(Note: This is only a snapshot of some of the major denominations or religious groups in the country and is in no way intended to be comprehensive or all inclusive.)
The Church in the United States is in flux as mainstream denominations draw farther and farther from traditionally followed Biblical principles and Evangelicals cling more tightly to those long held beliefs.
The Catholic Church, which remains the single largest denomination in the country, like many other denominations, sees much variance among its individual congregations, despite the fact that it is the most regulated and top- heavy denomination. Generally, Catholic Church doctrine has not changed much over the centuries. Priest are not allowed to marry. Mary, the earthly mother of Jesus is venerated as are many saints, and their statues adorn the churches. Babies are baptized, being sprinkled with holy water, although later adherents to the faith may be baptized by immersion. The Pope is considered the head of the Church, communion is taken every Sunday, but only by Catholics. Other Christians who may be in the congregation are excluded from the sacrament. Abortion is considered murder as life is believed (with scientific evidence to back it up) to begin at conception, and the United States Catholic Bishops Conference voted to draft new teaching on the Eucharist (communion), specifically denying it to Catholics who openly support abortion. This would include the current resident of the White House, although the diocese in Washington D.C. has said they will not deny communion to pro-choice advocates, regardless of the new document by the American Bishops.
A more uniformly liberal denomination is the United Church of Christ. Many of its members do not believe in heaven, a place of reward, and hell, a place of punishment, although most do believe in life after death. The denomination emphasizes the belief that God still speaks to his followers today and that new light and understanding are constantly being revealed through interpretation of the Bible. This evolving theology no longer holds to Biblical truths as they have been understood by Christians for two thousand years and has made the United Church of Christ one of the most progressive denominations.
Also somewhat liberal, the Disciples of Christ have congregations in which beliefs vary on the absolute truth of Scripture. Individual churches range from very fundamental to very liberal with some congregants believing in heaven and hell as literal places and others just trusting God to “work it all out justly.” Although it believes in weekly communion, the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, baptism by immersion to symbolize the death of the old self of a repentant believer and his rebirth in Christ, the church itself does not engage in what they call “speculative theology.” Rather it lets its individual members decide for themselves on theological issues, thus making it a denomination without a creed to help members live their lives. This seems less than helpful.
The Independent Christian Church is not a denomination per se, and prides itself on that. Rather it is a loosely affiliated group of churches that broke away from the increasingly more liberal Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the mid 1900s. These independent congregations share the same conservative religious beliefs and follow the practices of the New Testament Church. They believe in the divine authority of the Bible, and in baptism by immersion. But while most Christians hold baptism to be a something required of one afteraccepting Christ as his or her Savior through faith, the Christian Church believes that baptism is one of four steps to salvation, following belief, repentance, and acceptance of Christ. It teaches its followers to pray, study the Bible, worship, and remain faithful to God. These “actions” are sometimes criticized by others, but are actually practices that all Christian denominations would be delighted to have their followers do on a regular basis. Unlike most other protestants, they follow the Catholic Church’s example of having communion at each service, based on the premise that the Bible does not say how often one should do it, only that as often as one does, he or she is remembering the death of Christ until He comes again. Though there is no official written creed since there is no denomination as such, they differ from the Disciples of Christ in that they view the Bible and the Words of Christ as their creed. Often heard is: “No creed but Christ, no book but the Bible, no law but love, no name but the divine.”
Generally, Southern Baptists are the largest protestant group in the United States and 61% of their congregants believe that the Bible is the literal Word of God, a higher percentage than among Americans in general. They normally demonstrate a greater degree of religious commitment that others, and are more conservative often than even other evangelicals, requiring baptism by immersion in an individual church in order to take communion there, for example.
American Baptists, while still generally conservative, are a bit more liberal in their practices, and in the scope of their congregations, which include far more blacks and Hispanics than the Southern Baptists. They, too, believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and the final written authority for living the Christian faith. They believe in baptism by immersion, but accept someone baptized in another church into their fellowship and communion. Some of their congregations tend to reflect the liberality of the area in which they are located, making some of them much more liberal and others much more conservative.
The General Council of the Assemblies of God makes up the largest Pentecostal denomination, originating in the early 20th century following a revival on Azuza Street in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1914. It currently has 384,000 pastors with churches in 212 different countries, and with 67.9 million followers worldwide is the fourth largest Christian denomination and the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world. They believe in the divinely inspired Word of God, salvation through Christ, baptism by immersion, and speaking in tongues as was done on the Day of Pentecost and throughout the Early New Testament Church. One in four Christian believers worldwide is Pentecostal, and the number is growing daily.
As far as church grow is concerned, most individual churches tend to see more empty pews in 2021 than in past decades. Still, some denominations continue to grow. The share of adults belonging to mainline churches dropped from 18.1% in 2007 to 14.7% in 2014. This is similar to the drop seen among U.S. Catholics, whose share of the population declined from 23.9% to 20.8% during the same seven-year period. On the other hand, Evangelicals (including Independent Christian Churches, Southern Baptists, some American Baptists, Assemblies of God and others) have seen an increase, now making up 58% of Christians in the United States, almost doubling since 2014. Mainline protestant denominations like the United Methodist Church and the Lutheran Church are declining. The United Methodist Church recently split over the question of ordaining and marrying LGBTQ members. The Global Methodist Church is the new, more conservative denomination which will maintain the biblical principal that homosexuality is a sin.
Some local congregations, especially those designated as “Welcoming churches” in the Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, Methodist, Episcopal, Brethren/Mennonite denominations, may consist of a majority of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender members. But on the whole, the more liberal a church is, the faster that denomination is declining. Since the most prevalent religion in the United States seems to be no religion at all, it appears that those who seek spiritual help look for it in the more conservative denominations rather than in liberal denominations whose outlook on life seems little different than that of the irreligious.
In the book of Revelation, God speaks to seven churches which represent the kind of churches that Jesus will find upon His second coming. They include the loveless church, the persecuted church, the compromising church, the corrupt church, the dead church, the faithful church and the lukewarm church. Many of these descriptions fit the organizations that call themselves churches in the United States today, and, describe the Christians that fill those churches pews. We really must take a long look at ourselves and what we believe, measuring it against the Bible and against Jesus, rather that the popular trends of the day. We are warned in the book of Revelation:
“. . .all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works. . . . He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”(Revelation 2:23,29).
American Christians need to hear!