Protestant denominations cutting staff, trying new ideas
When the Episcopal Church recently announced cutting 14 workers from its national staff, it was the latest in a long-running cycle among historic US Protestant denominations—declines in members leading to declines in funding and thus in staff.
And it wasn’t alone.
The Presbyterian Church (US) also announced 12 cuts to its staff at its headquarters and 35 from its global missions program.
The United Methodist Church, after undergoing a major schism, has settled into a historically low budget, having cut its numbers of bishops and other positions.
While the circumstances vary from one denomination to another, there are some common threads.
Several Protestant denominations are losing members, particularly the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist and other historic mainline groups that have not only been aging and shrinking but have suffered schisms as they moved in more progressive directions.
At the same time, the number of nondenominational churches has grown over the past decade, as have the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated.
Doing with less
As a result, denominations have had to do less with less—not only cutting budgets to balance the bottom line, but making strategic changes and trying out new ideas.
Despite their different structures, “every one of these national bodies really have to deal with changing social contexts and ethos,” said Scott Thumma, codirector of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. “A lot of that has to do with the skepticism around national organizations and institutions.”
In their heyday, denominational offices oversaw mission organizations that sent large numbers of church workers to far corners of the world. They put out officially sanctioned hymnals, devotional guides, magazines and Sunday School materials.
They organized big national conventions that set—and fiercely debated—policy and doctrine. They set standards for how ministers were trained, credentialed and disciplined. They ran historical societies and pension funds for ministers.
Turning 100
The Southern Baptist Convention ‘s Cooperative Program, marking its 100th anniversary this year, is a testament to the traditional idea that it’s more efficient to pool everyone’s money and trust leaders to allocate it wisely.
The convention still runs a large missions program. But its churches aren’t sending as much as they used to.
The SBC has also declined in membership and it faces unique challenges such as litigation following a report on sexual misconduct.
