15,000 churches could close this year amid religious shift in U.S.
The U.S. could see an unprecedented 15,000 churches shut their doors this year, far more than the few thousand expected to open, according to denominational reports and church consultants.
Why it matters: The unprecedented contraction, expected to continue over the next decade, risks leaving gaps in communities nationwide — particularly rural ones, where churches often are crucial providers of food aid, child care and disaster relief.
The decline of traditional brick-and-mortar churches comes as a record number of Americans (29%) are identifying as religiously unaffiliated, and as 62% identify as Christians — down from 78% in 2007, according to the Pew Research Center.
At the same time, mostly non-denominational megachurches — and evangelical Christianity in general — are an increasing influence on American life, driven by charismatic leaders, sympathetic politicians and social media.
The record number of church closings forecast this year stems from struggles many churches face — including retaining full-time pastors, said Thom Rainer, a former president of LifeWay Christian Resources, an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention that provides resources for churches.
In a widely shared Baptist Courier piece, Rainer — a consultant on church health — said that waves of church closings are coming, and that another 15,000 U.S. churches will move from full- to part-time time pastors.
The National Council of Churches estimates that 100,000 U.S. churches across denominations will close during the next several years, confirming Rainer's analysis.
Mainline Protestant denominations such as Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran represent nearly all the church closings, said Ryan Burge, a political scientist.
The number of Catholic churches also appears to be declining, partly because of the continuing following from priest abuse lawsuits, said Andrew Chesnut, the Bishop Walter F. Sullivan chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Baltimore's Catholic Archdiocese, the nation's oldest, is slashing its churches by about two-thirds, citing shrinking attendance and aging buildings, according to the AP.
https://www.axios.com/2025/10/03/us-chur...christians
The U.S. could see an unprecedented 15,000 churches shut their doors this year, far more than the few thousand expected to open, according to denominational reports and church consultants.
Why it matters: The unprecedented contraction, expected to continue over the next decade, risks leaving gaps in communities nationwide — particularly rural ones, where churches often are crucial providers of food aid, child care and disaster relief.
The decline of traditional brick-and-mortar churches comes as a record number of Americans (29%) are identifying as religiously unaffiliated, and as 62% identify as Christians — down from 78% in 2007, according to the Pew Research Center.
At the same time, mostly non-denominational megachurches — and evangelical Christianity in general — are an increasing influence on American life, driven by charismatic leaders, sympathetic politicians and social media.
The record number of church closings forecast this year stems from struggles many churches face — including retaining full-time pastors, said Thom Rainer, a former president of LifeWay Christian Resources, an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention that provides resources for churches.
In a widely shared Baptist Courier piece, Rainer — a consultant on church health — said that waves of church closings are coming, and that another 15,000 U.S. churches will move from full- to part-time time pastors.
The National Council of Churches estimates that 100,000 U.S. churches across denominations will close during the next several years, confirming Rainer's analysis.
Mainline Protestant denominations such as Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran represent nearly all the church closings, said Ryan Burge, a political scientist.
The number of Catholic churches also appears to be declining, partly because of the continuing following from priest abuse lawsuits, said Andrew Chesnut, the Bishop Walter F. Sullivan chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Baltimore's Catholic Archdiocese, the nation's oldest, is slashing its churches by about two-thirds, citing shrinking attendance and aging buildings, according to the AP.
https://www.axios.com/2025/10/03/us-chur...christians
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
