Fastest Growing US churches

Growing in 'numbers' - I would say yes.

Growing the Kingdom - I would say that very very few churches today grow the Kingdom.

 

I find that interesting also, but the main concern that I have is: How many of these people are truely saved? We have many people in this country that think that being a christian is the samething as having thier name on a church roll.

Salvation is having a personal relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ, not membership in a denomination.......

EPH. 2:8-9...By grace, not of our works

God bless you.:godisgood:

 

There is a big difference between growing through transfer, and growing by conversions. Unfortunately, almost all are increasing at the loss of other churches.

 

It will be revealing to know how many members of these churches show up for worship services.

It is already instructive to know that most churches, maybe none, build auditoriums large enough to handle their membership rolls. Wonder why that is.

Another thought for those worried about a decline membership in SBC churches: Is it possible that it is because some churches have decided to do something about their bloated rolls?

 

More demographics than anything. Notice that the vast majority of the churches on this list are from the South and West. The South and the West are where people are moving to. So most of this is demographics - people moving out West or South and transferring their membership.

I have a question about "Gain" too - is it net gain or just number of people added to the rolls? A church might add 1000 people on their rolls, but meanwhile lose 800. Even if they are providing a net number, that doesn't tell us a whole lot. Because of those 800 who left, most of them will not saying anything, and so their name is left on the rolls.

 

All of the churches Paul planted are dead today.

The SBC should show the most number of fastest growing churches if it the largest protestant denomination/convention as they say.

Pastors in the SBC also know that 2/3 of the churches in the SBC are plateaued or dying. Does it also have the most numbers of those too?

 

FWIW - If you read the fine print at the bottom of the list, they are not measuring membership. This list is based on attendance.

 

I had a woman tell me once that she was a Christian because she was an American.

 

Then let me rephrase my original comment.

What percentage of their membership does the attendance figures represent?

And while I'm asking questions: Just what attendance percentage of your membership would you consider good--great--spectacular?

Right now, I'd say most churches would be tickled pink at anything above 40%.

 

Again, FWIW - We are a young church (4 years) and our membership is around 40-45 (haven't counted lately) and our weekly attendance is around 110.

 

Does the list mesure all churches of every type. Catholic, Mormon, etc.

Or is this list only Evangelical churches?

 

guitarpreacher, this is great. I'm inclined to think this should be the norm rather than the exception.

 

Several rather disconnected observations: First the SBC overall is not shrinking, it is still growing but at a decreasing rate. Second, rapid growth in 27 mega-churches doesn't say anything about overall growth in a denomination. And third, 89%, 8 out of 9 SBC churches is either declining or is considered stagnant (growth less than 5% over the last 10 years) in growth.

 

In our church we have drastically reduced our church roll, and fairly easily thus far. Over a year's time or so, our church clerk simply brought the names of non-resident members to the church, asking permission to remove them. Easily done.

Now it gets harder. The next step is delinquent resident members. The going is slower here. So we're ready to review and update our by-laws. The process will be somewhat different, I suspect.

I guess the bottom line is, if you want to move toward integrity in church rolls, but are up against years of tradition, the easiest first step is to deal with the non-resident members.

 

Golly Sarge!

How is this supposed to help spread the gospel?