7 Megatrends of Church health
Jan 19th, 2008 | By art rogers | Category: Church, General Christian, SBCMy friend and colleague, Joe Ball – Youth guru for the Kentucky Baptist Convention – has posted some more interesting data about church health. This is not necessarily about “leaving the church” so it doesn’t get that designation. In fact, it is moderately upbeat in terms of solutions rather than simply diagnosing the problems.
These are 7 megatrends in church health given by Thom Rainer, President of Lifeway, to the State Executive Directors last month (Dec. ’07).
- The disappearance of 18-24 year olds in church. Rainer said LifeWay Research has well documented the dropout trends of this age group, and while the church has always seen a drop as young people transition from school to the workforce, “there are solutions emerging.”
- The growth in the multi-venue and multi-campus church. This trend is accelerating, Rainer noted.
- The desire for deeper biblical doctrinal studies. “Those in our churches are asking for preaching with biblical depth in addition to life application,” Rainer said. In an attempt to grow their numbers, “churches are trying to get by with shallow teaching,” resulting in “shallow churches with shallow members.”
- The slowdown in the growth rate of mega churches. “Not a decrease in the number of mega churches,” Rainer clarified, “but a slowing in the rate of growth.”
- The shortage of pastors. Some seminary graduates “don’t see themselves in rural, white collar, or traditional churches,” Rainer noted. “Some states are already seeing a crisis” among traditional churches.
- The increasing demand for processes. “Churches are asking for help to put resources together,” Rainer noted. “Churches are saying: ‘Don’t just give us products, show how I disciple this young believer.’”
- The resurgence of the “open group” in church. “Traditionally we’ve called it Sunday school,” Rainer said, but it may not always be called Sunday school today. Regardless of what you call it, there is a resurgence of the open group in church
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There are a couple that are jumping out at me that I’ll comment on.
The first is #3 about the desire for deeper teaching. It’s funny, because every time I hear that said I’ve tried to do something about it. And when I do, nobody shows up for it. Whether its sermons or small groups or whatever. So that tells me that either they’re not being honest or they don’t really know what they want or what they want is what Willow Creek found out – they want to be taught how to go deeper themselves.
#4 is interesting as well. I believe I heard Reggie McNeal say that the only state where Christianity is growing is Hawaii. I’ve tried to find that reference via google and can’t, but what I did find was that Hawaii is the only state where the growth of Christianity is outpacing population growth. Another study I read put out by Outreach Magazine and found on the Christianity Today website describes how small churches and large churches are growing but medium size churches are declining. The cause is small groups Large churches have to have small groups for pastoral care. Small churches are a small group. A friend asked me once: Why do they only build movie theaters that seat around 300? The answer to this question may be an indicator to ministry in the future.
#5 was not surprising, though the idea that seminary grads don’t want to pastor white collar churches is. When I was leaving seminary, that was where everyone wanted to go. I think it’s going to be tough for rural and traditional churches in the future, because of their general resistance to change.
What these trends have intimated overall, however is quite interesting. It is telling me that our discipleship processes suck. We have heard that we need to give people more information for so long but more information never leads to change. It’s not information that’s needed, it’s environments and experiences. Transcendency, mystery, and relationship.
Thanks Art for sharing this…
The solution to #1 is simple. Disciple students and make church relevant. The churches that are allowing/encouraging their students to serve are keeping them when they get older.