In 1890 only about 34 percent of Americans belonged; by 1989 that share was 60 percent, down slightly from its peak of 64 percent in 1970.

This decline may reflect the rise of small storefront congregations, which are missed by membership surveys.

American Protestant clergy were more likely to report being extraverted (57.9%) than introverted (42.1%). American Protestant clergy were more likely than a nationally representative sample of American males to indicate a preference for extraversion.  (American males in a antional sample indicate a greater preference for introversion (54.1%) over extraversion (45.9%).

• Download Recruiting Clergy for Canadian Baptist Churches: A Typological Understanding  by Bruce Fawcett of The University of Wales, Bangor.  January 2006.

Are Young Elders Disappearing? "There has been a dramatic drop in the number and percentage of United Methodist elders under the age of 35 in the last twenty years."

• The number of elders under 35 declined from 3,219 in 1985 to 850 in 2005.
• Young elders as a percentage of all elders dropped from 15.05% in 1985 to only 4.69% in 2005.
• For example, the annual conference with the highest percentage of young elders today has 10%, still five percent below where the whole denomination was just twenty years ago.
• This report documents the declining number of United Methodist elders under age thirty-five over the past twenty years.
  

• Researchers found between 69-94 percent of Christian youths forsake their faith after leaving high school.
  • The Barna Group reported 64 percent loss after college graduation.
  • The Assemblies of God conducted a 10-year study and found 75 percent loss of their students within one year of high school graduation.
  • The Southern Baptists found that number to be even higher at 88 percent loss.
  • Josh McDowell Ministries reports 94 percent fallout within two years of high school graduation.

• Small towns, rural areas and open country are home to only 17% of Episcopal congregations
• Of congregations in or near a city of at least 50,000 population  28% are located in the downtown or central city area
• The vast majority (98%) of Episcopal congregations hold regular worship services every week of the year.
• 39% of Episcopal churches report that attendance is more than 60% of seating capacity at the service with the largest attendance. 

• The survey, sponsored by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, found that 22.3% of congregations reported participating in an interfaith worship service in the past year. 
  • 37.5% congregations reported joining in interfaith community service activities.
• The FACT2005 survey also shows that interfaith worship is significantly higher for interfaith worship in mainline Protestant congregations (30%) than for other Protestantism (17%)

Concerns about whether pastors keep any job long enough are especially common among Southern Baptists (87% of whom feel pastors in their denomination don't tend to stay at one church for enough years); Southern Baptist ministers are also more likely than average to have held multiple positions over their years in the ministry.

• The average American minister has held a paid job in ministry for 19 years, and has spent an average of 15.6 of those years as a senior pastor of one or more churches.
• Ministers at larger churches tended to have a longer tenure -- an average of 8.7 years in their current position, compared to 7.2 years among small churches.
• Among pastors who are part of a denomination, 19% are assigned to positions by their denomination, while 81% are free to choose their own job.
• The average length of time with their current church is 8.2 years among those who are free to select their own job, but only 4.9 years among those who are assigned to a church.
• Only 31% feel the average pastor in their denomination stays as senior pastor of a church about the right amount of time.
• Thirty-three percent believe the average tenure is a little too short, and 26% feel it is much too short.
• Almost three out of four pastors who are assigned jobs by their denomination (73%) feel ministers do not get to spend enough years at any one church, compared to 57% among those who get to select their own position.

• Download PowerPoint® Slides 

• Sixty-five percent of Protestant teens report attending church at least once a month.
• Slightly less than 50 percent of Protestant teens report current activity in a religious youth group, having ever been to a religious summer camp and having gone on a religious retreat.
• Teens who report regularly attending religious services (at least two to three times a month) are more likely to participate in these religious activities than are teens who do not regularly attend religious services. 
• The majority of Protestant teens appear to hold to the most basic Christian beliefs:
  • Ninety percent say they believe in God.
  • Forty-four percent say they feel very or extremely close to God, meaning that more than half of Protestant teens do not feel this close to God.

• Of the 112,232 students polled from 236 colleges and universities, 44 percent called themselves religious, 35 percent said they are "spiritual but not religious" and 18 percent said that they are neither religious nor spiritual.
• Indicators of student spirituality
  • Believe in the sacredness of life 83%
  • Have an interest in spirituality 80%
  • Search for meaning/purpose in life 76%
  • Have discussions about the meaning of life with friends 74%
  • My spirituality is a source of joy 64%
  • Seek out opportunities to help me grow spiritually 47%

• Young people of the Lutheran church who experience only 1 to 10 of the assets, 9% say that being religious or spiritual is important.
  • 52% of those who experience 31 to 40 of the assets believe that being religious or spiritual is "quite" or "extremely" important.
• Average # of assets reported out of the 40 by the Lutheran church among youth
  • 19.3 %-all youth
  • 21.4%-involved in a congregation each week