This may seem like an odd perspective, but it's something that occurred to me while reading this and other threads about the SP Rdn Release Event at Flag.
My Paternal Grandfather was a Minister (as well as a farmer/rancher) and my Maternal Grandfather was an Elder (as well as a farmer/rancher). They were Church of the Brethren ("Dunkers"), a small protestant sect founded about 1700 in Germany, near the Swiss Border by "squirrel" Anabaptists and were closely "kin" to the Mennonites and Quakers. Most of the membership for hundreds of years, even up into the 20th Century, were agrarians, educators, artisans and shopkeepers. The first Brethren came to Pennsylvania in the very early 1700's and I am a direct descendant from members of that Congregation.
When I was growing up in the 50's, there were around 200,000 Brethren, nearly all in the US. The large majority of Brethren were concentrated in communities in the rural Midwest, particularly Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. The next largest concentration was in communities in rural areas of Washington, Oregon and California. Every summer the Brethren had a 5 day Annual Conference where the membership would meet, worship, have fellowship, discuss and vote on Church Issues and Brethren "Philosophy".
The Annual Meetings were nearly always held in the Midwest but, in the early '60's, there was one held in Eugene, Oregon on the University of Oregon Campus and I attended this conference with my Grandfathers. The main meetings and Worship Services were held in the basketball arena which, IIRC had a capacity for 12+ thousand people.
Now, this was the early '60's and air travel was comparatively more expensive than today and well over half the Brethren lived over 2,000 miles away and were, for the most part, middle class and not wealthy. The attendance was about 8,000...1/2 to 3/4ths the usual for Annual Conference attendance.
What got me to thinking, is that the Brethren Annual Conferences were held every year and the one that I attended with 8,000 other folks was not a one time, never happened before or will again special occasion, was held at a venue that was at least 1,000 miles away from probably 80% of the membership and was held during a time of year that the over 50% of the members, being farmers/ranchers, were involved in the summer growing season.
Thinking about that Brethren Annual Conference it occurred to Ole Face here that, even if the turnout for this "Galactic Moment" for Scns that DM has "been working on for 20 years" is as much as 5,000 attendants, this latest Dog & Pony Show says a whole bunch to me about the actual Membership #'s of the Cof$ and where their heads are at.
Face