The National Council of Churches has released their annual yearbook of U.S. and Canadian churches.

A few highlights (or lowlights, depending on your perspective):

Only three of the top 10 - the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (USA) - are "mainline" Protestant churches.

By far the largest church in the U.S. is still the Roman Catholic Church, numbering 67 million members. The others in the top three are the Southern Baptist Convention (16.3 million) and the United Methodist Church (nearly 8 million).

Jehovah's Witnesses, who rank 25th in size among U.S. churches, reported the largest increase in membership since the publication of the 2007 Yearbook : 2.25 percent, with 1,069,530 members. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grew 1.56 percent to 5,779,316 members.

My prediction: there will be more Mormons than Methodists in twenty years.

(And, one quibble: I would not consider Mormonism / JW as faiths belonging on a list of Christian denominations, but in a catagory for other faiths.)

Other bodies in the top 25 churches that reported membership increases were the Southern Baptist Convention (0.22 percent, to 16,306,246 members), the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (0.21 percent to 1,443,405 members) the Roman Catholic Church (0.87 percent to 67,515,016 members) and the Assemblies of God (0.19 percent to 2,836,174 members).

All other communions in the top 25 said they lost members or reported no increases or decreases.

What are the implications? It depends on who you ask. As you read the comment below, put me in the catagory of the "some will wish to argue."

"Some will wish to argue that the slowing growth rate is evidence of an increasing secularization of American postmodern society," Lindner writes. "While such an explanation will satisfy some, caution in drawing such a conclusion is warranted."

Many churches are feeling the impact of the lifestyles of "Gen X'ers" or "Millennials" - people now in their 30s and 20s - who attend and support local congregations but resist becoming members, Lindner observes.

However, I would also point out what the National Council of Churches will not-- the more liberal a church is the faster that denomination is declining.

More breakdown:

Pentecostal churches represent three of the top 25: the Church of God in Christ (5,499,875), Assemblies of God (2,836,174) and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (1,500,000).

Six of the 15 largest churches are historic African American Churches: the Church of God in Christ, (5,499,875), National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc, (5,00,000), National Baptist Convention of America, (3,500,000), National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, (2,500,000), Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., (2,500,000), and the African Methodist Episcopal Church, (2,500,000).

Interesting times...