Category Archives: Church Growth

American Megachurches: Multiple locations and multiple services

It’s hardly all that novel for a church to have multiple services. That’s been going on for a long time. But the survey found that more churches are having more services. Why? * Buildings are expensive. Multiple services avoid having … Continue reading

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American Megachurches: Contemporary Worship

I guess most of us just assume that large churches have contemporary worship, but that’s not always been true. Many have grown with traditional worship styles. However, very few continue to be traditional. What was a strong preference in 2000 … Continue reading

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American Megachurches: Politics

Megachurches, on the whole, have minimal involvement in politics. Well, this is a surprise! As you can see, the churches are moving toward the middle. Why?

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American Megachurches: Multi-ethnicity

It’s interesting to ponder why the mega-churches would be more successful at blending the races than others. Do they make a special effort? Is it about being big? Or the quality of the programs? Part of it has to be … Continue reading

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American Megachurches: Continued Growth

While Churches of Christ and Baptist Churches — among many others — are in numerical decline, megachurches are growing. Over the last 5 years, they’ve grown on average 50% (about 10% per year)! What does this tell us? * If … Continue reading

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American Megachurches: Introduction

The Leadership Network and Hartford Institute for Religion Research of the Hartford Seminary have released a joint report on American megachurches by Scott Thumma and Warren Bird called “Changes in American Megachurches: Tracing Eight Years of Growth and Innovation in the Nation’s Largest-attendance … Continue reading

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Marketing Christianity

An Australian women’s magazine commissioned several ad agencies to propose ideas for an ad campaign to spread religion. The ideas are interesting. Check out the ads here. Be sure to check out all of them. And here is a TV … Continue reading

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What’s Wrong With How We Do Church? Willow Creek Works a Cure

The editors of Christianity Today post a blog called Out of Ur. It is routinely instructive and often fascinating. One of their editors has just posted material from a seminar hosted by Willow Creek — one of the nation’s most … Continue reading

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Church Growth: Evangelism, Part 2

Interestingly, this month’s Christian Chronicle also contains an interview with Scott Thumma, the church growth researcher who is a co-author of Megachurch Myths. The article does not appear online, but is on page 25 of the January 2008 print edition. … Continue reading

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Church Growth: Evangelism, Part 1

As we said in the preceding post, the Christian Chronicle has listed three key strategies for church growth: adaptability, moderation, and evangelism. We discussed adaptability and moderation in the last two posts. This post is about evangelism. I’m thankful that … Continue reading

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