An Examination Of Recent Quantitative Metrics Provide Insights And Recommendations For Church Growth

These surveys show that church leaders have a great challenge ahead of them in order to prevent people from leaving church. They have to be more effective and have to think of creative ways to retain people in the churches.

the age of members and church location and size to validate, changes in the church. The census

Gangel, Kenneth O. “Marks of a Healthy Church.” Bibliotheca Sacra vol.158 no.632 (October - December 2001): 467-477.

While the majority of Americans (almost 80%) identify themselves as Christians, religion in the United States is characterized by both a large diversity of believers and variable attendance and adherence levels (Eck, 2002). However, an August 2010 poll showed that almost 70% of Americans believed that religion was losing influence in everyday life, yet most feel that is a negative thing even though politicians continue to discuss religion while campaigning (Religion Losing, 2012). In light of these statistics, many religious scholars have turned to more quantitative methods to establish ways to both improve service attendance, solidify the financial health of churches, and establish a faith-based understanding of current psychographic trends. One of the predominant ways this is happening is through people like George Barna.

Hillcrest Baptist Church is a body of believers located in a small mid-west city that has experienced double-digit growth for the past nine years. Over the course of the last forty-two years, God has allowed only three senior pastors to serve. The longevity of the pastorates contributes to the strong lay leadership and positive community reputation. On the surface, Hillcrest appears very healthy. A survey of the average congregants would record this overall disposition. Numerical growth and vibrant services contribute to the attitude of satisfaction. Contrariwise, the systems and structure of the organization pose a serious threat to the continuation of expansion and vitality.

The growth of the church is consistent with the original impetus for the church plant. God continues to pour His blessing through a vibrant ministry to

Almost a majority, 47%, of the conference’s 608 churches, are composed of fewer than 100 weekly attendees. In fact, 23% of churches contain fewer than 50 weekly attendees and account for 3.4% of the conference’s total weekly attendance. Sixteen churches boast more than 1,000 weekly attendants and account for 18.5% of the conference’s total weekly attendance. Compared to other UMC conferences, a large amount of Florida’s attendees are found in churches with large congregations.

This statistical information came from the Catholic – Hierarchy website and it shows the facts about the increase of people joining into the catholic church. I am interested in asking my informant if she has seen any growth to her church in Olympia, or any other Congregations she has visited.

61% of WPA’s churches have fewer than 50 weekly attendees. The WPA’s attendance has declined by 1,449 per year since 2001, while the overall population has declined by 8,819 people per year. Furthermore, it has become harder to attract new members as it now takes 17 attendees to gain one new member. Yet, larger churches are able to mitigate this concern. While Sunday school participation has declined 1% every year, the retention rate of children aging through Christian formation groups has increased. Last, 68% of millennials prefer medium sized churches.

Church growth is a topic that very few church members discuss unless the church falls into a steep decline numerically, leaving only a handful of members in a worship service still present. Most of the time, leaders within the church are the only few who focus their time and effort on maintaining a healthy environment, where the church can flourish and grow. This environment is often seen as something that happens inside the four walls of the church but this is a misunderstanding.

On behalf of the, 2010 Call to Action Steering Committee of The United Methodist Church, the following UMC Vitality Indexes are provided to the denomination research on the characteristics and common practices of highly-vital congregations within the Church. The following models utilize the Annual Local Church Reports to model churches progress or change over time.

The second impact of why the older churches are generally less effective than the newer churches are because of how concerned people become with their self-concern as to the thoughts with the church’s original reason for existence. Some of the churches I attended the people was self-centered

The first thing that must be noted about Breakaway is its non-profit and religious worldview. Goals for Breakaway will be much different than that of a corporation of for-profit organizations. Their communication style will be different. As Chung-Ming, McDaniel, and Busenitz insist, religious organizations in particular have a chief goal; and that is church growth. They define growth in terms of attendance and spiritual growth, measured with Likert scales. Olsen portrays the goals of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as “three responsibilities: to increase positive worldwide public awareness of the church; to help people better understand the church, its members, and beliefs; and to join with others to build bridges of friendship and understanding” (1). This aspect of religious communication will have wide effects on how money is collected and spent, what is expected from

What constitutes success in the church? Would a church with thousands of members be considered successful, or how about a church that had a large bank account? These are some of the things I have heard members of churches fighting over. Arguing whose church is more successful and whose church should just close down, as sad as that sounds. I think if the church today would focus on things like growth in faith and winning souls for Christ, we would know what true success is. In the days of Acts, the church was brand new. They had just walked with the Messiah and had no time to alter the Gospel. Once filled with the Holy Spirit, they spoke of Jesus with such passion that the very first sermon given by the Apostol Peter, 3000 were converted and

In The Book of Church Growth: History, Theology, and Principles, Thom S. Rainer confirms the importance of prayer in the life of the local church. He stated, “There is simply no more important principle on Church Growth than prayer.”[4] Reflecting on