Church v.2020 - Ten Changes: #5 More Begin by Belonging – Less Begin by Believing When compared with the American church of 2012, the future church (v.2020) will offer a new order to the faith that begins with belonging instead of believing. Diana Butler Bass rightly recognizes this shift as the one capable of moving the church from "religion-as-institution" to "religio as spiritually vital faith" (Christianity After Religion, 2012: p.204 -- read my review here). The Read More …
assimilation
The Other Half (#0639)
Protestant churches have done exceptionally well among those who are married and even better among those who are married and have children. These groups, as a percentage of the total American population, have been shrinking for decades and likely will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The latest data from the Pew Research Center shows that only half of adults (51%) aged 18 and older were married in 2010. Additionally, the median age for first marriage has risen steadily Read More …
Churches That Grow (#0618)
Warren Bird, Research Director for Leadership Network and co-author of 24 books on various aspects of church health and innovation, recently blogged about factors that are correlated with church growth. According to the FACT – for Faith Communities Today 2010 survey the following factors are Location (downtown or central city congregations are more likely to be growing than those in other locations) Age of the congregation (newer congregations are more likely to be Read More …
Joining a Church – It’s Complicated (#0480)
Michael L. Lindvall, Senior Pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, wrote an article in the September 6, 2011 edition of the Christian Century about the mixed motives people have when joining a church. Sharing insight from his own experience and data to show that this is not merely a recent or American trend, he suggests that people do not join churches out of "pure conviction." He suggests that this assumption "underestimates God" and also "misunderstands Read More …
Where Do New Members Come From? (#0448)
Deborah Bruce and Joelle Anderson recently co-authored an article exploring research about the makeup of new church members. More specifically, they considered who is joining Presbyterian (PCUSA) congregations. They report that "in the typical PC(USA) congregation about three in ten worshipers are new people who began attending there in the past five years." These newcomers can be grouped into four categories: First-timers with no church background. Only 8% Read More …
Why People Choose Your Church (#0223)
According to the Faith Matters Survey (2006) of 3108 people, the top reasons people chose their current congregation (according to reasons they indicated were "very important) are Theology or religious beliefs (60%) Liturgy or style of worship (45%) Marriage, spouse, or partner (40%) Family [other than spouse] (40%) Clergy (39%) Location (32%) Childhood congregation (27%) Friends Political or social views So What? Liturgically speaking today is the first Sunday of Christmas, Read More …