The National Council of Churches' (@ncccusa) 2011 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches is now available for purchase. According to its editor, the Rev. Dr. Eileen Lindner, “Churches which have been increasing in membership in recent years continue to grow and likewise, those churches which have been declining in recent years continue to decline.” But she says the rates of growth and decline have slowed. The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's second largest denomination and long a reliable generator of church growth, reported a decline in membership for the third year in a row, down .42% to 16,160,088 members. The Catholic Church, the nation's largest at 68.5 million members, reported a membership growth of .57%.