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The face of the American Church is changing...
The Christian church makes up nearly 80 percent of the Adult American population and more and more, people are moving from one denomination to another, or to no church affiliation at all.
A recent survey finds almost half of the Adult population has switched denominations or dropped religious affiliation altogether.
As many as 44% of American adults are making the move from one church to another.
Pastor Bill Bond of Charleston Cumberland Presbyterian Church says that's becoming more acceptable, "If they feel that the church is not meeting their needs they're far more likely in a more consumer based world to go to the church that will meet their needs."
For instance, busy lifestyles mean people look to make worship count and changes in worship styles mean older members no longer feel comfortable.
Converted Catholic Butch Thomas says, "The denomination that you belong to is not going to determine where you spend eternity."
Butch Thomas made the change from one church to another...though he's bucking a national trend.
Statistics show more Catholics leave their home church for Protestant denominations than vise versa, but Thomas is a former Baptist converted to Catholicism.
He says the relationship between you and your savior matters more than where you sit on Sunday mornings, "We all worship the same God."
And he says Christians from different churches should focus less on what make them different and more on what makes them the same.
Thomas says, "If we would embrace them as we do our own brothers and sisters this world would be a much better place."
Bond says shifts in the church are inevitable...and maybe its time for the church to get back to its roots, "I think we're gonna find the Church is starting to move back toward the more basic principles of fellowship, worship, and mutual support."
Although the data didn't show significant shifts from the Christian Church to other faiths, it did give a glimpse of what other faiths are out there.
The Jewish and Mormon faiths each make up just under 2% of the Adult American population.
Buddhists & Muslims just under one percent a piece and Hindus just under half a percent.
It is important to note that while the shift in religious affiliation is having the biggest impact on Catholicism, the Catholic church is making up the slack thanks to immigration.
Nearly half of the immigrants coming to America are Catholic.
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