america and the need for church revitalization

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America and the Need for Church

Revitalization

By Dr. Tom Cheyney

America and the Need for Church Revitalization

The Lost Population of North America

The estimated population of the United States and Canada was over 341 million in November 2009. Of these, an estimated 255 million are considered unsaved. This means that nearly 75 percent of the North American population is without a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. These are conservative estimates.

Source: http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en

and http://www.statcan.gc.ca/start-debut-eng.html


North American Culture Statistics

Describing the cultures of North America is best understood as an art rather than a science. Demographics and statistics are helpful but do not provide 100 percent accuracy. Quantifying the spiritual condition of nearly 340 million people is beyond the scope of Western science. Nevertheless, research does give us starting points to begin identifying needs and opportunities among peoples and places to plant the gospel.

Percentages of Southern Baptist Church Membership to U.S. Population Segments

Population Population SBC Church MembershipSegment in U. S. Membership Percent of

Segment Population

AngloAmerican 202.4 million 14.9 million 7.36%

HispanicAmerican 44 million 202,105 .005%

AfricanAmerican 37 million 834,241 2.25%

AsianAmerican 13 million 147,745 1.14%

AmericanIndian 2.4 million 41,024 1.71%

Source for SBC Church Membership Numbers: 2008 ACP


• Within my denomination we have 16,160,088 as our total membership* and yet the need within our own denomination for Church Revitalization has never been greater!

• Even the Top 100 Largest and Fastest Growing Mega Churches report by Virgo Publishing reports that they have faced decline as well**.

• *Source: Executive Communications & Relations Division LifeWay Christian Resources, May 13, 2010.

• **Source: http://www.churchsolutionsmag.com Accessed 9/29/2008


• George Barna says: A church cannot be turned around until a contingent of people are so firmly committed to the ministry of the church that they will sacrifice almost anything for the good of the church, to the glory of God! (GeorgeBarna.com)

• America So Desperately Needs the Revitalization of its Churches and this Effort Needs to Be Launched Today! (Tom Cheyney, Speaker Church Revitalization Workshop)


• An estimated 177,000 Protestant churches in America have an average attendance of less than 100 in weekly services!

Research Source: Hartford Institute for Religious Research (hirr.hartsem.edu/research)

What do the writers tell us?

• Fifty percent of our churches in the U.S. have fewer than 100 regular adults participating weekly. These authors also single out our Southern Baptist Convention as they report that 26,000 of our churches have an average attendance of fewer than 125 people!

McMullen, Shawn and Mary Elizabeth Hopkins. “Common Size, Uncommon Impact” Outreach, July/August, 2006.


• Churches sometimes lose their sense of direction. Many churches never realize they are in trouble until it is almost too late. Ronald Keener says that eight out of ten of the approximately 400,000 churches in the United States are declining or have plateaued. Hurting churches must come to terms with their past and genuinely repent or there will be not future.

Keener, Ronald E. “Pulling Back from the Brink” Church Executive, November, 2008.


• Bill Hendricks declares that 53,000 individuals leave the church each and every year! He further states that most of them never come back.

Hendricks, William D. Exit Interviews: Revealing Stories of Why People Are Leaving the Church. Chicago: Moody Press, 1993.


• Many people wonder where the original quote “85% of America’s Protestant churches have pleateaued or are declining in membership!”

Anderson, Leith. Dying for Change: An Arresting Look at the New Realities Confronting Churches and Para-Church Ministries. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1998.


• Alan Hirsch discussing small churches stated recently that “it is a fact that we have had church growth and mega churches for well over 30 years now, and the overwhelming majority of the 485,000 churches in the United States remain under 85 per congregation, while laboring under the guilt of failure to perform like the bigger churches.”

• Hirsch, Alan. Outreach, July/August 2010, 68.


• To illustrate the pervasive nature of the current decline among U.S. churches, Ed Stetzer cited a 2004 study by the Leavell Center for Evangelism that found only 11 percent of Southern Baptist Churches could be considered “healthy, growing churches.”

• Myers, Gary. “Stetzer Highlights Keys to Church Revitalization” http:www.baptistcourier.com/2057.article (assessed October 10, 2010).


• Research data tells us that in the U.S. more than 80% of the churches have pleateaued or are declining.

• 50-75 churches close their doors every week.Research Source: Stats listed online at: http://www.newchurchinitiatives.org/morechurches/index.htm (accessed 2/23/2006).


• 70% Young Adults (18-22 years of age) are dropping out of church for at least a year.

• Around 23-30 years of age 35% of them are returning to worship at least twice a month.

Source: lifewayresearch.com


• The percentage of the population attending a Christian church on any given weekend will decline from 17.5 % in 2005 to 14.7% in 2020.

• Roughly 55,000 churches will close their doors between 2005 and 2020.

• Roughly 60,000 churches will open their doors between 2005 and 2020.

• Yet 48,000 additional churches will be needed to keep up with population growth.

Source: The American Church in Crisis: David T. Olson


• Since 1930 through 2009 the Southern Baptist Convention net change by year has ebbed and flowed with a littler over 48,000 churches currently. The net change has floated between 25 new editions for the year and 1,635 new editions in 2004. (HBM/NAMB research)

• With an average of 500 – 700 churches being dropped from our roles each year, the need for revitalization has never been greater!


• 25 % of our Churches struggle with no Baptisms each year within the SBC and we are not alone.

• 50% of our SBC Churches baptize 3 or less each year.

• 1.6 Billion have not heard the gospel proclaimed and received Christ Jesus as savior and Lord.

• We (U.S.) are presently the third largest lost nation in the world.


• Lyle Schaller, (Church Growth Consultant) reports that 65 – 85 percent of all churches over ten years old are shrinking in membership or pleateaued.

Source: Schaller, Lyle. 44 Steps Up Off the Plateau (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993) pg. 23.


• 71% of our churches are plateaued or declining, so there is a great need to focus on strengthening our churches.

• Out convention vitally needs a spiritual renewal in our land as evidenced by 24.7% of our churches baptizing no one in 2008.

Source: Dr. Richard H. Harris Interim President NAMB speaking to the GCR Task Force


• 61.5% of churches baptized five or less, while 78.5% of churches baptized ten or less. Only 251 churches baptized 100 or more people in 2008.

Source: Dr. Richard H. Harris Interim President NAMB speaking to the GCR

Task Force


• We have gone from 18.4% of churches (6,918) baptizing no one in 1999, to 24.7% (9,169) churches baptizing no one in 2008. The number of churches baptizing no 12-17 year olds has been increasing over the last ten years and was over 20,000 in 2008.

Source: Richard H. Harris Interim President NAMB speaking to the GCR Task Force


State of Mainline Protestant Churches When Baby Boomers were born, the Protestant

landscape of America was dominated by the six major mainline denominations. (Those bodies are typically considered to be the American Baptist Churches in the USA; the Episcopal Church; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Presbyterian Church (USA); the United Church of Christ; and the United Methodist Church.) State of Mainline Protestant Churches (Source: The Barna Group, December 7, 2009)


State of Mainline Protestant Churches

Since the 1950s, however, mainline churches have fallen on hard times, declining from more than 80,000 churches to about 72,000 today. The growth among evangelical and Pentecostal churches since the 1950s, combined with the shrinking of the mainline sector, has diminished mainline churches to just one-fifth of all Protestant congregations today.

Source: The Barna Group, December 7, 2009


State of Mainline Protestant Churches

In the past fifty years, mainline church membership dropped by more than one-quarter to roughly 20 million people. Adult church attendance indicates that only 15% of all American adults associate with a mainline church these days.

Source: The Barna Group, December 7, 2009


• Over the course of the past decade, the number of adults who attend a mainline church on any given weekend has remained relatively stable, ranging from 89 to 100.

• The current median is 99 adults. One reason why that average has remained steady has been the population growth of the United States, with the mainline churches attracting just enough newcomers to maintain attendance levels that are similar to the years when the nation’s population was considerably smaller.


The current attendance figure is lower than the norm during the heyday of the mainline bodies. Demographics suggest that the mainline churches may be on the precipice of a period of decline unless remedial steps are taken.


For instance, in the past decade there has been a 22% drop in the percentage of adults attending mainline congregations who have children under the age of 18 living in their home. Also, the proportion of single adults has risen, now representing 39% of all adult attenders. That has been driven higher by a rise in the number of divorced and widowed adherents.


The numerical decline is also related to the relative difficulty that mainline churches have experienced in attracting young adults. For instance, young adults (25 or younger) are 6% of the national population, they are just one-third as many (2%) of all adults attending mainline churches. At the other end of the age continuum, the statistics show that about one-quarter (27%) of American adults are 60 or older, but more than one-third of mainline attenders (35%) are 60-plus.


Another hurdle for the mainline bodies has been attracting minorities –

• These churches struggle in reaching Hispanics and Asians. While Hispanics make up 16% of the US population, they are only 6% of the mainline population.


• The failure to add substantial numbers of Hispanics is especially significant, given both the rapid increase of the Hispanic population as well as the outflow of Hispanics from Catholicism to Protestant churches in the past decade. Most of the Hispanics leaving Catholicism for another faith community are settling into evangelical or Pentecostal Protestant churches.


Another hurdle for the mainline bodies has been attracting minorities –

• Asians represent 4% of the American public, but only half that proportion among mainline congregants.


Behavioral Reasons -

• There is a behavioral reason for the decline of mainline churches, too: just one-third (31%) of mainline adults believe they have a personal responsibility to discuss their faith with people who have different beliefs.


• Volunteerism in these churches is down by an alarming 21% since 1998. Adult Sunday school involvement has also declined, by 17% since 1998.


The tenuous ties that millions of mainline adults have with their church are exemplified by their willingness to consider other spiritual options. Just half (49%) describe themselves as “absolutely committed to Christianity.” Slightly more (51%) are willing to try a new church. Two-thirds (67%) are open to pursuing faith in environments or structures that are different from those of a typical church.


• Almost three-quarters (72%) say they are more likely to develop own religious beliefs than to adopt those taught by their church. And nine out of ten (86%) sense that God is motivating people to stay connected to Him through different means and experiences than in the past.


Evidence of waffling commitment is found

Less than half contend that the Bible is accurate in the life principles it teaches. Only half of all mainline adults say that they are on a personal quest for spiritual truth. And when asked to identify their highest priority in life, less than one out of every ten mainline adults (9%) says some aspect of faith constitutes their top priority.


Aging Pastoral Pool - The nature of those who lead

mainline congregations has been rapidly changing, too.

One of the most telling findings from the Barna Group was the aging of mainline pastors. A decade ago the median age of mainline Senior Pastors was 48; today it is 55!


Education of Mainline Pastors Drops -

While the education level of mainline pastors has dropped a bit – 82% have a seminary degree, down from 90% in 1998 – compensation levels have jumped substantially, rising by 40% in the last decade. Currently, senior pastor compensation packages represent one-third (33%) of the typical mainline congregation’s budget.


Brief Tenure - One of the enduring idiosyncrasies

of mainline churches is the brief tenure of pastors in a church. On average, these pastors last four years before moving to another congregation. That is about half the average among Protestant pastors in non-mainline churches.


Spiritual Leadership Quandary -

Equally significant is the fact that 93% of mainline senior pastors consider themselves to be a leader, yet only 12% claim to have the spiritual gift of leadership.


Fast Facts about Church Planting • North America is made up of more than

341 million people with conservative estimates showing 255 million are lost – without Christ.

• The population of North America is made up of nearly 600 ethno-linguistic groups.

• The U. S. Hispanic population in 2000 was 35.3 million and was made up of groups from more than 18 countries.


Fast Facts about Church Planting• The population of the United States

in 2000 was made up of: 66 percent White, 12.7percent Black, 15 percent Hispanic, 3.8 percent Asian, and 2.5 percent other.

• The population of the United States in 2050 will be made up of: 47 percent White, 13.4percent Black, 29 percent Hispanic, 9 percent Asian, and 1.6 percent all others.


Fast Facts about Church Planting• The population of the United

States will dip below 50 percent white in 2024.

• Of the 5,221 new congregations which were added to the ACP since 1998, 66 percent were ethnic.

• New churches are more focused on evangelism.


Fast Facts about Church Planting• New congregations reported gifts

of almost one million dollars to the Cooperative Program in 2008.

• In the period from 1999 to 2008, 35 percent of all new churches and new affiliations were in new work states, and sixty-five percent were in old line states.


Fast Facts about Church Planting• Without the addition of new SBC

congregations from 1999 to 2008, there would have been a net loss of SBC churches each of those years.

• 229 million people in the U.S. and 26 million people in Canada are without a personal relationship with Christ. This great lost population of North America is a cultural mosaic of diversity.


Fast Facts about (SBC) Church Planting• Around 68 percent of church plants still exist

four years after having been started.• The annual number of churches started

between 1999 and 2008 fluctuated between 1,400 and 1,800 each year.

• Over 90 percent of both associational and state convention leaders feel that NAMB provided resources that helped them assist partnering churches to start new churches.


• George Barna, commented that mainline Protestant churches seem to have weathered the past decade better than many people have assumed, but that the future is raising serious challenges to continued stability.


• Barna identified the quality of leadership provided – especially regarding vision, creativity, strategic thinking, and the courage to take risks – as being the most critical element in determining the future health and growth of mainline congregations.


Attracting Younger Generations - One last discovery was where George

Barna indicated that the approach that many mainline churches take toward some current social issues – e.g., environmental challenges, poverty, cross-denominational cooperation, developing respectful dialogue, embracing new models for faith expression, and global understanding – position those churches well for attracting younger Americans.

Company

LOGO

America and the Need for Church

Revitalization

By Dr. Tom Cheyney

america and the need for church revitalization

Documents

church revitalizationan

church revitalizationwithin

sbc church membership

estimated population

protestant churches

research source

north american population

cultures of north america