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I Desire Mercy Not Sacrifice
Experiencing the mercy of God in our lives
Ready & Faithful
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Why Suffering?
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Pastor Crisis: Only 1/3 of seminary students say they want to pastor a church. That trend is magnified by the fact that just 8% of clergy are now 35 or younger. Many are nearing retirement age, and many others are departing for other careers. Eldon Fry, Focus on the Family’s Pastoral Ministries ...read more
Tags: Church General
“Mobilization is not filling slots,” claims Carol Davis, veteran church leadership trainer, “Mobilization is activating the incredible capacity of Christ’s church to serve the purposes of God in our own generation. Mobilization happens when I’m being used as an activator. I listen to and watch for ...read more
Companies lose 50% of their employees every 4 years. (Foster Letter ...read more
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
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
Pastor Leadership Styles Shepherding-loving, nurturing, community-driven 55% Bridge Building-good personality, create consensus, being people together 53% Directional-seeks next logical move, searches for right path 44% Team Building, matching people/jobs, expects it done, hands off ...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
Buster Pastors: The number of Busters (currently ages 20 to 38) who serve as senior pastors has doubled in just 2 years from 22,000 to 45,000 (nearly 14% of all 324,000 Protestant senior pastors in the U.S.). Buster pastors are more likely to use drama (32% to 21%); show movies, videos, and DVDs ...read more
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 13:1-14
Tags: Church Practices
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
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
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