There are now indications that their great membership erosion of the 1970s and 1980s may be reversing itself. At least we can live in hope that mainline Christianity will not disappear entirely.

New statistics from the National Council of Churches show the huge losses experienced by the big Protestant denominations, in some cases, have almost been eliminated.

Part of this reversal is due to good old-fashioned hard work. Mainline Protestant churches have turned on the evangelism machinery, slicked up worship and encouraged members to introduce neighbors and friends to their congregation. Obviously, these efforts are paying a big dividend.

You can almost predict that the numbers of Catholics, Southern Baptists and Mormons will grow every year. But when it comes to the United Methodists, for instance, the numbers begin to spiral downward. In the 1980s, the United Methodist Church was losing 1,000 to 1,500 members a week. Part of that was due to shifting demographics, especially the loss of smaller, rural congregations which keenly felt the impact of the farm crisis.

During the past year however, the United Methodists cut their losses to 750 people a week. That may seem like a small victory, but perhaps it is an indication that the 8.5 million-member church body someday will reach a healthy plateau and begin growing again.

Other denominations have done even better. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod had a 60,000-member gain while the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America lost more than 10,000 members in 1996.

Obviously the United States is still a very religious nation. When you consider that historic religions such as Islam and Buddhism are making significant gains in the United States, there isn't much doubt that people are searching for meaning. In addition, there are 51.5 million people in the 34 denominations that belong to the National Council of Churches. But for many years, it appeared mainline Christianity was being rejected by both the boomers and generation X.

Another encouraging statistic is that contributions to Christian churches have been increasing steadily even as members were jumping from what appeared to be a sinking ship.

One denomination, the Churches of Christ, recorded a nearly 36 percent gain in contributions. However, most experienced more modest gains, and five found no change in giving patterns. Total contributions for the 55 church bodies reporting income to the 1998 Yearbook of the National Council of Churches collected a combined $24 billion, which amounts to about $482.94 for each member.

However, only 12 percent of that income was sent to the national headquarters of the denominations. That also signals a trend that has been threatening denominations for almost a decade. Many congregations feel obligated to keep more of their contributions to help them deal with their situations at home.

One other set of statistics is interesting and gives us a picture of church leadership in the 21st century. Thirty years ago, enrollment at the nation's seminaries was almost 100 percent white men. Today, white men make up about half of those enrolled in schools that train clergy. Leadership in the church increasingly will be by people of color and women.

Now if the mainline Protestant churches can remove the stained-glass ceiling that prevents women and minorities from climbing the ecclesiastical ladder, we might begin to see more diversity in the circles of church leadership.

But to do that, the good-old-boys' networks will have to be broken up and destroyed. Sometimes it only takes one woman, for instance, to rise to a level of leadership, causing the old networks to begin to fall apart.

Churches must try new methods of evangelism and be open to diverse forms of worship. They must renew efforts to increase contributions and do all they can to welcome new leadership and break the networks that ruled Protestant churches during most of the 20th century.

Clark D. Morphew