Chaves, professor of sociology, religion, and divinity at Duke University in Durham, NC, and director of the National Congregations Study, says the number of Protestants attending independent churches increased from 14% in 1989 to 19% in 2006.
“If the unaffiliated congregations were all in one denomination, they would constitute the second largest in number of participants (behind only the Roman Catholic Church) and the largest number of congregations,” Chaves writes. “Although most Protestant churches are denominational, a noticeable and growing minority are not formally affiliated with any denomination.”
Chaves says an increase of 5 percentage points in the number of people attending independent churches may not seem like much, but he notes that growth occurred over a period of just 8 years. He adds those numbers probably understate the cultural significance of the trend, because denominational affiliations seem to be decreasingly important to congregations and their members even when they do exist.