People Spots
Online
Produced by James W.
Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants
Provided as a service by New Life Ministries
Changing Paradigms in the Local Church
by James W. Moss, Sr.
The following changes are offered as neither right nor wrong. Some of them are good and some not so good. We might not even agree on which is which. But the following changes will impact ministry.
1. For many churches, September has the lowest average attendance of any month.
2. Fewer people can play the keyboard.
3. The sermon is shorter.
4. Contemporary music and worship are in vogue.
5. Dress codes for worship have changed.
6. The role of women in clergy and laity has increased.
7. The trouble between the parsonage family and the church is caused increasingly by the spouse.
8. The amount of people required in worship to pay a full-time salary, benevolence, and reasonable program has increased from 75 in 1980 to 100 in 1988 to 125 in 1995.
9. Clergy must become equippers for ministry and not just deliverers of service.
10. There is an intense and growing interest in spiritual gifts.
11. Coupled with this is a desire to match personality types to ministry tasks.
12. Congregational expectations of clergy are increasing as the percentage of expenditures required to pay salary and benefits rises.
13. 80-85% of existing Protestant churches are either plateaued or declining.
14. There is little training in the marketplace for churches with a worship attendance under 100.
15. Large churches are weak and fragile and held together by tremendous pressure by staff and people. Small churches are very strong and will resist attempts to kill them.
16. Ministry for children will be more hands-on and activity based. It will be integrated into the Christian faith and life situation.
17. Parents need to be integrated into youth and children’s ministry. A total family approach will be appealing to many young families.
18. Home visitation can’t be the primary method of pastoral care now. (Though home visits need to be made.) Many more brief and less invasive contacts must be made.
19. Pastors and congregations are becoming much more aware of the significance and value of small groups.
20. The house church is reemerging. Frequently no paid clergy will be involved.
21. I believe that churches will be paying taxes on their real estate within the next decade.
22. The 20% of most faithful attenders are in attendance less than those same people a couple of decades ago.
23. Increasing numbers of young adults are saying, "I can be Christian and I don’t need the church."
24. It is increasingly difficult to explain servant leadership. It is tough to communicate that it is only what we give away that we will keep.
25. Building space must be used more than one hour a week to justify the cost.
26. A church should never borrow more than three times all its income for one year.
27. There has been a rebirth of emphasis on starting new churches.
28. The US has become the largest receiver of Christian missionaries as opposed to the largest sender of Christian missionaries.
29. Families with new babies will tend to be quite sporadic for the first year. They will have to be carefully nurtured or they will be lost to the church.
30. Former Roman Catholics are showing up in Protestant churches in droves.
31. The effort required to have visitors walk through the doors of your church has grown dramatically.
32. The pastor can’t assume Christian knowledge in the pew.
33. The people expect quick fixes for their problems from the pastor and the church.
34. A lot of adults retire from church when they retire from their secular work.
35. The normal attrition of a church is 10-15% of its worshipping congregation every single year.
36. Most communities have one church of choice. That is a prominent church that attracts sufficient people to cover normal attrition.
37. There is little denominational loyalty.
38. There will be increasing numbers of clergy who desire to be and are not placed.
39. There will be many fully trained clergy working in tent-making situations.
40. There will be a return to circuits to group together enough people to pay a living wage for clergy.
41. Very rural areas tend to be more unchurched than the national average.
42. The later a morning service is conducted, the more difficult the attendance may be to sustain.
A Good Book
David Young. Servant Leadership for Church Renewal. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1999.
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Read about Jim's seminars and books.
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September 22, 1999. Volume 2, Issue 13. 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.