The Difference Between Growing and Declining Churches

Here's the new church Unstuck Church report by Tony Morgan. Here are his findings on the difference between growing and declining churches. 

Even though overall attendance at physical gatherings is down 30% year-over-year in the churches that were assessed, there are several churches that are starting to grow again on this side of the pandemic. Of the 102 churches that were surveyed, 35 churches have experienced attendance growth when compared to the previous year.

What’s telling, though, are some of the distinctions between the churches that are growing and those that are still experiencing attendance decline. Here are some of the key differences we identified from the data:

• The majority of growing churches were non-denominational. Declining churches are 40% more likely to be connected to a denomination than growing churches.
• Growing churches have smaller boards and fewer committees than declining churches. Churches that streamline governance also streamline decision-making. That makes it easier for these churches to make changes in ministry strategy when it’s necessary because of the changes happening in the world around us.
• Growing churches have less debt than declining churches. It appears that growing churches are more efficient in how they’re investing Kingdom resources to reach new people.
• Growing churches are baptizing a higher percentage of people than declining churches. In other words, the growth isn’t happening because churches are only swapping Christians. A portion of the growth is coming from more new faith conversions.
• Growing churches are reaching more younger families than declining churches. We know that because kids and students attendance is 28% of total attendance in growing churches and only 22% of total attendance in declining churches.
• Declining churches are more likely to offer multiple styles of worship services. Think combinations of traditional, contemporary, blended, modern and so on. In other words, the more worship styles a church offers, the more likely the church is experiencing a decline in attendance.
• Declining churches have significantly bigger staff teams than growing churches. Declining churches employ 56% more full-time equivalent employees than growing churches.

New Findings on the Multisite Movement

The growth of churches via multisite is continuing at significant rates. In this post Thom Rainer discusses a recent study on this movement. No matter your opinion on multisite, these findings pose some interesting questions regarding the future of this growing trend among churches.

Number One Reason for Decline in Church Attendance

In this post Thom Rainer hits the nail on the head in regard to the growing category of the semi-churched in our faith communities. As a pastor and planter of a church with a large percentage of 25-35 year olds, I think the semi-churched mindset is even more pronounced. Sited reasons for inconsistent attendance includes the desire to travel, strong ties to extended family, and the demands of young family life. But are these really valid interruptions to the priority of Christian community? Maybe, but these challenges aren't new, after all the distractions of youth and young family have always been an issue. What does appear to be a new and growing mindset among believers, is a decreased sense of need and value for Biblical community.

Here's some additional reflections on the issue from Kevin DeYoung. Some good insights are included regarding how we can begin to address the problem in our churches. 

Church Planting: The Most Impactful Strategy

Here is a classic quote from Dr. Tim Keller from his paper Why Plant Churches written in 2002. I couldn't agree more.

The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for 1) the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city, and 2) the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city. Nothing else--not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, nor church renewal processes--will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This is an eyebrow raising statement. But to those who have done any study at all, it is not even controversial.

Driscoll on Growing Your Church

Here's a good reminder for existing churches on how to grow your churches influence in the lives of more people by Mark Driscoll, Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. In it he is referring to "new branches" as people who are new converts or visitors and "old branches" as existing or seasoned members and attenders. The illustration breaks down if you take it too far, but as usual, his thoughts are helpful, especially for pastors who tend to get distracted by managing existing people and problems. One main take away is that it's important to give a portion of our ministry time to build relationships with people who don't know Christ or are newly growing in Him. 

Leave room in your schedule to meet with new people and new converts. When you meet folks ask them where they live and if they are at another church just visiting or considering your church. Don’t meet with folks who live elsewhere or are in another church. Do meet with folks in your area who are new to your church. Don’t hand off the visitor assimilation so far down the food chain that you don’t know the new branches and fruit. If you want, tell folks from the front where you will be after church and that you want to meet the new people and give them a gift of a free book. Tell everyone else where to go for prayer and to connect with the old branches. You go somewhere else. Welcome new folks joyfully, have a gift, and get their information then so you can follow up. Even if you close 1 family a Sunday you grow by a few hundred in a year. And, new people bring new people. if you are feeling real crazy, do a monthly new people dessert meet the pastor and his wife in your home. Larry Osborne still does this at 8000 and gets to scout new leaders and people firsthand so he keeps doing it.

Do Numbers Matter?

In this blog post my colleague Zach Nielsen features a couple opposing views on the value of numerics in churches. This is an issue that deserves a balanced perspective, especially when church leaders and denominations base their success and strategies on numeric growth... an important yet not always helpful measure of success.