers to sustain many of these denominations.

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First person: Demographics, decline and getting ‘back to the basics’

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