January 24, 2024
There is still time to complete Christian Standard's Annual Survey of Churches. This survey of 2023 data is designed for every Restoration Movement church (Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ)—from the largest to smallest—and takes only a few minutes to complete . . .
May 1, 2023
AVERAGE WEEKLY IN-PERSON WORSHIP ATTENDANCE Megachurches: 5,136 (22 churches) Emerging Megachurches: 1,367 (37 churches) Large Churches: 714 (49 churches) Medium Churches: 361 (61 churches) Small Churches: 159 (83 churches) Very Small Churches: 51 (118 churches) _ _ _ AVERAGE WEEKLY IN-PERSON + ONLINE WORSHIP ATTENDANCE Megachurches: 6,375 (36 churches) Emerging Megachurches: 1,393 (45 churches) Large Churches: 705 (44 churches) Medium Churches: 363 (57 churches) Small Churches: 161 (87 churches) Very Small Churches: 53 (101 churches) _ _ _ TOP 3 FASTEST-GROWING CHURCHES (2021-22)* Megachurches: 67.4%: Southbrook Christian Church, Miamisburg, OH 53.8%: Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, KY 53.7%: The Crossing, Quincy,
December 31, 2019
By Jerry Harris The January issue of Christian Standard focuses on the business side of church. Leaders make decisions every day about spending, staff, volunteers, fundraising, organizational structure, leader development, staff and volunteer education, debt, facility management, marketing, media, and online presence. Yet, despite all of that, it is rather amazing how little most church leaders know about business, finance, real estate, administration, or management. Many mainly rural and small churches are closing daily because they can no longer manage their own existence. Attendance and giving might be dwindling; the churches may no longer be able to pay for a
June 10, 2018
By Kent E. Fillinger “Is monthly attendance the new norm?” asked the headline of a recent article by Warren Bird, director of research at Leadership Network. The trend for several years is that regular churchgoers attend less frequently. Bird said his research shows the typical church reaches 1.8 times its average weekly attendance in a month. He said the average doesn’t change much regardless of the size of the church, age of the church, or age of the lead pastor. Therefore, a typical church can determine how many different people attend each month by multiplying the average weekend worship attendance
Some churches and church leaders avoid measuring ministries in the church out of fear or from a desire not to be held accountable. Are you afraid of discovering something you don”t want to know? By Kent E. Fillinger “The church is in a difficult time. But the church doesn”t understand it”s in a difficult time because it doesn”t know the truth about itself,”* said Dave Peterson, senior pastor of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas. “Rich Stearns [president of World Vision] observes that a segment within the Christian culture seems to say, “˜We”re good people doing good things, and
September 13, 2009
Kent Fillinger and Ben Simms introduce Christian Standard’s 2008 Medium-Sized Churches chart, featuring survey data from 66 churches averaging 500-999 in worship attendance.
September 13, 2009
A collection of notable statistics from the 2008 Medium-Sized Church Report, including attendance comparisons, fastest-growing churches, baptism totals, Easter attendance, and senior minister age trends.
September 9, 2009
Mark A. Taylor introduces Christian Standard’s first medium-sized church report, invites more congregations to participate, and highlights the expanded Deluxe Edition survey findings for ministry evaluation.
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