Independent, nondenominational churches on the rise, book asserts

DURHAM, N.C. (ABP)—About one in five American Protestant churches is independent of any de-nomination, and about one in five Protestants attends those independent churches, Duke sociologist Mark Chaves reports in his new book, American Religion: Contemporary Trends.  

Chaves, professor of sociology, religion, and divinity at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and director of the National Congregations Study, said the number of Protestants attending independent churches increased from 14 percent in 1989 to 19 percent in 2006.

Mark Chaves

"If the unaffiliated congregations were all in one denomination, they would constitute the second-largest in number of participants (behind only the Roman Catholic Church) and the largest number of congregations," Chaves writes.

"Although most Protestant churches are denominational, a noticeable and growing minority are not formally affiliated with any denomination."

Chaves says an increase of 5 percentage points in the number of people attending independent churches may not seem like much, but he noted growth occurred over a period of just eight years. Those numbers probably understate the cultural significance of the trend, because denominational affiliations seem to be decreasingly important to congregations and their members even when they do exist, he added.

Nearly two-thirds of Protestant megachurches formally belong to a denomination, Chaves said, but many downplay those connections. Even though the annual income of denominationally affiliated congregations increased faster than inflation between 1998 and 2006 in real dollars, the amount of money those congregations passed on to their denominational offices declined from about 5 percent of their income in 1998 to 4 percent in 2006.

While some congregations re-duced contributions to a denomination to protest its policies or priorities, Chaves said, decline in denominational giving is "a longer-term trend driven mainly by the rising costs of running a local congregation."

Chaves devotes one chapter in the book to the so-called "mainline decline." He notes the percentage of Americans affiliated with theologically more liberal mainline denominations has declined steadily since 1972, while the percentage of people in more conservative evangelical congregations increased slightly until the 1990s and has remained stable since then. By 2008, twice as many people claimed affiliation with conservative de-nominations as with theologically more liberal ones—28 percent compared to 14 percent.

While "one of the best-known religious trends of the last several decades," Chaves contends the decline of liberal Protestantism "often is misunderstood."

"It is commonly believed that this trend is the result of people fleeing liberal de-nominations for more conservative churches, but this is not what happened," Chaves writes. "Indeed the flow of people from more liberal to more conservative denominations started to slow exactly when conservative churches made their greatest gains relative to liberal denominations."

Among people born before 1950 and raised in a mainline denomination, 16 percent shifted to a more conservative denomination as adults. But beginning with those born in the 1960s, more raised in a mainline church became religiously unaffiliated than became evangelical.

"The most important trend is not an increased flow from liberal to conservative churches," he writes. "Rather the most important change is decreased flow of people in the other direction. In the not-too-distant past, conservative denominations lost many more people to liberal denominations than they do now."

Upward social mobility was a big reason people formerly flocked to the mainline churches, Chaves said. Among upwardly mobile people who were raised as conservative Protestants, 28 percent of those born before 1931 switched to a more liberal denomination as an adult.

Chaves noted women in conservative evangelical churches tend on average to bear one more child than their liberal Protestant counterparts. While that may not seem significant, over the course of several generations, the impact multiplies.

As denominations lose members or resources, Chaves said, cuts to national and regional staffs often follow, resulting in a weakened denominational infrastructure. Many people don't seem bothered by that, perhaps because they think of waste and inefficiency in denominational agencies, they disapprove with some of the initiatives pursued by denominational agencies or they think congregations can find materials and services that denominational agencies traditionally provided somewhere else.

Given that, it may be surprising how often congregations turn to their denomination for help and resources. One congregation in four received some sort of direct help, expertise or service from a denomination in the last year, Chaves noted.

More than 90 percent of the outside help congregations received on personnel or staff issues came from denominational sources, Chaves reported. Only on building and facilities issues did a majority of the consulting help used by congregations come from other than a denominational source.