Report sheds light on disaffiliating churches

Churches disaffiliating from The United Methodist Church are overwhelmingly in the South and Southwest and compared to remaining United Methodist churches are more likely to have a male pastor and a majority white membership.

Those are among the findings of a new Lewis Center for Church Leadership report    that looks at characteristics of departing and staying churches, based on 2019 statistics.

“Many persons have been asking about a systematic comparison since most United Methodist clergy and laity do not have a good picture of the profile of disaffiliating churches and, just as importantly, of those churches not disaffiliating,” the report says.

United Methodist Council of Bishops President Thomas J. Bickerton praised the Lewis Center and particularly the Rev. Lovett H. Weems Jr., senior consultant for the center and lead author of the report, for shedding light on both groups of churches.

Read more at this link.