Generally, I don’t like being negative or dwelling on negative thoughts, and so I don’t like being told the Lutheran church will not exist in America after 2044 due to the rapid rate of decline.  So, I thought I would do a bit of investigation, and see if there really is such a rapid rate of decline in the Spokane area as is being reported in the rest of the country.  I looked into the membership numbers, and average attendance of the 16 churches in Spokane since 1990.

Unfortunately, the numbers were not pretty to look at.  Out of the 16 churches, only 2 had grown in numbers of weekly attendance since 1990.  Generally, membership numbers were down by the thousands, and though weekly attendance fluctuated, over the period 14 of the 16 churches were hugely down.

This does not bode well for the future.  Churches have closed, are closing, and no doubt will continue to close.  On the flip side, some people in the churches will tell you how great their church is.  There is no doubt that the Lutheran Churches are doing effective ministry for their own members, but the only form of evangelism in our churches is to hope that other church shopping Lutherans will join our individual church.  I believe this to be the “success” of the two growing Lutheran churches (St. Mark’s and St. Luke’s for your information).

People church shopping does not make a difference to the Kingdom of God; only when people who are not Christians come to believe are we changing the Kingdom.  I figure this may come down to being bigger than a Lutheran problem, and in fact be a cultural problem.  Even though we see some churches in our area growing at remarkable rates, the number of people attending church in the area has dropped remarkably.  I figure, church growth in such churches is just at the expense of other churches, and not because of evangelism.

I truly pray that at some stage, we will change our ways.  That we find a mission where we:  share the gospel always, challenge non believers, and make a difference in the community.

Gordon Fitch

Children’s, Youth, and Family Ministries

(509) 362-1182

gordonfitch@gmail.com