BCA’s Top Priority — Growing Its Membership

‘Project: Catalyst’ Unveiled to Decouple Dues Assessment, Address Concerns

Amid the overall excitement and good cheer at the BCA’s National Council Meeting (NCM) in Renton, Washington, was a clear undercurrent of concern because of declining membership that threatens to radically reshape the BCA in the future.

Showing a chart detailing membership trends since 2019, incoming BCA President Glenn Inanaga issued an ominous warning — and a call to action: “If you look at the trends, statistically at this rate, we have about 30 years left, or one generation to make a difference in this trajectory.”

BCA President Steven Terusaki and Inanaga unveiled “Project: Catalyst,” a five-year pilot project that aims to decouple the way the BCA assesses membership dues while allowing each church and temple to establish its own membership categories and criteria. The ultimate goal is to increase the membership and find ways to raise more revenue through fundraising strategies and events.

The NCM was held from Feb. 13-15 at the Hyatt Regency Lake Washington.

The tone — and the theme of growth — was set early at the NCM with Bishop Rev. Marvin Harada’s opening report on Feb. 13. Rev. Harada first began by praising everyone for the Dharma Forward’s successful campaign. Dharma Forward exceeded its goal of $15 million — by raising $16.6 million.

“I cannot express enough my deepest gratitude to all of you for your generous donations and support for this campaign,” he said. “It will benefit our BCA and IBS for decades to come, just as we have benefitted from previous campaigns.”

Bishop’s Top Priority

He quickly pivoted to his top priority — growing membership and reversing the years-long trend of decline. He said the page listing the membership numbers by BCA churches and temples “is the most important part of the report. It’s what I look at every year, the first thing I look at.”

And he issued a challenge to all the churches and temples to “grow your Sangha,” even by a little bit.

“It’s not about budgets and assessments, it’s about sharing the teachings,” he continued. “Don’t we want our teachings to thrive and to be shared in this country? That’s the bottom line. Our membership numbers are a reflection of how effectively we’re sharing the teaching. That’s the challenge I put forth to everyone.”

He cited both the Buddhist Church of Santa Barbara and the Yakima Buddhist Temple — which faced the possibility of closing — as bright examples of success stories. In the past year, membership at Santa Barbara has nearly doubled and Yakima is thriving, too, with new families and members.

“If Santa Barbara and Yakima can grow, why can’t any of our churches and temples and Sanghas grow?” he said. “So, I know it can be done. Don’t doubt yourself. Remember that scene from ‘Star Wars,’ (“The Empire Strikes Back”) where Yoda raises the jet fighter from the pond and what does Luke Skywalker say? He says, ‘I don’t believe it.’ And Yoda says, ‘That is why you failed.’ Don’t doubt that we can do it.

“So, let’s all challenge ourselves as ministers, as lay leaders and as Shin Buddhists to grow our Sangha in this coming year.”

‘Project: Catalyst’

Terusaki and Inanaga followed Rev. Harada’s priority on growth on Feb. 14 with a presentation of “Project: Catalyst.” They initially presented the findings at the BCA NCM workshop on Feb. 7.

In the chart showing the membership figures, the BCA has gone from 11,822 members in 2019 to 10,146 in 2023, a 14% decrease. The trend continued in 2024 (with 9,957 members, a 16% decrease from 2019) and 2025 (9,457 members, a 20% decrease from 2019). 

In another chart, all 58 temples and churches in the BCA were analyzed, and 10 temples showed an increase while 47 temples showed a decrease. Among the temples with fewer than 100 members, that figure rose from 25 to 28 from 2024 to 2026. 

“So while there has been some improvement, this is not enough to change the trajectory,” Inanaga said. “So, the question that we have to ask ourselves is, ‘How do we turn these numbers (around)?’ and … changing our mindset towards growth and connection and really focusing on the importance of membership and what are we trying to achieve beyond that.”

The report further breaks down the temples and churches by groups — based on the number of members. Group A, which has 48.3% of the BCA’s temples and churches — all with fewer than 100 members — make up only 16.8% of the entire BCA membership.

“The temples under 100 only represent 17% of our total membership, except when you start to look at the geographic distribution of those temples, they’re actually in many parts of the country that are rural, outside of the major metropolitan areas,” Terusaki said.

“We really need to respect the fact that, in many cases, the smaller temples have a very hard time about how those numbers are going to be achieved,” he continued. “It’s a whole different story or different strategies that need to be put in place as opposed to the large temples and the major urban centers.”

Meanwhile, another trend is that the larger temples like Orange County Buddhist Church, Buddhist Church of Sacramento and the Los Angeles Betsuin are getting larger.

“The crossroads that we’re looking at now is that without some sort of major strategic change, the reality is that the BCA won’t disappear,” Inanaga said. “It will likely be just 20 large temples.

‘Still Have a Chance’

“If we choose strategic change, we still have a chance to reverse the trend,” he said. “But that window is getting smaller and smaller. This is the challenge that the Executive Committee and the National Board are looking at and asking all of you to consider as we move forward. How do we work together to choose the kind of change for all temples to succeed?

“We’re now proposing a new project, ‘Project: Catalyst,’ to meet the crossroads challenge and increase membership across the system,” Inanaga continued. “We’re not changing the BCA or the programming or the events that we’re doing. We’re not asking local temples to change their local temple events, but we are trying to change something about our interaction that really, really promotes and advocates for change. And the end in mind would be for us to look at our dues structure to maximize membership and long-term financial sustainability and also bring membership to the forefront of the discussion and to be very transparent about what it looks like.”

The project proposes the following:

• BCA will hold assessments for five years with only consumer price index (CPI) adjustments. Temples and churches may change their membership structures, numbers and pay the same. Temples and churches will share all membership information with the BCA.

• By holding assessment constant, temples and churches can keep any additional membership income for five years.

• BCA will invest in contributed income and rely on ancillary sources and direct outreach and communications.

• In the fifth year, the BCA will reallocate the assessment based on revised membership totals and decide whether to continue the project.

“The pros for the BCA are that we will obviously be able to forecast our revenue with greater certainty and less administrative hassle in the interim,” Inanaga said. “We’ll also be able to finally directly reach out and contact all members in the system beyond just the Wheel of Dharma. We can share with them all the programming and events that are happening across the country. We’ll also reconcile and clean up all of our mailing and email lists so that they are much more streamlined. We get a true picture of membership. Is the membership trajectory really falling at the rate that we think it is? We need to test that now.”

He also noted some drawbacks for the temples and churches including:  potential increased administrative work on creating and publicizing new members and structures; risks in moving to new fee categories and revenue; and the fact that the BCA may not be able to help as quickly in an emergency.

The timeline for this project calls for continued discussion at the June National Board Meeting (NBM) with a proposed recommendation at the December NBM. 

Approval of “Project: Catalyst” would be at the NCM in February 2027 at the Orange County Buddhist Church. In addition, creation of a working group on the project is being proposed.

Delegates’ Reaction

Reaction and feedback from several delegates was swift. 

Cheryl Inouye, of the Sacramento Betsuin, said the church had already decoupled BCA dues and actually decreased membership dues plus added benefits.  “Rediscover, Reengage and Revitalize” was their 2026 membership drive — and since the launch on Nov. 1, 2025, the church has gained about 40 new members and brought back 36 members that had left and returned.  

“We relaunched YABA (Young Adult Buddhist Association for ages 25-40) and a new ABA-X (Adult Buddhist Association Gen X for ages 40-60) along with our current Jr. YBA, BWA and ABA,” Inouye said. “One of those benefits is that you automatically become a member of an affiliate organization.”

The reduced membership dues and discounts to programs and events has made it easier for active supporters to become members, she said.   

Terusaki, who is the new President at the Buddhist Church of Oakland (BCO), said he is pursuing a different tact with membership in which anyone who makes a donation to BCO is a member — similar to the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple.

Rev. Dr. Carmella Javellana Hirano, of the Salt Lake Buddhist Temple, said the Salt Lake temple has attracted several people by offering Buddhism and psychology classes and Naikan retreats. 

Rev. Melissa Opel, Resident Minister at the Buddhist Church of San Francisco, voiced her support for the project.

“I really love this idea of decoupling, so we have a better idea of who’s coming into our temples,” Rev. Opel said. “I think that Jodo Shinshu is spreading far beyond (the BCA membership of) 9,000 people and it would be nice to have numbers that actually reflect that.”

Miye Jacques, of the Seabrook Buddhist Temple, noted the unique issues that smaller, rural temples and churches face and some of the challenges to forecasting membership and growing their numbers. 

“It’s hard to project five years out what our membership is going to be, knowing the age of our membership now, but also the economic opportunity for even the younger individuals at our temple,” Jacques said. “Will they still be living in the area?” 

Tyler Moriguchi, of the Seattle Betsuin, noted that the temple gets a number of non-Buddhists like Catholics and Jewish people who come because they want to take part in the temple’s Scouting programs. He cited this as a way to build donations through solicitations.

BCA Minister Emeritus Rev. Dr. Kenji Akahoshi said a neighbor who is a Unitarian Universalist likes to visit the San Jose Betsuin for classes and “donates generously,” but has no intention of changing her faith to become a Shin Buddhist.

“Just make a point of inviting people to donate for things that they participate in,” Rev. Dr. Akahoshi suggested.