Membership Trends
The WELS experienced significant growth during much of the twentieth century. In 1925, there were 139,226 members in 662 churches. By 1950 there were over 300,000 members. Membership peaked in the early 1990s at just over 400,000 and has declined slightly since that time. In 2006 the denomination reported 395,497 members in 1,276 congregations. Wisconsin remains the geographic center of the denomination, with over 400 churches and over 200,000 members. Other than Wisconsin, the states with the highest rates of adherence are South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, and Nebraska.
Read more about this topic: Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
Famous quotes containing the words membership and/or trends:
“The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don’t acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)
“A point has been reached where the peoples of the Americas must take cognizance of growing ill-will, of marked trends toward aggression, of increasing armaments, of shortening tempers—a situation which has in it many of the elements that lead to the tragedy of general war.... Peace is threatened by those who seek selfish power.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)