The number of members and congregations of non-instrumental churches of Christ fell 1 percent in the last three years, according to the latest edition of Churches of Christ in the United States. The 2006 directory, compiled by Carl H. Royster in consultation with Mac Lynn, reports 12,963 a cappella churches of Christ at the end of 2005. Those congregations had 1,265,844 baptized members, according to the directory, published by 21st Century Christian in Nashville, Tenn. Both figures represent declines from 13,155 congregations and 1,276,621 baptized members when the last edition of the directory was published in 2003. "As a general rule, it seems like the smaller congregations were getting smaller and the larger congregations were getting larger," Royster said. "But there were plenty of exceptions to that. "To say I had something definite to attribute (the decline) to, I can't." The number of adherents - which includes children of members - fell to 1,639,495, down from 1,656,717 three years ago. Some of the decline could be attributed to a cappella churches that started using instruments since 2003 and fell off the list, Royster said. Since 1980, the overall U.S. population has risen about 25 percent, but the non-instrumental fellowship has increased only about 2 percent, said Flavil Yeakley, director of the Harding Center for Church Growth in Searcy, Ark. By comparison, instrumental Christian Churches/Churches of Christ grew by 19.6 percent in the 1990s, the second-fastest rate among 15 religious groups in the U.S. that identify themselves as "Christian" and have 1 million or more adherents, Yeakley said. "Only the Mormons grew faster," Yeakley said. The five states with the most a cappella congregations and members in the 2006 edition are Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
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