NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) — With two-thirds of all Protestant churches having expanded their ministry space or outlets in the past five years, a new study by LifeWay Research shows:
• Two of these types of expansion corresponding to higher levels of growth in church attendance: adding a worship service and building new space on site.
• Five other types tested reflecting no significant relationship with growth.
Pastors, meanwhile, estimate that only 1 in 3 newcomers to their churches are actually newcomers to church in general, according to the research conducted for Cornerstone Knowledge Network, a network of firms founded by Cogun Inc. and the Aspen Group focused on developing building and leadership solutions for churches.
Seven types of expansion were included in the survey:
• Building new or additional ministry space at the same site of an existing church.
• Building a new facility at a new site.
• Adding an additional worship service or venue on site.
• Beginning to offer streaming video of worship services or teaching on the Internet.
• Directly participating in helping start a new church or churches.
• Merging with another church.
Of these seven types of ministry expansion, the pastors surveyed indicated that adding an additional worship service or venue on site is most closely related to higher growth in attendance, followed by building new or additional ministry space at the same site where the church is located. Churches that expanded in those two ways experienced significantly higher levels of growth in average worship attendance over a five-year period, according to the pastors surveyed.
Overall, 44 percent of Protestant pastors estimated that their worship attendance has grown by at least 10 percent during the previous five years, 23 percent said their attendance has declined at least 10 percent and 33 percent reported stable attendance.
Among pastors of churches that have not engaged in ministry expansion during the last five years, a far smaller percentage (34 percent) reported growth in attendance; 37 percent reported stable average worship attendance; and 29 percent reported declining attendance.
On average, the Protestant pastors estimated that 49 percent of their new attendees during the last five years had transferred from other congregations, while 32 percent were unchurched and 19 percent were children born to adults attending the church.
Sixty-five percent of Protestant churches have expanded their ministries within the last five years in at least one of the seven ways surveyed. The specific types of expansion involved:
• 28 percent adding an additional worship service or venue on site.
• 28 percent directly participating in helping start a new church or churches.
• 27 percent building new or additional ministry space at the same site.
• 14 percent beginning to offer streaming video of worship services or teaching on the Internet.
• 10 percent adding an additional worship service or venue off site.
• 4 percent building a new facility at a new site.
• 3 percent merging with another church.