What is mainline Protestantism?
I am a lifelong mainline Protestant. I spent most of my life in the United Methodist Church, attended a Presbyterian church for one year, a United Methodist/United Church of Christ merger for one year, and for the last twelve years have been a Lutheran (ELCA). In this article, I will write about what they and several other denominations have in common, the problems contributing to their declining membership, and why I believe mainline Protestantism may hold the key to Christianity’s future.
Definition
According to Joe Carter, writing in 2021 for The Gospel Coalition, no one really knows where the term “mainline” comes from, though it appears to come from the first association to bring together Protestant denominations, the Federal Council of Churches in 1908, which was located along the Philadelphia Main Line (a group of affluent suburbs there). In the 1920s. the term began to identify American churchgoers who sided with modernists in the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy. 1
In 1989, William Hutchison called the seven major mainline denominations the “seven sisters of American Protestantism.” While a number of smaller denominations can also be considered mainline, the “seven sisters” are: American Baptist Churches USA, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church.
While it is convenient to tag mainline Protestants as “liberal,” Mr. Carter notes that it would be more accurate to say that mainline Protestantism embraces a diversity of theological perspectives, ranging from conservative to radical.
Mainline churches have suffered massive losses of membership
The Pew Research Religious Landscape Study, taken in 2023-2024, states that 62% of U.S. adults identify as Christians, of which 11% are mainline Protestant (after Evangelical Protestant 23% and Roman Carholic 19%).
Every one of the “seven sisters” has experienced a long-term decline in membership, as evidenced by 2021 General Social Survey data by the Public Religion Research Institute. Collectively, affiliation with mainline denominations dropped between from about 32% of Christians in 1974 to 12% in 2018. Membership reports from mainline denominations present an even starker picture: While the American Baptist Convention lost only 4% in the 2010s, the others lost between 15% (United Methodist Church) 2 and 40% for the Disciples of Christ and the Presbyterian Church of the USA.
Even some conservative denominations are losing membership to non-denominational churches. The Southern Baptist Convention share of Americans dropped from about 9% in 1990 to about 3% in 2022. A 2024 analysis by Tyler Hummel for Baptist News Global comments, “Survey any nondenominational megachurch in the American South and you’ll find a lot of former Southern Baptists there.” Mr. Hummel observes that this entire discussion involves only a minority of the American public today, citing a Gallup survey in 2024 showing that 43% of Americans “seldom or never” attend a church service.
Why?
Mainline Protestants avoid evangelism
James Emory White, writing for churchandculture.org, gives a simple (but not simplistic) answer:
The church is in decline because we are turned inward instead of outward. Our hearts are not breaking for what breaks the heart of God, which is people facing a Christ-less eternity. And sadly, only a simple “invite” is all that is often needed: “Come and see, come and hear, come and explore.”
Evangelism, even on this basic level, is very uncomfortable for many Christians, especially mainline Protestants. So local church memberships get older and older, until church membership gets down to 20 or less, and either finances or the inability to maintain the property forces the church to close.
I suggest that evangelism is a bad word for mainline Protestants because the word evokes a subtext of obnoxious. We have encountered aggressive door-to-door pitches from Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons, and have had fundamentalist tracts shoved into our hands in street corners. Yet, if we don’t attract new members, how can we possibly grow – or even survive?
However, there are more effective ways to evangelize. In my observation, the best local churches are the ones who proactively seek to serve their communities in outreach ministries. There are many outreach opportunities out there: food banks and clothing and furniture ministries for those in need, English as a Second Language centers for recent immigrants, provide logistical and financial support for refugees from other lands, free dinner once a week, special children’s events at Christmas, Easter, and even Halloween (“Trunk or Treat”). Churches can host support groups like Alcoholics and other Anonymous groups, bereavement support groups, provide food and clothing for homeless shelters, sew pillowcases for places like Ronald McDonald Houses. 3 One United Methodist Church here in Columbus has taken an aggressively proactive role in turning its neighborhood around.
At the very minimum, churches can be more inviting places for those who drop in for a service. Christians must go outside their comfort zone, befriend newcomers, and help acclimate them to the service. On that note, we also must make sure worship is an exciting experience that helps us connect our hearts to Christ. If we have a church worth supporting, we should be so excited about it that we want to share it. I have found that a truly dynamic church has engaging worship as well as a dynamic outreach.
People are confused about what we believe
Greg Smith, writing for sowhatfaith.com, proclaimed in 2021 that he no longer identifies as a mainline Protestant. With the decades-long decline in membership, he argues that “mainline” doesn’t even make sense. There is nothing “main” about it (he hears people derogatorily speaking of us as “sideline” or “oldline,” noting the aging of our congregations). Even “Protestant” is a generational term that does not resonate with anyone under 40. He calls himself a follower of the “Way of Jesus.” Rev. Smith is a clergyman in the Presbyterian Church USA and the United Church of Christ, but even wonders whether self-identifying as “Christian” makes sense in the 2020s.
James L. Evans, writing of the decline of the church in America, thinks the problem is more fundamental to the faith:
In modern preaching, as with the early church represented by the Apostle Paul, the meaning of sin concerns behavior. The remedy for sin, then, is abandoning sinful behaviors so defined.
Eventually, Paul was interpreted by St. Augustine and Augustine by John Calvin. All of this led to a solution to the problem of sin interpreted as a simple confession of faith, followed by a determined effort with the help of the Holy Spirit, to renounce sin in our lives.I would argue that this formula has not produced the sort of spiritual transformation Jesus was proclaiming. And the resulting “community of faith” created by this formula has been susceptible to racism and sexism. It has also led to an alarming amount of violence against sinners and those who reject the simple confession/ acceptance interpretation of the gospel.
I understand sin to be anything that separates us from God. We have come to associate sin with bad behavior, and so preachers speak of Christianity as though it were about behavioral modification. Rev. Evans suggests that, in place of sin, we should be talking about exile.
In both word and action, we need to hear that God has not rejected us because of who we are. We have not been exiled to some lonely separation from God. Instead, we are being eagerly pursued by God, who loves us all and wants us saved.
Now for this mainline Protestant follower of the Way of Jesus, the word saved is loaded with negative evangelistic connotations. Rev. Evans addresses this by urging us to associate salvation with healing:
God wants to heal us from that brokenness and bring us out of exile. Following Jesus – not rites and rituals or proper confessions of faith – leads to that healing.
Christianity has been politicized
Many Americans dislike conservative Christians because they support “Christian” nationalism, a topic I addressed in March. They also dislike liberal Christians for being lukewarm about their faith (an old problem: see Revelation 3:14-22). Rev. Evans, a retired Baptist preacher says this about “Christian” nationalism: “Never mind that their interpretation of Jesus’ ideas has been diluted with fantasies of empire and craving for power. These fantasies create more exiles than they free.”
Most of us on the liberal side of Christianity rightly reject nationalism as being contrary to the Way of Jesus; but we must live with those who paint us with the same brush.
The beginning of a solution
That so many evangelicals have gone to bed with nationalism provides us with an opportunity to preach the Word with grace and compassion, to show that faith is a source of healing, not division. Younger adults often feel disconnected from physical (let alone spiritual) life by technology, loss of community, confused social expectations, and economic struggles that seem insurmountable. Those issues give us much to show them. By teaching the true Way of Jesus and doing all we can to live by His example, we can help mainline Protestantism the Way of Jesus to grow again; reforming not just His church, but the society in which it lives.
Faithful Citizen with Harold Thomas consists of the musings of a mainline Protestant, libertarian Boomer who tries to keep up with the news while remaining true to his faith and the principles of the American Founders. Harold is an author and retired business analyst with degrees in political science and foreign service living in Columbus, Ohio.
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Only the abstract is available to the public. Briefly put, the Fundamentalists wanted to enforce traditional understandings of the Bible and salvation [and in my view, this means interpreting the Bible literally], where Modernists wanted the freedom to adjust traditional belief to fit modern conditions [which means, in my view, that the Bible is to be read with discernment through the eyes of Jesus].
This was before the UMC lost one-quarter of its congregations in 2019-2024, mostly to the more conservative Global Methodist Church.
My own church, a medium-sized (700-800 members) Lutheran (ELCA) church does all of these, except the Anonymous groups. Our membership has been at least steady since I joined in 2012, and has possibly grown a little. One other thing churches should do is be open to more creative ways to worship, which will attract younger people.