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 growing than older ones)
- Age of parishioners (congregations in which people over 50 make up 30 percent or less of the active participants are most likely to be growing)
- Mission and purpose (congregations with clear mission and purpose are more likely to be growing than those with less clarity)
- Contemporary worship (congregations that include contemporary worship services are more likely to be growing than those that do not offer such)
- Intentional assimilation strategies (congregations that follow up with visitors and provide multiple entry points into congregational life are more likely to be growing than those who do not)
- Focused clergy (congregations with focused clergy who dedicate significant effort to recruiting new members and vision casting are more likely to be growing than those without such leaders)
So What?
Bird claims that 90% of congregations want to grow. If your congregation is among that group, what can you learn from these factors? More specifically:
- How many of these seven factors describe your congregation?
- Which of the factors that does not currently characterize your congregation appears most worth addressing?