Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Back in January, statistician Ryan Burge posted demographic breakdowns of 20 Protestant denominations,

showing the percentage of boomers in each cross-prottisan denominations, both mainline and evangelical, it turns out

that there's a disproportionately large number of congregants in their 60s, 70s, and 80s.

Now, the faithful aged within our congregations are a blessing and essential resource, one that's

often overlooked. However, it's also true that within a few decades, much of this cohort

will have entered eternity. And if Burge's chart is correct, there will not be enough Gen Xers,

millennials, and Zoomers to sustain many of these denominations. The percentage of boomers run from a high

of 49% in the liberal Episcopal Church to a low of 24% within the more conservative

Church of Christ. With certain exceptions, the more traditional theology and practice a church

offers, the less likely they are to be aging out. But the converse is also true, and it has

been for a while now. So-called mainline denominations have been hemorrhaging numbers for decades.

They're also increasingly populated by older and wider congregants, and it may be too late for them.

As Birch put it in his book, The Vanishing Church, quote,

When Silverheads outnumbered newborn cries in the pews, the local church is likely crossed a point of no return.

Without young people, especially young couples, it's hard to maintain the same level of membership or attendance.

But attracting young people to a congregation of baby boomers is an almost impossible task.

Thus, it's unlikely that the main line will see any kind of resurgence in the decades to come.

Well, decades ago, many of those mainline denominations chose to accommodate themselves to

theological and moral progressivism. In the end, the churches had nothing to offer that could not

also be heard daily on NPR. And so they kind of lost their own reason to exist.

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