Beyond the Ordinary

New Wine in New Wineskins: New Presbyterian Churches Offer New Styles of Worship

By Cynthia Woolever

The majority of Presbyterian churches in the United States (74%) hold just one worship service per week. However, new congregations—those organized since 1989—are more likely to offer multiple weekly services. One-third of new PC(USA) congregations (33%) offer more than one worship service each week. 

So is what happens in the new churches’ worship service different from their older counterparts? The following table compares worship between the two groups of congregations—new PC(USA) churches vs. older Presbyterian churches. While, in almost all cases, worship in all Presbyterian congregations includes a sermon, singing by the congregation, and taking up an offering, there are some significant differences.

Electronic and informal. In new PC(USA) churches, the largest worship service is more likely than in older congregations to include:

• Use of visual projection equipment, electric guitar music, and drums. Older congregations rely more on hymnbooks and organ music in their services.
• Laughter, applause, calling out “Amen,” people raising their hands in praise, and witnessing. Worship in older congregations more often includes a written service bulletin, people reading or speaking in unison, and silent prayer.
• Participation by teens as worship leaders. Older churches are more likely to have a time during the service directed at children.
• Use of language other than English. This finding reflects that some new churches were founded to serve an immigrant population.

Not short and not traditional. Sermons in new PC(USA) churches tend to be longer than in older churches. Leaders in the typical PC(USA) congregation (78%) report that sermons last no longer than 20 minutes. In contrast, only 57% of new church leaders say their sermons are that short. 

Three out of four typical PC(USA) congregations say their worship service is traditional. But only about half of the new churches describe their largest worship service as traditional. Many new churches (46%) offer a blended style of worship combining both traditional and contemporary elements. 

What can we learn from new PC(USA) congregations? New churches are willing to try new things in worship. They offer worshipers alternatives—in the form of multiple services or blended worship styles. And their pastors invest more time in preaching!

You might want to look over this report and determine what, if anything, the new PC (USA) congregations are doing that fits your church’s message and mission. Is it time for a drop or two of new wine?

 

Making Multisite Churches Count

By Cynthia Woolever

A new report suggests that 5,000 congregations are holding worship services at more than one location.[1] This figure may actually be too low! According to the U.S. Congregational Life Survey results, about 4% of congregations nationally host services in multiple physical locations. Since there are around 330,000 congregations in the U.S.,[2] that means the number of multisite churches possibly exceeds 13,000.

Warren Bird, research director of Leadership Network, has tracked multisite church growth for more than a decade. Since 2001, according to his research, the number of such churches has grown from 200 to 5,000 today. That’s an increase of 2,400%! This phenomenal growth pattern outdistances the rapid growth of megachurches in the same period. There were approximately 600 megachurches in 2001 and 1,650 in 2012—an increase of 175%.    

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) today consists of 10,536 congregations. About 3% (or 421 churches) of these congregations report holding services in more than one location.[3] Presbyterian churches founded in the past 20 years are twice as likely to be multisite congregations, with 6% of them reporting services in multiple locations. Table 1 compares the Presbyterian pattern to a national sample of congregations.

 

Warren Bird and a group of researchers recently discussed some of the key components of multisite ministries hoping to achieve agreement about language and definitions.[4]

The group found common ground on answers to two questions.

When does a service or gathering become another site?

• The congregation holds another service(s) in a separate, physical location. Although many churches offer one or more worship services at the same location or offer multiple venues at one location, these ministries are not counted as multisite.[5]  

When does a gathering of believers become a church rather than a site?

• In situations where a group of worshipers is self-governing and has a self-supporting church structure, then it is a church. Sites are (a) under the direction and leadership of the main site; and (b) funded through a shared budget with the main site.    

The next decade in religious life may further redefine the “large church”—from one giant venue to dozens of community sites to millions of virtual sites as worshipers attend services online. How will this movement impact your congregation? 

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[1] “Multisite churches are outpacing growth of megachurches,” Christian Century, September 19 (2012): 17.

[2] C. Kirk Hadaway and Penny Long Marler, “How Many Americans Attend Worship Each Week?” An Alternative Approach to Measurement,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 44, no. 3 (2005): 307-22.

[3] U.S. Congregational Life Survey (www.USCongregations.org), from a national sample of Presbyterian churches participating in the project in 2008/2009.

[4] Ed Stetzer, “Multisite, Churches, and Internet Campuses: How They Work and How to Study Them,” The LifeWay Research Blog (http://www.edstetzer.com/2012/08/multisite-and-church-planting.html), August 2, 2012.

[5] The U.S. Congregational Life Survey uses this definition as well. The Profile Survey, completed by a key informant in all participating congregations, contains this question: “Does this congregation hold services in more than one location (such as satellite locations)? (Do not include more than one worship space at the same location.)

Small Groups in Growing Presbyterian Churches: A Strategy That Works?

By Cynthia Woolever

Finding ways to get people involved in church life—beyond just attending worship services—is every congregation’s challenge. How do growing Presbyterian congregations meet that challenge?

Start small groups! Many experts recommend that churches start small groups or cells to help members feel connected with others in the congregation. Small groups can also serve as a tool for involving people in the church and in community service activities. In addition, churches may offer small groups as part of their spiritual development or discipleship strategy. 

Growing PC(USA) churches are more likely than other churches to utilize small groups and to offer groups that focus on different purposes.

Increasing participation and greater sense of connection? We found two pieces of evidence that point to a link between the predominance of small groups in growing churches and worshipers’ participation levels and sense of belonging.

• Participation in congregational activities is more often increasing among worshipers in growing churches. One-third of worshipers in growing PC(USA) churches (32%) and 28% in other PC(USA) churches say they now participate more in activities of the congregation than they did two years ago. 

• More worshipers in growing congregations than in other congregations have a strong sense of belonging to their congregation that is increasing. A majority of worshipers in growing congregations (51%) feel a growing sense of belonging there; 45% in other congregations have that feeling.

Not your mother’s Sunday school. Almost all growing PC(USA) congregations (99%) and other Presbyterian churches (96%) offer religious education classes, such as Sunday school. Similar shares of worshipers in both groups of congregations participate in the traditional church educational offerings.

The additional groups offered by growing PC(USA) churches are something else—groups with an intentional focus and membership. For example, more growing churches offer prayer groups, groups for community service, groups for mission trips, and groups for new members.

One other edge shows up in growing churches: More fast-growing Presbyterian churches include church school classes for adults (96% do so) than the typical PC(USA) church (87% offer adult church school classes).

Not different, but more. Most churches, including Presbyterian congregations, take seriously worshipers’ spiritual development and growth in discipleship. What separates growing congregations from other churches? Not necessarily different strategies—the majority of churches offer religious education and small group opportunities. However, growing churches more fully utilize that small group advantage. 

 

New Presbyterian Churches: Full Offering Plates but Few Endowment Dollars

By Cynthia Woolever

Old money and older congregations.  New money and newer congregations.  What’s the difference?  That’s what we wanted to learn.  To do that we surveyed Presbyterian churches organized in 1990 or later and compared them to a random sample of 521 older Presbyterian churches and their 40,555 worshipers.  Around 90 new congregations agreed to participate in the U.S. Congregational Life Survey in the fall of 2011 and they gave our  survey to all 8,071 of their worshipers.

One thing we learned is that there are some huge differences.  One was in the age of the congregation.  That may not sound surprising – but the older congregations were more than 100 years older than their newer counterparts.  The average older Presbyterian congregation was organized in 1890 (median year across all churches).   The typical new PC(USA) congregation was founded in 1993. About 15% of the new Presbyterian churches surveyed began as a result of “church planting” and were established in the past five years. Almost 20% of the new congregations in the national sample moved to a new location sometime in the past five years.

More money in the plate. We were surprised to learn that the new PC(USA) churches have fuller offering plates than the older Presbyterian churches. As Table 1 shows, the new churches receive more contributions, have larger budgets and more staff than the typical older Presbyterian congregation. However, contributions per person are about the same.

A larger percentage of the overall income in the new Presbyterian churches (94%) comes from what individuals donate to the congregation than in the older churches (88%). New churches also use a larger slice of their budget for operating expenses (89%) than do the older congregations (86% goes to operating expenses).

Fewer dollars from an endowment. Perhaps not surprisingly, we learned that income from investments or bequests is relatively common among the older Presbyterian churches. About half of all of the older PC(USA) congregations receive endowment income. This is not the case for new congregations. Only one in ten of the newer PC(USA) churches (11%) has any endowment income.

Building a financial base. More new PC(USA) churches (22%) than older PC(USA) churches (15%) describe their congregation as having an increasing financial base. Three in ten new churches (28%) and four in ten older churches (38%) have a declining financial base (see Table 2).

Building a church’s ministry. So is it financially better to be older or newer?  It depends.  The typical older Presbyterian church has more than a one-hundred-year head start in securing a financial base to support the congregation’s ministry.  The upside translates into having endowment funds to tap.  The downside is often a declining financial base.

Building a solid and growing financial base in the midst of building new ministries is one of the big challenges for new churches.  The upside for them is higher contributions and budgets.  The downside is lack of endowments for future funding.

Regardless of whether your congregation is older or newer, our study shows that congregants in both new and old congregations support their churches financially.  That may not be surprising news – but it certainly is reassuring.