Carol Pipes, editor of Facts and Trends, wrote a piece in that magazine's Fall 2013 edition on church building trends. She explored several significant trends, including designing for context, multi-use worship centers, larger gathering spaces, fewer classrooms, and remodeling existing facilities (p.24-26). So What? Perhaps the most important shift of all is with regard to how size will be viewed in the future. Pipes writes, "Small is the new big in the future." Read More …
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Largest & Fastest Growing Churches (#0859)
Outreach Magazine's new special issue focused on the largest and fastest growing churches in America is packed with information. While I always look at the lists of the 100 fastest growing and the 100 largest congregations (based on worship attendance), this year I was struck by the classification of the congregations making both lists. More specifically, both lists are dominated by churches characterized as nondenominational or interdenominational. They comprise Read More …
Worship Practices (in the USA) (#0687)
"FACTS on Worship: 2010," the latest Faith Communities Today (FACT) report, provides insight into the current worship practices in churches by means of an aggregated data set that includes responses from over 11,000 congregations affiliated with over 120 denominations. Worship is changing. The latest research shows increasing diversity in several areas, including: Time: Most services are held on Sunday morning (74%), but other weekend options are significant: Sunday Read More …