People Spots
Online
Produced by James W.
Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants
Provided as a service by New Life Ministries
Large Churches — Part 2
A look at churches averaging 150 or more in worship attendance.
by James W. Moss, Sr.
Back to Part 1
Large churches fall into two size categories:
Worship Attendance From 150-224: "We Can Do It"
The first of the large church segments is from 150-224. Seldom will churches in this category call themselves large. At least 65% of American Protestant churches are smaller than 150 in worship attendance.
One pastor and a part-time secretary frequently serve these churches. Many times the secretary has limited skills. If this is the case then the pastors will spend more time doing secretarial work than they should. Pastors may need help from business people in interviewing secretarial candidates. A competent secretary is the first staff person hired. A very good secretary can increase the pastor’s productivity by 50%. The pastor’s biggest challenge is to set the secretary free to work productively. A church that desires to move to the next level will require a second ministry staff person. That person needs to have the introduction of new people to the church as a primary responsibility. About half the churches in the research sample had either part-time or full-time second staff persons.
The pastor’s capacity to equip and deploy volunteers becomes increasingly important as the church grows. The pastor who wants to control everything and basically do all of the ministry of the church can serve a congregation up to 75 in worship. Exceptionally gifted pastors with a high energy level and work ethic can possibly push that to 100 but not much further.
Churches need to employ strategies that will encourage new people to walk through the door. This assignment is growing more difficult. Normal attrition of a church will cost these churches from 15-30 people a year. Churches must bring more people through the door than are lost by normal attrition for growth to occur.
Friendship Community Church began in 1991. Pastor Dennis Hall, his wife Ruth and their two sons were the total congregation when they arrived near Dover, Pa. I was there recently. I watched with interest as a whole cadre of volunteers moved into action: greeters, people responsible for setting up chairs and the sound system, people who wrote the first name of each person on a label so everyone could be called by name, people who were responsible for snacks, others who worked in the children’s ministry, still others who distributed the attendance pads and collected the offerings, a whole group that dismantled the set-up in the 15 minutes after the conclusion of the service. Many were working to make everything possible. They have now added two part-time staff people. They are now pushing through to near 300. That only happened because Dennis developed the capacity to identify, recruit, motivate, train, deploy, and celebrate his volunteers.
This group is entering the comfort zone. They can do just about anything they want within reason. Some of the people will begin saying, "We don’t need any more people here." Additional growth strategies may begin to meet resistance on this basis. About 70% of the churches in this category in the research sample were in a growth posture.
This group needs a strong group base to sustain itself. The goal still is to have each person in worship and a small group of some kind. The Sunday Schools average 112 with 14 classes.
The average giving in the sample was $181,207.00. That is an average of $3,484.75 per week and $19.25 per person each Sunday. Financially these churches can do what they want within reason. These churches gave an average of 19% to benevolences. Staff salaries required 39% of expenses.
Most of the senior pastors were seminary graduates. About half were above 50 years of age. About half were native to the denomination.
Suburban communities and small towns were the primary locations for these churches. I found some of the churches in this category most everywhere.
Most of the buildings would permit substantial growth.
These churches tend to be solid citizens who believe they can do just about anything.
Worship Attendance from 225-400: "Bigger Than They Know"
I have listened to participants in these churches describe themselves as small. Little do they know. It is true that compared to Willow Creek and Saddleback they are small. When compared to the church scene, they are quite large. Less than 10% of American Protestant Churches are larger than these churches. The pastors of these churches must be ranchers as Lyle Schaller described. Nearly 90% of them had either a full-time or part-time ministry staff person. About half of the pastors were seminary graduates. About 60% of the pastors were less than 50 years old. About 80% were native to the denomination.
Lay involvement will gradually decrease as the staff increases unless the staff works very hard at equipping and deploying laity. Administration at various levels is a major factor in keeping these churches afloat.
The average budget was $265,526. The average staff requirements were 36% of the total. The benevolences averaged 22% of expenditures. Unless these churches have an extensive building program with debt, or unless staff salaries exceed 45% of the total income there will be little financial pressure on these churches.
The worship attendance average 301 in these churches and the Sunday School averaged 204. There was an average of 19 Sunday School classes. Building and maintaining the small group base is absolutely essential to holding these churches at current levels or having them grow. Remember there are five kinds of small groups. Sunday School classes, care groups, support groups, task groups, and athletic teams. A healthy church has all five kinds of small groups. Please resist the urge to force everyone into one kind of small group. The different kinds of groups appeal to different people. Also don’t make the mistake of starting 10 small groups of one kind at a time. The following is a simple formula to determine whether your church has enough small groups: annual average worship attendance divided the number of small groups. If the answer is larger than 10, the church doesn’t have enough small groups to incorporate current attenders. Normally the church will shrink to the capacity of the small group base.
The majority of the sample was in either small towns or suburban areas. Most of the buildings were spacious and well maintained. Few exist outside these areas.
Please remember, large churches are very fragile, held together by tremendous pressure by pastor and people. A number of churches now averaging 34 or less were once in this category.
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September 8, 1999. Volume 2, Issue 12. People Spots Online is prepared by James W. Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants. It is provided as a service by New Life Ministries, www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org. Articles may be duplicated and reproduced in any way. A new article is produced about every two weeks. To be added to a list to receive these messages directly by e-mail, send a request to churchconsultants@yahoo.com.