ThomRainer.com

Thom Rainer is the Founder and CEO of Church Answers

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • Books
  • Podcasts
    • Rainer on Leadership
    • Revitalize & Replant
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • RSS

August 25, 2017 6 Comments

Five Surprising Insights about Growing Churches – Rainer on Leadership #357

Podcast Episode #357

SUBSCRIBE: iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio • Google Play

We continue our focus on evangelism and churches by revealing five surprising insights that were found in the research on effective evangelistic churches.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

  • If a church is growing, it’s highly likely that it’s growing faster than its community.
  • By definition, there aren’t many effective evangelistic churches.
  • Church leaders outside of what’s left of the Bible Belt know they have to be intentionally evangelistic.
  • Membership is a meaningless stat in many churches.

The five insights we cover in this episode are:

  1. Over one-third of the churches are growing.
  2. If a church is growing, it is highly likely to be growing faster than the community in which it is located.
  3. There is a good representation of churches that are both growing and are evangelistically effective.
  4. Growth and evangelistic effectiveness are not limited to any one geographic area.
  5. We can no longer use membership in our metrics for churches.

Episode Sponsors

mbts_banner1_rainerThe Timothy Track, from Midwestern Seminary, offers select residential M.Div. students placement in internship positions in a local church in the area. Now you can complement your studies with in-the-field ministry experience. In addition, all Timothy Track students will receive up to 12 credit hours for the internship and a 50% tuition scholarship for the first year.

Find out more at mbts.edu/TimothyTrack.


Vanderbloemen Search GroupVanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. They’ve helped hundreds of churches just like yours find their church staff and are uniquely geared to help you discern who God is calling to lead your church.

Find out more about Vanderbloemen Search Group by visiting WeStaffTheChurch.com.


Feedback

If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Who Moved My Pulpit?


Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

  • EvangelismRenewal.com
  • Five Surprising Discoveries about Growing Churches
  • Surprising Insights from the Unchurched
  • The Unchurched Next Door
  • I Am a Church Member
  • Dutch version of I Am a Church Member

Related

Comments

  1. Jonathan Hanna says

    August 25, 2017 at 10:19 am

    Actual genuine conversion growth (not from children that already attend church though we celebrate these conversions) or transfer growth?

    Reply
  2. Stan Huie says

    August 25, 2017 at 11:38 am

    I wonder how much of this 1/3 of churches are by new conversion growth and how much is “shuffling the deck chairs” from the 2/3 of churches that are shrinking which still means a net reduction in the church of Jesus Christ.

    Reply
    • Joe says

      August 25, 2017 at 12:09 pm

      I’m sure Thom tries to use some metric like baptisms to count evangelism versus transfer, but I suspect in many places the growth is more transfer than evangelism. Not always, but often.

      I encounter many “marginal” Christians that are more interested in the size and quality of the youth group than anything else. So, large churches attract these people while smaller ones loose.

      Reply
  3. Joe says

    August 25, 2017 at 12:11 pm

    I attend a Southern Baptist church that I know Thom’s group has interviewed for being part of the effective outreach group. The thing is, I doubt this is really true. The numbers might match the qualifications, but I have no feeling that we are out there “reaching the world for Christ.” We have a long way to go to really be evangelizing.

    Reply
  4. Bill Pitcher says

    August 25, 2017 at 7:29 pm

    It’s encouraging to see more positive stats, and know that they’re based on some legitimate research, not put out just because they sound good.
    A question on growth that relates to our situation. We’ve been seeing, and actively praying for the disenfranchised to return. These are the folks who got to buys, had an interpersonal problem, of found another reason to leave active attendance at a church.
    Do you see any of that anywhere in the research?
    Thanks.

    Reply
  5. Josh says

    August 30, 2017 at 5:42 pm

    As noted by others. I would like to see a study on genuine conversion growth.

    With large emerging populations of people from genuinely non-believing backgrounds
    there should be some…surely.

    Even conversion of nominal Christians to a genuine faith is quite different from reaching those
    who have never considered themselves Christian of any sort.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Interested in becoming a sponsor at ThomRainer.com? Click Here.


Listen to the Latest Episode of Rainer on Leadership

Categories

Archives

@ThomRainer

My Tweets

Copyright © 2021 · Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in