Bill Tenny-Brittian, managing partner for 21st Century Strategies and editor in chief of Net Results Magazine, recently stated that churches that ignore technology cannot grow. More specifically, he wrote Having and using the latest and greatest tech tools won’t grow a church. But not using today’s technology to effectively communicate the gospel will ensure that a church won’t experience significant and sustainable conversion growth . . . So What? Tenny-Brittian's remark Read More …
church growth
Pastoral Longevity & Growing Churches (#1318)
Charles Arn, President of Church Growth Inc., has written extensively on the topic of church growth. One such article, written for Wesley Seminary's Wesley Connect site, focuses on the link between pastoral longevity and church growth. Multiple studies have found that the vast majority of growing churches are led by pastors who have been serving in their current role for five years or longer. Arn's own informal study of the largest 25 Wesleyan churches revealed an Read More …
Church Size & Growth Potential (#1242)
The Fall 2013 edition of Facts and Trends contains a graphic (p.4) from Leadership Network showing that Protestant megachurches are four times more likely to be growing than are all Protestant churches (79% compared to 20%). So What? This statistic is one of many that highlight the reality that America's largest Protestant churches are among the healthiest of all churches when it comes to growth. Since most congregations are smaller in size, the 20% number must be something that Read More …
Growing Beyond 200 (#1208)
Most congregations are relatively small. While small is not bad, small and plateaued or small and declining are. In reality, churches of any size are either growing or declining. Healthy congregations should be growing congregations. Carey Nieuwhof, lead pastor of Connexus Community Church, recently wrote about many of the reasons why churches can grow to a certain size, but not beyond such. In a great deal of the literature on the topic of church size, the number 200 is Read More …
Unitarian Universalism is Growing (#0900)
Unitarian Universalism grew by 15.8% from 2000 to 2010 (in the USA). During that same time period, most progressive religious denominations experienced decline. While many factors are likely involved in this recent expansion, Bob Smietana mentions a few ways this group differs from many others: Unitarian Universalists would rather be kind than right. Instead of a common theology, Unitarian Universalists have a set of common values. So What? Unitarian Universalism 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 …