The State of Church Planting USA
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, October 30, 2007
- Viewed 176
- (19) comments so far
1. Interest is growing rapidly. The pace of church planting has accelerated dramatically in recent years. For example, a simple Google search on the term “church planting” now returns over one million its. And, while only two mainstream books were published on church planting from 1996 to 2002, no fewer than ten have been released in the last five years, with several more on the horizon. Equally important, church planting has now become a preferred ministry option, not a consolation prize—both denominations and individual churches report that many of their “best and brightest” leaders are pursuing church planting as a primary ministry focus.
2. Local churches and church planting networks are driving the charge. Historically, church planting has been a denominationally driven activity. Today, the picture is quite different-with much of the energy centered at the local level. Many of the country’s most vibrant congregations see church planting as one of their central purposes. “Church-planting networks”—loose affiliations of churches that may or may not be tied by denomination but do share a commitment to launching new, like-minded congregations—are also at the forefront of the movement. As a result, denominational offices are increasingly taking a more subordinate role—equipping rather than directing local congregational efforts.
3. “Affinity” strategies dominate. Church planters once based their efforts on geography—the goal was to place new churches in “unserved” communities and areas. Today’s church planters are much more sophisticated. As Dave Travis notes, “Through this study, we learned that most successful church planters today are specialists who emphasize a particular style of worship or a specific demographic. For example, they may exclusively plant house churches or ethnic churches—or perhaps build purpose-driven, seeker or missional churches. And the trend toward specialization is likely to continue as more tools and resources that serve specific types of planting strategies are developed.”
4. Survival and success are markedly greater than realized. Observers have long assumed that most church plants fail within the first year—as many as 80%-90%, by some estimates. Research reveals a very different picture—suggesting that 68% of the roughly 4,000 churches planted each year are still functioning four years later. These baby churches may not yet be self-sufficient, but the congregations themselves are alive and many are thriving.
What do these results mean for the future of the U.S. church? Dave Travis says, “I am hopeful that this study and the growing number of outstanding church planting conferences and resources will inspire a new wave of planters in the years ahead. That would be very good news indeed. Launching vibrant new congregations is often a more feasible and more fruitful strategy than attempting to revitalize struggling congregations.”
Leadership Network has created four free reports that summarize different aspects of this groundbreaking study:
—Church Planting Overview
—Who Starts New Churches?
—Funding New Churches
—Improving the Health and Survivability of New Churches
All can be downloaded at http://www.leadnet.org/churchplanting. A 25-minute podcast interview of Dave Travis and Ed Stetzer is also available as a free download at http://www.leadnet.org/podcasts.
I'm very proud of my affiliation with Leadership Network. This week, they have just released a major study on Church Planting that you need to know about. As my boss and friend Dave Travis (the Managing Director at LN) said, "Most church-planting studies tend to look at either a very narrow slice of church planting or developments on a global scale. In commissioning this study, our goal was to review the current state of U.S. church-planting efforts -- and begin to assess what today's reality means for the next generation of planters." Here are the major findings from the survey:
Comments
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Camey on Tue, October 30, 2007
Church planting….. Thanks for the info Todd and Leadership Network.
Leonard Lee on Tue, October 30, 2007
Cammy, sort of makes you say HMMMM
Derek on Tue, October 30, 2007
A friend of mine just completed his D.Min. at Asbury in the area of church planting. He researched over 100 church plants to determine what strategies were the most effective.
His conclusions have challenged some of the more popular church planting models.
The book is Planting Fast Growing Churches by Stephen Gray.
Here is the link http://www.churchsmart.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=1141
Derek
Camey on Tue, October 30, 2007
Derek: Thanks for the info.
Leonard: Now that was funny.
reGeN on Tue, October 30, 2007
Ah, a topic near and dear to my heart. I downloaded all the new papers and plan on reading two tonight before I go to bed. I’ll probably post some of my thoughts on their observations tomorrow. Thanks, Todd!
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Thank for the post! you have very best blog!
earth4energy on Tue, September 23, 2008
Very insightful, thanks.
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Thanks for the info. Todd Rhoades
Audi R8 on Mon, November 17, 2008
thank you very much.nice blog.nice car
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Wow that is great and interesting.
Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to make great posts like this one.
Bookmarked.
Melissa on Wed, February 18, 2009
I still remember the days my dad drive our old Ford to take us to churches every Sunday back in the days I was still in Florida. But today, churches are like supermarkets or shopping malls. They are everywhere. I’m not sure whether this success of planting churches and creating church network really means anything in terms of deepening everyone’s spiritual understanding.
pontoon boats on Fri, February 20, 2009
tod this was a great post on church planting thank you very much and god bless you
Cellphone on Mon, June 08, 2009
Thank you for the info. I wish you could have more time to write more posts about church planting!
God bless you!
Sally Brown on Tue, June 23, 2009
thank you very much ,very good !
Bags on Tue, June 23, 2009
thanks a lot , waiting for better blogs !
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