ORLANDO, Fla. — A newly
released LifeWay Research survey of 1,004 Protestant pastors found only 3
percent of their churches served as the primary sponsor of a church plant (new congregation)
during the previous 12 months, and only 14 percent gave financial support in
partnership with other churches to help start new congregations.
However, a second study completed in partnership with Leadership Network
revealed more churches open than close yearly. Only in recent years has the
annual number of new churches in the United States outpaced the annual number
of churches closing their doors.
Twenty-eight percent of the congregations participated in some way, financial
or otherwise, in church plants, LifeWay Research President Ed Stetzer said
today during the Exponential Conference, a church-planting seminar in Orlando,
Fla. Among that 28 percent, roughly half partnered with other congregations in
supporting the new church financially, while 12 percent took direct financial
responsibility as primary sponsor of the new church.
“Although we see more church planting involvement, we need to see a much higher
number of churches starting churches,” Stetzer said. “It is widely acknowledged
that church planting is the most effective form of evangelism. It should be of
great concern that only 28 percent of our North American churches helped start
new congregations at all, including only 12 percent of those who took primary
responsibility.
“For too long, churches have assumed that mission involvement and church
planting is someone else’s responsibility,” Stetzer continued. “The ‘pay, pray
and get out of the way’ mentality causes churches to pay someone else to do
what God has called them to do — and that may be part of why so many have
become cul-de-sacs on the Great Commission highway.”
Far more churches reported participating in missions than church planting,
Stetzer noted. A full 85 percent of the pastors said their congregations prayed
as a group for missionaries at least once a month during the previous year, and
74 percent said their congregations focused that prayer on a specific mission
field or people group. Fifty percent said their congregations conducted one or
more short-term mission projects during the past year, and 20 percent reported
their churches sent out missionaries who served 10 weeks or longer.
“We’re glad to see these numbers; prayer is where a heart for missions and
church planting begins,” Stetzer said. “If God’s people are praying, they
eventually will hear Him telling them to get their hands working directly in
the fields that are ‘white unto harvest,’ but we have to help our people
transition from short-term hands-on involvement to longer-term investment of
their lives.”
Some of the other survey results, however, do represent a cause for concern,
Stetzer added.
Among all Protestant churches surveyed, 5 percent provided one-time direct
financial support, such as a cash gift, for a church plant, and 4 percent
provided tangible support, such as equipment or rent-free meeting space,
Stetzer said.
Although most churches are not currently involved in church planting, there is
evidence — increases in the number of church plants and the response to church
planting events — to suggest a growing interest and involvement in church
planting. According to new research reported in the recently released book Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers by Stetzer and
Warren Bird, all types of church leaders can become movement makers. Citing several of the practical examples in Viral Churches, Stetzer
challenged attendees at the Exponential Conference to adopt future church
planters as short-term interns; co-sponsor a new church by loaning people and
resources; and provide coaching, whether directly or indirectly, for the
leaders of recently launched churches.
The LifeWay Research
telephone survey of 1,004 Protestant senior pastors, ministers or priests was
conducted with a randomly drawn list of churches in December 2008. Up to six
calls were made to reach a sampled phone number. Responses were weighted to
reflect the geographic distribution of Protestant churches, and the sample
provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed +3.1
percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups. The Leadership Network data
determining a greater number of church openings than closings was compiled in
2007. Numbers were determined by analyzing church plants and closures from 13
denominations representing 46 percent of America’s 300,000 Protestant churches.
|