Spinning Growth and the Future of the Episcopal Church

COMMENTARY

By David W. Virtue, DD I www.virtueonline.org I May 18, 2026

A Wisconsin priest has surveyed thousands of Episcopal churches in an effort to pinpoint what fuels growth. The Episcopal News Service, the official publication of The Episcopal Church documents the launching of the Rev. Chris Corbin’s project with backing from Forward Movement called the Growing Episcopal Churches Study. In it, he already has obtained survey responses from hundreds of Episcopal churches, and hopes to potentially hear from thousands more, to help pinpoint what factors makes some “bright spots” churches thrive compared to others. You can read the article here: https://episcopalnewsservice.org/2026/05/13/wisconsin-priests-survey-of-thousands-of-churches-aims-to-pinpoint-what-fuels-growth/

VOL believes the article’s results are severely deficient in a number of areas.

What the Article Gets Right (in part).

The article does contain one notable nod toward biblical faithfulness. Scott Gunn quotes the Great Commission indirectly, saying Forward Movement has "a mandate from the gospel to make disciples of all nations." He also states that the goal is to "transform lives through encounters with the living and true God." These are encouraging phrases on the surface.

Where the Article Falls Short

1. Growth is framed primarily in institutional terms.

The central concern of the study is attendance numbers, membership figures, and survey data. The metrics used — average Sunday attendance, bounce-back rates, decline groups — treat church health as something measurable by sociological methods rather than by faithfulness to Scripture and the proclamation of the gospel.

2. The Great Commission is absent as a driving theological framework.

While Gunn briefly mentions making disciples, the article never seriously engages with Matthew 28:18-20 as the reason the church exists. There is no discussion of repentance, faith, conversion, baptism into Christ, or obedience to His commands — the actual content of the Great Commission.

3. The gospel itself is undefined.

The article mentions "the gospel message" and "advancing the gospel" multiple times, but never defines what that gospel is. In biblical terms, the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Without that definition, "gospel" becomes an empty word that can mean anything.

4. Spiritual growth is reduced to felt needs.

The 2018 RenewalWorks report cited in the article found that Episcopalians "hunger for spiritual enrichment but don't always find it." The response was to identify catalysts like "engagement with Scripture" and "a deeper prayer life" — which are good things — but framed around consumer satisfaction rather than biblical discipleship and evangelism.

5. No mention of sin, repentance, or salvation.

A biblically faithful article about church growth would inevitably grapple with the church's call to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:47). None of that appears here.

The Deeper Problem: Ideology Over Orthodoxy

The article reflects a broader issue within The Episcopal Church: the tendency to address decline through organizational strategy rather than theological renewal. If a church is shrinking, the biblical question is whether it is faithfully preaching the Word and making disciples. That question is never seriously asked here.

True church growth, as the New Testament presents it, flows from the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen, the work of the Holy Spirit, and obedience to the Great Commission — not from survey methodology alone.

The article does reflect a pattern common in mainline Protestant decline — addressing symptoms through data and strategy while sidestepping the deeper theological questions about faithfulness to Scripture and the Great Commission.

But there is an even deeper problem that the article studiously avoids — the theological and moral revolution that The Episcopal Church has undergone over the past three decades, and its catastrophic effect on church growth.

Pansexuality, Gay Marriage, and Church Decline

The Episcopal Church formally approved same-sex marriage rites in 2015. Rather than stemming decline, the years following that decision have seen accelerating membership losses. The denomination has shed roughly 500,000 members in a single decade, dropping to 1.5 million total members in 2023. Average Sunday attendance has collapsed from 600,000 in 2014 to approximately 410,000 today — a loss of nearly one third of its worshipping congregation in less than ten years.

The embrace of pansexuality and the normalization of same-sex marriage have not grown The Episcopal Church. They have emptied its pews. This is not a coincidence. When a church abandons the authority of Scripture on matters of human sexuality — clearly addressed in Genesis 1-2, Romans 1, and 1 Corinthians 6 — it sends an unmistakable signal that Scripture is negotiable. And when Scripture is negotiable on sexuality, it becomes negotiable on everything, including the gospel itself.

Faithful Anglicans and orthodox Christians did not leave The Episcopal Church because they were indifferent. They left because they could no longer in good conscience remain in a body that had departed from biblical teaching. The Global Anglican Communion, represented by GAFCON and the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), exists largely as a direct response to The Episcopal Church's theological drift. Those bodies — committed to biblical orthodoxy — are growing. The Episcopal Church is not. The data speaks for itself.

DEI Has Not Made Churches Grow

The Episcopal Church has also invested heavily in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) frameworks, embedding them into its institutional culture, its hiring practices, and its theological discourse. Presiding Bishops and church leadership have repeatedly emphasized racial reconciliation, social justice, and institutional equity as central to the church's mission.

These are not unimportant concerns. Scripture calls the church to justice and to welcome all peoples into the body of Christ. But DEI as an ideological framework is not the gospel. It does not address sin, it does not proclaim the atoning work of Christ, and it does not call men and women to repentance and faith. When DEI replaces evangelism as the animating mission of a congregation, the result is a church that is more focused on sociological categories than on the salvation of souls.

The evidence is clear: DEI has not made Episcopal churches grow. It has given the institution a vocabulary for internal debates while the pews continue to empty. A church that spends its energy on land acknowledgments, pronoun policies, and anti-racism curricula — while neglecting the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen — has substituted the agenda of the culture for the mandate of the gospel.

What Actually Grows Churches

The New Testament is not silent on what produces genuine church growth. In Acts 2, the early church grew because the apostles preached Christ, called for repentance, and the Holy Spirit moved in power. Three thousand were added in a single day — not because of a survey, not because of a DEI initiative, but because the gospel was proclaimed with clarity and conviction.

The churches that are genuinely growing today — whether evangelical, Pentecostal, or orthodox Anglican — share common characteristics: expository preaching of Scripture, a clear articulation of the gospel of sin and salvation, fervent prayer, personal evangelism, and a high view of the authority of the Bible. These are precisely the things The Episcopal Church has systematically marginalized.

Conclusion

The Growing Episcopal Churches Study may produce interesting sociological data. But no amount of survey methodology will address the root cause of Episcopal decline. That root cause is theological — a departure from the authority of Scripture, the uniqueness of Christ, and the Great Commission as the church's defining mandate.

Until The Episcopal Church is willing to ask not just "what makes churches grow?" but "are we faithfully preaching the biblical gospel?" — no study, no strategy, and no institutional initiative will reverse its decline.

True church growth, as the New Testament presents it, flows from the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen, the work of the Holy Spirit, and obedience to the Great Commission. It cannot be manufactured by sociological research. It must be received as the fruit of faithfulness to the Word of God.

David W. Virtue is the founder and editor of VirtueOnline, the leading orthodox Anglican news and commentary site.