Category Archives: Church Trends

Conflict Even though conflicts within American religion over ordaining homosexuals have received a lot of attention in recent years, and seem to be tearing some denominations apart, the overall level of conflict within congregations is about what it was in … Continue reading →

Racial mixing The most visible impact of this immigration on American congregations since 1998, however, seems to be that it has made predominantly white congregations somewhat more ethnically diverse rather than dramatically increasing the number of congregations predominantly composed of … Continue reading →

Social services Now, here’s an interesting observation — And even after the Bush administration’s “faith-based initiative,” there is no increase since 1998 in the extent of congregational involvement in social services, in the percent of congregations receiving public funds in … Continue reading →

The Christian Chronicle and the preacher shortage The Christian Chronicle just ran an editorial on the shortage of Church of Christ ministers. But here in the U.S., our assessment of the pulpit deficit tends to be grim. Across the nation, churches seek to fill … Continue reading →

Thanks to Ed Stetzer, I’ve been reading the National Congregations Study. This study follows thousands of US congregations over the years and reports trends. And some are quite surprising. Church size The first conclusion has to do with the size … Continue reading →