Church Growth in the 21st Century
By
Ron Sturgis, Ph.D
7 Statistics that Predict Church Growth
Most American churches have 80 or fewer worshippers each week and fewer than 45 percent of churches have grown more than 2 percent in the last five years, according to a study from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Analysis of the American Congregations 2015 study finds seven statistics played a role in which churches experienced significant growth since 2010.
1. Growing location — The old real estate adage applies to churches. Growth is connected to “location, location, location.”
More than half (59 percent) of churches in a new suburb grew at least 2 percent in the past five years. Those in other locations were less likely to experience similar growth—only 44 percent grew at that rate.
2. Younger congregation — Churches whose membership was at least a third senior adults were less likely to grow than other churches.
Only 36 percent of churches heavily attended by senior citizens grew 2 percent or more in the last five years. Almost half (48 percent) of churches where seniors were less than one-third grew.
3. Innovative worship — Congregations who describe their worship service as “very innovative” are almost 10 percent more likely to grow than others.
Less than 44 percent of churches that say they have little to some innovation in worship grew, while more than 53 percent of churches with very innovative worship grew.
4. Lack of serious conflict — Fighting churches are not growing churches. Serious conflict stunts growth.
For churches that maintained relative calm—no serious conflict in the past five years—more than half grew. Only 29 percent of churches with serious conflict did the same.
5. Involved church members — Simply put, the more laity is involved in recruiting new people the more likely a church will grow.
How likely is it that a church grew? For those whose laity was …
- Not at all involved: 35 percent
- Involved a little or some: 45 percent
- Involved quite a bit: 63 percent
- Involvement a lot: 90 percent
6. Unique identity — If churches worked to discover and present to their community what makes them different from other area churches, they are more likely to grow.
Almost 58 percent of churches who distinguished themselves from other congregations grew, compared to 43 percent of churches who showed little to no difference.
7. Specialized program — Similarly, if churches establish a program as a congregational specialty, they are more likely to grow.
Close to 52 percent of churches that have at least one specialty grew, while less than 42 percent of congregations who claimed no specialty did the same.
These seven statistics from the American Congregations 2015 study give a picture of the churches bucking the trend of decline across U.S. churches.
Types of Congregants that can Impact Church Growth
1. The VRP (Very Resourceful People): Mentors who ignite our passion.
VRP ignite our passion for life and spiritual growth. With them we feel accepted and appreciated. They give of their time and resources to help solve problems and offer guidance and possible solutions. The VRP is like a coach who encourages, supports, and provides constructive feedback.
2. The VIP (Very Important People): Teammates who share our passion.
VIP are fellow workers in ministry. They share our workload, our joy, our weeping and hurting. With our VIP, we do not need to spend a lot of time just trying to warm up, or debating who is in charge. We are bound together to get our common vision realized and the work of the Church done. Together we stir one another to be more zealous about our passion toward spiritual and church growth.
3. The VTP (Very Trainable People): Apprentices who catch our passion
Although VTPs require our time and energy, we are still glad to help them because we see the possibilities in them. We draw VTPs to our side and open our lives to them, so that they can learn from our struggles and triumphs. As we grow, VTPs should become an increasing priority in our lives so that we may provide the possibility of a succeeding generation of leaders and spiritually evolved men and women.
4. The VNP (Very Nice People): The congregation who enjoys our passion
VNP come in large numbers, and we love to have them around. They clap and laugh and build our egos so we feel our self-significance. However, they do not really add to or diminish from our passion. They simply enjoy it. In a church most of the resources are often devoted to VNP. While VIP and VTP normally are willing to accept great inconvenience in order to have more resources spent on ministry, VNP prefer to live in their safe zones, the unprosecuted world. They prefer facilities (like enough air-con), times, programs built on their convenience and comfort. This is something the leaders of a church should ponder.
If you are a leader in your church, you always need to spend substantial amount of time solving problems and interpersonal conflicts about VNP. The task could be wearing and draining, although they do show their appreciation and applause to your efforts. But when it is time to serve, VNP are not always the team that you are with. So ministries on VNP should be done wisely. We could not afford having them to absorb all our energy which could be a secondary priority when compared to VIP or VTP.
5. The VDP (Very Draining People): They are people who sap and drain our passion
VDP drain our passion by consuming endlessly our time and energy, but without significant growth. When a VDP come to us, we may be eager to help. But the helping process lasts so long that we seldom see any improvement, progress or growth in them and we finally got exhausted. A healthy group of people will lose its vitality (its group passion) if there are too many VDP. The life of the group would become problem- or crisis-oriented, and growth or mission of any kind would become impossible. If you see no one want to sign up to be leaders in a group, it may be an alert that there are too many VDP among them and that people are either discouraged or hesitant due to problems associated with the VDP.
Church Orientations that can impact Church Growth
The status-quo church: Congregants like the way things are and don’t want to change.
The nostalgic church: They survive on the growth that once took place but romanticize the past instead of planning for the future.
The power struggle church: Prominent members of the church struggle for power and control of church operations. (Example of Baker Congregational Church).
The retired church: The majority of congregants are retirees who enjoy their retired faith community and very traditional forms of worship. Unless there is a continuous flow of retirees joining the church, the growth trajectory of this church form is limited and their survival is temporary. (Example of Cherry Log Disciples of Christ).
The denomination centric church: Focuses on the theology, rules, and doctrine of a specific denomination. These churches are often legalistic, exclusive, and can have an “us versus them” mentality. They think that they have a corner on the truth and all others are wrong. (Example of the Church of the Nazarene).
Characteristics of a Growing Church
Functionally Nondenominational
For the majority of megachurches, denominational affiliation is an insignificant matter. The church itself (its size, pastor, programs, and reputation) attracts adherents, not its denominational ties. Consequently, almost one half of all megachurches are independent and nondenominational. In addition, many of the remaining churches are from denominations with a congregational polity which gives considerable freedom to individual churches. Nearly twenty percent of megachurches are Southern Baptist, while those associated with the Assemblies of God account for another nine percent. Around ten percent of megachurches belong to moderate and liberal denominations. Another ten percent have ties with historically African American denominations.
Innovative, Contemporary and Non-Traditional
The goal of this approach is to create new religious forms, to remake the traditions, so they are acceptable and relevant to a modern person who had been turned off by traditional religion. To accomplish that, the buildings of churches using this approach are quite ordinary looking, duplicating everyday structures such as office complexes, schools, warehouses. Inside these structures, persons are greeted by large lobbies with well-lighted signs, information booths, and often a mall-like court yard complete with refreshments. Their sanctuaries are usually spacious auditoriums, with comfortable theater seating, large stages, and a minimum of religious symbols. The architecture of this orientation, “communicates a message – that religion is not a thing apart from daily life” (Goldberger 1995:b1). The sermon, probably delivered from a clear plexiglas removable podium, conveys a practical, non-dogmatic, this-worldly message that also suggests religion should not be separate from daily life. The sermon is intentionally designed to connect with and address the needs of congregants.
Willow Creek Community Church, arguably the largest church in the country at present, epitomizes this form. The church’s minister, Bill Hybels, characterized the intent of this approach in his neighborhood survey done prior to organizing the congregation. He went door-to-door asking residents what they disliked about church and what they would want in a church. From this, he constructed a “user friendly” worship service with sermons oriented to practical life and devoid of appeals for money, religious jargon and “heavy guilt trips.” The worship is laid-back.
Something For Everyone
The programs and specific ministries of growing churches are shaped by the context in which they reside. Yet even with the potential diversity of programs, one common characteristic underlies the efforts of all megachurches and that is choice. A growing congregation encompasses many diverse tastes and interests which must be addressed. Not only does this need for choice affect the array of ministries offered, but it also influences the style of worship, preaching, and music exhibited in growing churches.
Worship is one of the central drawing cards that anchor the church. The worship service in growing churches is a high quality, entertaining and well planned production. Given the congregation’s size, this service cannot be left to “the flow of the spirit,” especially if there are multiple services on a Sunday morning. As a church grows, worship becomes more professional and polished, but also more planned and structured. Many churches offer a diverse array of additional religious services of differing styles throughout the week. Several megachurches have Saturday evening youth-oriented services or beginner courses in basic religion. The diversity offered at a growing church extends even to the choice of the style, form, and time of a worship event that best fits one’s needs and tastes.
Another common aspect of the worship programs of megachurches is their use of the arts. Worship often includes performances by large choirs, orchestras, drama troupes, and other artists. Services on Sunday and throughout the week are filled with skits, special musical numbers, interpretative dance, and video presentations.
Leverage Technology and Social Media
Growing Churches use large TV screens to enhance the worship experience with media projection of music lyrics, video, power point, Youtube, and information for the modern, visually oriented worshiper. Growing Churches also use social media like facebook and web sites to provide information about the church, to stream services, to show ministry in the community, and to provide spiritual growth materials like transcripts of sermons. (Example of John’s Methodist Church in Idaho).
Have an Open and Welcoming Spirit
Growing Churches make visitors feel welcome and comfortable. Their warmth, friendliness, and kindness are contagious and foster a sense of togetherness that attracts people to the church.
An Innovative Spiritual Entrepreneur
Megachurches are more often than not the product of one highly gifted spiritual leader. The majority of contemporary megachurches were either founded by or achieved mega-status within the tenure of a single senior minister (Vaughan 1993; Schaller1992). The character of these churches usually reflects the vision and personality of this one person. These pastors are usually personally charismatic, exceptionally gifted men. As senior minister, and often the church’s founder, these persons occupy the singular, most prominent, high profile position in the congregation. The average length of tenure of these leaders has been estimated at 15 years (Olson 1988). These pastors are often visionaries and innovative spiritual entrepreneurs, many without the usual pastoral credentials (Greeley 1989). Olson reports that one third of megachurch ministers have had no seminary education (1988). For instance, Bill Hybels, pastor of the largest church in the country, is not seminary trained (Niebuhr 1995a:A12).
How Does this Information Apply to Mountain Light UU?
How can MLUU use church growth information to plan for the future development of the building, worship forms, ministry offerings, and congregational life?