Entries Tagged 'church growth' ↓

Historians report that transitions can take twenty-five years to shake out. But once the pieces fall together and things settle, grandchildren often look back and ask, “You mean you did it that way?” One of the most difficult things to do when you’re living in the middle of a transition is to recognize the shifts and adjust in reel-time. As a result faith communities struggle to understand declines and solutions. Often church leaders rely on what they know best-the experienced successes of the recent past. A large percentage of congregations are relying on what worked early in the 21-first-century; the crafting of the attractional worship model. 

People of faith must embrace a kingdom imagination and take our enculturated lives seriously. We start when we change the terms of the conversation. We no longer critique, consume, or copy culture-we make culture.

Studies on church attendance—statistics and percentages of unchurched peoples versus church people have become so commonplace through the years that it’s difficult to give much attention to their conclusions. But George Barna has just released a new model measuring church involvement/participation. What’s makes Barna’s study different is his approach. Unlike all those other church growth stats Barna addresses new behavioral patterns.  The mix includes new forms of faith communities and experiences, such as house churches, marketplace ministries and cyberchurches. The study correctly points out that counting the “unchurched” has grown more complicated.  [read the complete article]