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I Desire Mercy Not Sacrifice
Experiencing the mercy of God in our lives
Ready & Faithful
Looking to Jesus for help now and hope in the future
Why Suffering?
Help your church understand God's plan in pain
Where Are The Young Clergy? The numbers of young pastors have been steadily declining in recent years. In ’75, about 24% of Presbyterian ministers were under 35—today its just 7%. Episcopal priests under 35 have dropped from 19% to 4% over the same period. For Roman Catholic priests the rate has ...read more
Tags: Church General
Pastors Perceptions: Barna Research has recently completed an extensive survey of Senior Pastors in America. 83% describe themselves as "evangelical Protestant and 81% say they are "theologically conservative." 37% claimed to be Wesleyan or Arminian and 32% are Reformed or Calvinist in their ...read more
How Do They Do It? Although most of the country’s Protestant churches average an attendance of fewer than 100 adults, 80% of those have a full-time, paid Senior Pastor. Unbelievably, the median annual budget of those ...read more
New Megachurch Research A major new study of megachurches shows that 93% of churches with an average weekly attendance of at least 2,000 are found in the South, the West and the Midwest. The states with the largest concentration are California, Texas, Florida and Georgia. Dr. Scott Thumma, faculty ...read more
Denominational Loyalty has remained unexpectedly strong among those who attended church as children. The church preferences of the adults who did not attend a Christian congregation when young are more likely to attend Baptist churches and not mainline Protestant or Catholic churches. Barna ...read more
1 out of every 6 theological students in the U.S. is enrolled in a Southern Baptist seminary. (Foster ...read more
In ‘99, 52% of students in theological school were 35 or over, up from the ‘91 figure of 45%. (Foster ...read more
A 5% increase in customer retention can translate to a 25% to 125% increase in company profitability in the B-to-B marketplace. ...read more
Republican Churchgoers: According to new Pew Research Center data, evangelical Protestants have shifted toward the Republican Party over the past 15 years. In ‘87 and ‘88, white evangelical Protestants were split fairly evenly (34% Republicans, 31% Democrats). Today, Republicans have a nearly ...read more
Don’t Fear The Unchurched: Thom Rainer, author of The Unchurched Next Door, recently interviewed unchurched people across the U.S. to understand how they think. Many Christians think anytime they share their faith they’re going to be blasted, criticized, and ridiculed. The research shows 90% of ...read more
No Answer: Barna Research phoned 3400 randomly selected Protestant churches from across the U.S. during December and 55% offered no human answer. Overall: 19% had neither a person nor an answering machine responding to calls; 16% had an answering machine responding; 20% had either an answering ...read more
Pastor Search Reality: According to Adair Lummis, with the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, church pastoral search committees today look for the following in a new pastor: male, married (to a woman), and under age 40. Committees may not say this overtly to candidates, but that’s what they ...read more
Diverse Methods Of Worship are also on the rise. New Ellison Research data reports U.S. Protestant churches worship in a more contemporary manner than 5 years ago. Over the past 5 years 44% report no significant change, 15% have moved in much more contemporary direction, while another 36% have ...read more
Tags: Church Practices
Just 43% of Americans attend religious services in a week today compared to 49% in 1958. (Foster ...read more
Contrary to popular assumptions, only 14% of all American evangelicals attend mega-churches. (Foster ...read more
Pastor’s Pay: A recent Christian Ministry Resources (survey finds: Protestant pastors’ pay packages average $73,000. Mega-church pastors earn an average of $108,000. Pastors of congregations with less than 100 members receive $32,500. Average salaries increased to $60,000 for churches with 100 to ...read more
Nearly 57% of the nation’s religious congregations have fewer than 100 active adult participants. (Foster ...read more
The numbers of Americans attending a weekly worship service dropped from about 40% in the ‘60s to about 25% today. ...read more
State Of The Unchurched: Since ‘91, the U.S. adult population has grown by 15%. During that same period the number of unchurched adults has nearly doubled, rising from 39 million to 75 million–a 92% increase! The latest Barna Group study shows that the percentage of unchurched adults has risen from ...read more
Fewer Churchgoers Since ‘91, the adult population in the U.S. has grown by 15%. But during that same period, according to a new Barna Group study, the number of adults who do not attend church has nearly doubled, rising from 39 ...read more
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