{"id":87169,"date":"2026-10-02T08:19:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=87169"},"modified":"2026-10-02T08:19:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:19:39","slug":"roughly-100000-churches-most-protestant-expected-to-close-over-next-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/roughly-100000-churches-most-protestant-expected-to-close-over-next-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"Roughly 100,000 Churches, Most Protestant, Expected To Close Over Next Decade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>From CNN:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Summary:<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This piece previews &#8220;Christianity at a Crossroads,&#8221; a four-part PBS documentary series about the decline of American churches and what might reverse it.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>The core problem:<\/strong> Experts project roughly 100,000 US churches will close or be repurposed over the next decade. The article opens with the Rev. Melissa Wagner&#8217;s 2024 farewell sermon at a Michigan Methodist church built for 1,000 people but attended by about 12 elderly members. Attendance has been falling since the 1960s, driven by declining institutional trust, culture-war debates, clergy abuse scandals, and the rise of religious &#8220;nones.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Why it matters beyond churchgoers:<\/strong> About 62% of Americans identify as Christian, and the series says roughly 30% attend weekly. The film argues most churches are &#8220;engines of social good,&#8221; serving as food pantries and aid hubs while volunteerism declines elsewhere. Closures would hurt the broader community, not just members.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Mixed signals:<\/strong> A new Hartford Institute study found in-person attendance rising for the first time in 25 years, along with more giving and volunteering. But it also concluded there will be no return to mid-20th-century levels, and filmmaker Martin Doblmeier expects the closures to continue for a while.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>What works:<\/strong> Thriving churches include immigrant congregations and large churches with strong online audiences (Alfred Street Baptist has about 10,000 members plus 15,000 online viewers). Shared traits include accessible parking, lively music, strong preaching, hospitality, and programming that draws children, whose parents then follow (as at Church of the Nativity near Baltimore). Some return to early-Christian models like home-based small groups.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>A case study in adapting:<\/strong> Christ Congregational Church in Maryland sold its costly building (about $400,000 a year to maintain) and moved into another church&#8217;s basement. Membership stabilized, finances improved, and the pastor says the church &#8220;isn&#8217;t a building.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>The central tension:<\/strong> Doblmeier says many churches fail to adapt because people attend precisely for the comfort of unchanging ritual. The article closes by asking how churches can hold to an unchanging faith while changing enough to survive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From CNN: Summary: This piece previews &#8220;Christianity at a Crossroads,&#8221; a four-part PBS documentary series about the decline of American.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-87169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87170,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87169\/revisions\/87170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}