Beyond the Ordinary

Discovering Strength in New Presbyterian Churches

by Joelle Kopacz

Seeking to turn around its declining membership, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) recently ignited a movement to start 1,001 worshiping communities in the next ten years.  While newer congregations may face challenges as they seek to become established, they also display many strengths that draw worshipers. 

To learn more about new congregations, in 2011 we surveyed 88 newer PC(USA) churches—those organized between 1990 and 2009.[i]   Using worshipers’ survey responses and a list of 10 congregational strengths, we compared strengths from these newer churches to strengths from a random sample of over 500 PC(USA) churches surveyed in 2008/2009.  What are the strengths of newer PC(USA) congregations, and how do they compare to the strengths of PC(USA) congregations in general? 

New Church Strengths.  We found that the average strength scores are higher in new PC(USA) churches for the following aspects of congregational vitality:

• Growing spiritually—more worshipers in new churches say they are growing in their faith and feel the congregation meets their spiritual needs.
• Participation in the congregation—more worshipers in new churches give 5% or more of their income to the congregation and attend worship weekly or more often.
• Sense of belonging—more worshipers in new churches feel a strong sense of belonging and say most of their closest friends attend the congregation.
• Sharing faith—more worshipers in new churches are involved in evangelism activities and invite friends or relatives to worship.
• Welcoming new people—more worshipers in new churches began attending in the past five years.
• Looking to the future—more worshipers in new churches feel committed to the congregation’s future vision and are excited about the congregation’s future.

Shared Strengths.  New PC(USA) congregations show a level of strength that is similar to other PC(USA) congregations in four additional areas:

• Meaningful worship—similar percentages of worshipers experience God’s presence, joy, inspiration, and awe in worship services and feel worship helps them with everyday life.
• Caring for children and youth—similar percentages of worshipers report satisfaction with the children and youth program and have children living at home who also attend there.
• Focusing on the community—similar percentages of worshipers are involved in social service or advocacy activities and work to make their community a better place to live.
• Empowering leadership—similar percentages of worshipers feel the congregation’s leaders inspire others to action and take into account worshipers’ ideas.

Although they are younger than many congregations, newer PC(USA) congregations have valuable strengths they can build upon.  New congregations promote spiritual growth and evangelism, encourage participation and belonging, and enhance worshipers’ excitement about their congregation’s future.  Yet no matter how young or old, each congregation has strengths that can attract new worshipers and minister to current members.

What are your congregation’s strengths? Compare your congregation to the national average, to the Presbyterian average, or to the average of growing or new Presbyterian churches by taking a snapshot of your worshipers. Your congregation can take part in the U.S. Congregational Life Survey to learn more about who worships there and what they value, to identify your congregation’s strengths, to deal with change whether your congregation is growing or declining, to get ready to call a new pastor, or to renew or update your strategic plan.

Call 800-728-7228, ext. 2040 to get information about using the U.S. Congregational Life Survey in your congregation, or see the section titled “Survey Your Congregation” on our website (www.USCongregations.org).

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[i] A total of 426 newer PC(USA) churches were identified and asked to participate in this 2011 survey.

[ii] Higher scores indicate greater congregational strength in that area.  Strength scores are calculated using the combined responses of all worshipers in each congregation.  With the exception of “welcoming new people,” strength scores combine responses to several related questions.  Questions with different response scales make up each overall strength score so it is inappropriate to compare scores from one strength to another.

How Congregations Change: A Look at Some Five-year Trends

By Cynthia Woolever

Accurately tracking congregational trends is not easy. Our local, regional, and denominational experiences can lead us to magnify some changes and miss others altogether. As a way of countering this natural myopia, we asked a national random sample of congregations to report on four possible events that their church may have faced during the past five years. Analyzing their responses allows us to capture some five-year patterns.

Changing the church’s name. Over the past five years, about 6% of congregations across the U.S. changed their name. While this percentage appears small, it means that an estimated 4,000 churches nationally change their name in a typical year.[i] The reasons prompting a name change vary. Some churches wish to drop their denominational label, others merge with another congregation and need a joint name, and still others move to another location and want the name to reflect the new geography.

Among Presbyterian churches, however, name changes are uncommon (see the table below). Only 1% of PC(USA) congregations officially changed their church name in the past five years. New Presbyterian churches (those founded in the past 20 years) are much more likely to take on a name change than more established congregations. Five percent of newer congregations changed their names in the past five years. Growing PC(USA) churches are almost as likely as newer congregations to undertake a new name—4% did so in the past five years.

Moving to a new location. Four percent of congregations nationally reported moving to a new physical location in the past five years. Again, even though this percentage seems small, it translates into 2,640 congregations across the U.S. moving in an average year.

Again, like name changes, although only a small number of Presbyterian churches move in a typical year, the numbers are substantially higher among new and fast growing PC(USA) churches. Over the past five years, one in five new congregations moved to a new location. This high percentage suggests that new churches may begin their ministry in a temporary worship space before building or finding a permanent church home. Growing congregations also report moving to a different place. About 7% of fast growing PC(USA) church sought out a new site in the past five years. Seeking a new location can be the result of out-growing current worship spaces or aggressively moving nearer specific populations for increased ministry outreach. 

Absorbing another congregation, which closed. This trend does not occur as often as might be popularly believed. Our survey found that relatively few churches take on another church when it closes. In fact, only 1% of congregations nationally reported doing so in the past five years. Among Presbyterian churches, absorbing another church is rare. The highest percentage of such absorption—which is still only 4%—is among growing PC(USA) congregations.  

Merging with another congregation. In a merger, two congregations agree to be a single church with a new name and identity. This is different from the event described above where one church absorbs another church, which then closed. In a real sense, both churches cease to exist as their former institution. Mergers, like absorbing churches, are relatively rare across the country and among Presbyterian churches. Surprisingly, new PC(USA) churches are the more likely to merge with another congregation (3% reported doing so in the past five years). 

  

The church—a stable American institution. Compared to the average “small business,” congregations show remarkable stability over time. They tend to remain in the same geographic location, with the same name, and with the same membership. Occasionally, two churches find it makes sense to merge but that is an unusual outcome.

How can your congregation and community benefit from such a long-standing relationship? Over the years, churches must find new answers to the old question: “What is God calling us to be and do in this place?”    

 

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[i] The national trend data is reported in Cynthia Woolever and Deborah Bruce, A Field Guide to U.S. Congregations (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2010), 27-29.

The Three Rules for New Churches: Assimilate, Assimilate, Assimilate

By Cynthia Woolever

New churches attract lots of new worshipers (42% joined in the past five years compared to only 28% for the typical Presbyterian church). As these churches take in these newcomers, do they assume everyone will just blend in, go native, or adapt without assistance? No! We’ve found that they make special efforts to ensure their worshipers connect with one another and with the congregation.

They make use of small groups or cells. New PC(USA) churches offer small groups as a strategy for involving people beyond just attending worship. These small groups serve as vehicles for engaging people in community service, building discipleship, and bonding with other attendees.

They emphasize religious education for everyone. Our research showed that more people are enrolled in such classes in new PC(USA) congregations than older, more established congregations. The median enrollment is 90 in new PC(USA) churches and 36 in other PC(USA) churches.

They communicate electronically with members. Fully 90% of new PC(USA) churches use e-mail to communicate with worshipers. In contrast, just 72% of other PC(USA) churches do. In addition, more new PC(USA) churches (86%) than other churches (63%) use a website to stay in touch with attendees.

They issue invitations and make personal contacts with newcomers. New PC(USA) congregations are more likely than other PC(USA) churches to use a variety of specific ways to get new people integrated into the life of the congregation (see following table). Leaders in new churches strategically invite new worshipers to take on a church ministry role and/or a community service ministry. Clergy or laity often make follow-up visits to encourage participation.    

Not by chance. New congregations do not assume that new worshipers will take on the burden of assimilating themselves.  Rather they know that intentional strategies are necessary for newcomers to find their way to active discipleship. What can your congregation learn from them?