An Examination Of Recent Quantitative Metrics Provides Insight Into Reversing Church Growth Trends Towards Healthy And Vital Congregations

In the Introduction section of the book, The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Israel Galindo states that a congregation is a “corporate relationship organization” (3) and is not an organization. He points out that the hidden life of a congregation would depict the “nature” of a congregation. This further identifies the relationships and faith of the congregation. According to him, the universal principles are followed by the congregations so that “systemic relationships” can work. The leaders learn the roles that they have within the people who are the congregation. The journal will focus on Dr. Fowler’s question “what is the purpose of this gathering we call the church?”

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.

55% of Northwest Texas’s churches have fewer than 50 weekly attendees (and 9% of the conference’s total weekly attendance) while 9 churches contain 27% of the conferences total weekly attendance. In comparison to other conferences, a large portion of the conference’s

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.

Rainer and Geiger attempt to support this idea with case studies and statistical data, leading church leaders to believe that numbers prove a ministry’s effectiveness, not lives changed for the sake of the gospel. While a “simple church” might be effective at sharing the gospel with as many people as possible, which it should be, Rainer’s and Geiger’s model is limited due to its placement of identify in numbers rather than the importance of lives

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.

Victory Baptist Church has experienced great success in a short amount of time and is currently in the process of revitalization. The study will include a look into the history of Victory Baptist Churh. This will provide foundational information that will allow one to understand the obstacles and roadblocks that lead the church down the path it is on today. The study will then consider external and internal demographic information so that one will understand the context of Victory Baptist Church. Finally, the study will provide the reader with the plans for revitalizing this local

The study was carried out on 2,000 unchurched Americans, and was sponsored by Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton College. Those people were considered 'unchurched' who had not attended any religious service in the last six months except weddings or funerals, and holidays.

I was greeted by, and conversed with, different patrons on each of my visits. This is unusual for me because I typically am not approached by strangers, I am not complaining. I was also offered unconsecrated bread by different practitioners on each visit which was the best tasting bread I have had during a church service. The thing that impressed me most, however, was the church member’s commitment to their surrounding community. They welcome anyone to their services, to the coffee hour afterward, to their annual block party, which they host, and to their harvest Sundays, where they collect food from their patrons and feed the local homeless population. The connection with their surrounding neighborhood is strong, but what is truly unique is the connection the congregation has with one another. For example, on the first Sunday I attended after the service was completed I remained in the nave to photograph and watch the community. I talked to one man about his conversion to Orthodoxy as the priest was consoling a young man who seemed distraught. This seemed to change the church from its ritual space to a community space of self or group

This chapter is Jim Lynn’s call to the church to WAKE UP! He uses an organization of a factitious church complied by his many years of observation and personal experience (p. 221). The church is dying from the inside but a change is about to take place. In the beginning, the church was full of excitement, as with any new local body of believers. A building was built, a pastor was called, and attendance grew steadily. The church became a “rock” in the community offering many different programs. “As time went on, the church begin to lose its flavor. What started out with the freshness of new beginnings begin to fade, and the church began to decline in membership.” (p. 223) A number of the congregation became sick with many different diseases,

Multi-site megachurches are growing more than single site campuses and have an average growth rate of 95% per year. Single site campuses are growing at a 70% increase each year but Churches thinking about expanding are at the highest growth rate of 133% each year (“2011 Summary Research”). Some Megachurches expand throughout the nation but are most commonly found in one specific area. A Church needs to consist of 2,000 congregants or more to be considered a Megachurch. 47% of Megachurches are known for the use of multi-site campuses, technology, and modern sermons (“2011 Summary Research”). Although many question the commercialism of Megachurches, in reality, they are more than numbers as they are beneficial due to the individual, global,

Community members often express proudly how many churches exist in relation to the size of the Parish. One local leader said that there is an estimated 96 congregations operating in the parish (personal communication, April 27, 2015). The community relies on not only the opportunity to practice one religion in these churches but they also rely on the many community services they provide in the absence of official help. Many of these churches have adopted programs on their own or have aligned themselves with other churches in the community to create large scale programs to meet some very important and crucial services for the most at risk populations in this community. Some of the services and resources that these churches provide are, food pantries, clothing, a homeless shelter, a women’s shelter, job skills training for women, parenting classes, housing assistance, utility bill assistance counseling services for divorce and grief, and there are more services still.

Throughout North America “regular worshippers” are attending less frequently. So it’s harder to gauge when a member is “at-risk” or a member is “at-the-lake” or “at-youth-sports.”

The research titled “Congregational Diversity and Attendance in a Mainline Protestant Denomination” was carried out by Baylor University and is published in Journal for Scientific Study of Religion.

Other general information I would like to review are the size of the church membership, current lawsuits against the church, the church’s reputation in the community, and the number of churches in the area where the church is located. Basically, I am trying to determine the church’s prospect for growth in the future. Since the church depends on the contributions of its members, it is very important to determine if it will be able to sustain its membership going forward.