Orlando

Ezra reintroduced the returning remnant to the things of God. They had forgotten who they were and whose they were.

I just returned from a few days talking at the ELCA's new Kidfaith initiative, hosted in Florida. What did I learn there? A lot of good folks are trying to return God's folks to God's ways, but the Lutherans are dying on the vine and parents are expecting the church to do their work for them.

Take a look at the stats and tell me what you see:

General Loss in ELCA

10,585 Congegregations in ELCA - down 5% in last five years

4.9 million baptized - down from 5.2 million in last five years

1.2 million people (25%) estimated under confirmation age in ELCA

273,000 take communion

651,121 (13% of baptized membership) are in Sunday School

Sunday School Participation:

4% Intergenational

19% Adult ed

2% Young Adult

10% High School

16% Middle School

15% Preschool

Key Age

9 years old - the age most boys decide one way or another if church is going to be a part of their lives or if it is an irrelevant waste of time

Men's Maturity

9% of Lutheran men have an integrated, mature faith

 

Diversity

20% of population in US are children of color

2% of Lutherans are people of color

 

VBS

323,923 go to VBS

55% Elementary

31% Preshcool

7$% middle School

1% High School

0% Young Adult (yeah, that's nobody)

2% Adult

4% Intergenerational

 

In Music

Birth to 2 6%

Preschool 17%

Lower Ele 18%

Upper Elementary 19%

InterGen 10%

ELCA Schools

1743 PRESCHOOLS

297 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

14 HS

225,000 STUDENTS EVERY YEAR

20,000 TEACHERS

What do you see?

Comments

[Rich Hoeg]

These stats tell me that the traditional Lutheran Church is failing in it's mission. Keep up the good work and reverse the trend.