I think this part of the study is interesting:
“Almost three-quarters (72%) say they are more likely to develop own religious beliefs than to adopt those taught by their church. And nine out of ten (86%) sense that God is motivating people to stay connected to Him through different means and experiences than in the past.
Evidence of waffling commitment is found elsewhere, as well. A minority of mainline attenders are presently involved in some type of personal discipleship activity. Less than half contend that the Bible is accurate in the life principles it teaches. Only half of all mainline adults say that they are on a personal quest for spiritual truth. And when asked to identify their highest priority in life, less than one out of every ten mainline adults (9%) says some aspect of faith constitutes their top priority.”
With evangelical churches taking on more of those same social issues, the mainline churches will not have exclusive insights on those. Therefore, the “waffling” aspect, strong emerging evangelical leaders, and the expanding of evangelical focus into social issues would seem to indicate further declines for the mainlines.

Scot this is interesting.
One of the things that Tom & I were talking about this last week is the development of “emergent” groups within all the mainline denominations. It seems to us that one of the trends for the future is the reshaping of mainline denominations to incorporate some of the practices and beliefs of young and restless followers of Jesus who are looking for something different from your traditional evangelical approach to faith. Because they are more attracted to ancient faith practices they are also drawn to more traditional denominations. However they are definitely reshaping these denominations and in many cases revitalizing congregations that looked 5 – 10 years ago as though they were dying. In fact what we see happening is the blending of concerns for vital evangelical style faith with ancient practices and social justice concerns and who knows what the product will look like in the future.
I think that the denominations that have the potential for surviving and even growing into the future are those that have the flexibility to change their practices without necessarily changing their foundational beliefs.

“Ancient practices” and orthodox beliefs have both been jettisoned by many of the mainline churches. I would point a finger particularly at my own church, the Episcoopalian/Anglcan church which jettisoned its “ancient practices” during the ’70′s and ’80′s and coincidentally started mouthing the ancient and orthodox creeds with crossed fingers during the same period. The current muddle about sexuality is only one head of the hydra: don’t ask too closely about the resurrection of the dead–even the resurrection of our Lord is up in the air.