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The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) last year suffered its largest single-year drop in membership—nearly 70,000 people—since the denomination’s creation by merger in 1983.

Church officials at the Louisville, Kentucky, headquarters announced June 22 that the 2008 decline was the biggest numerical and percentage net membership loss in the 25-year period. Total membership is now 2,140,165 in 10,751 congregations.

Nearly 104,000 people joined the PCUSA last year, but the good news was offset by losses, according to the Presbyterian News Service.

Southern Baptists opened their annual meeting last month with calls to turn around plummeting baptism rates, even as researchers warned that the nation’s largest Protestant body could lose half its size by mid-century.

“I really do believe that we need revival in the Southern Baptist Convention,” said SBC president Johnny Hunt, a pastor from Woodstock, Georgia. “I believe we need revival in the hearts of our leaders, starting with your president.”

Megachurches are most attractive to younger adults, and almost all who arrive at their sanctuaries have attended church elsewhere before, a new survey shows.

The study by Leadership Network and the Hartford Institute for Religion Research found that almost two-thirds (62 percent) of adults who attend Protestant megachurches are younger than 45, compared to 35 percent in U.S. Protestant congregations overall.