From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
Church growth and size:
Growing larger churches
An early look at some key themes and
data analysis
Kevin Norris – Senior Strategy Officer
Resource Strategy & Development Unit
www.fromevidencetoaction.org.uk
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD
@ChurchGrowthRD
#EvidenceToAction
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
Overview
• What does the data about larger
churches tell us?
• Factors relating to growth for larger
churches
• Challenges faced by larger churches
• An example: St Thomas Crookes,
Sheffield
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
What did the research involved?
• Defining and sampling:
• Large church: 200+ attendance
• Very large church: 500+ attendance
• Focus where significant growth or decline
• Data analysis
• Interviews with leaders from 39 larger
churches of different:
•
•
•
•
size
geographical location
growth or decline records
tradition
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
Some headline figures:
Large Churches (200+):
Very large Churches (500+):
• 7.3% of parishes
• 0.6% of parishes
• 31.5% of the attendance of the
Church of England
• 6.5% of the attendance of the
Church of England
• Pay £5,000 more in parish share
than they receive in ordained
ministry provision
• Pay £45,000 more in parish
share than they receive in
ordained ministry provision
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
Proportion of churches made up by
larger churches?
Region
Area type
Proportion of
churches
which are
large (%)
Proportion of
churches
which are
large (%)
Greater London
18
City centre
27
North West
12
Towns
18
South East
11
Suburbs
17
Yorkshire &
Humber
5
South West
5
East of England
4
East Midlands
4
Council estates
Commuter belt
rural villages
Rural villages
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
4
1
0.5
@ChurchGrowthRD
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
Where are the 500+ churches?
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
Are they growing? – the case of
churches that are now large
• Grew by 4.6% in the last 5 years (compared to
churches of all sizes which shrank by 3.9%
• Churches now very large grew by 8.3% over the
past 5 years ago.
Much of the growth in the C of E comes from churches
becoming large in a short space of time
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
However – this growth is fragile…
• Churches that were large 5 years ago have declined by more
than the national average: 7.9%
• Very large churches that were large 5 years ago have
declined by 9.2%
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
Findings from the interviews:
growth factors…
- Critical importance of being
intentional about growth and
establishing a vision & strategy
for doing so.
- Importance of a clear identity
and not neglecting the spiritual
health of the church
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
Staffing…
• Importance of expanding the staff team in
advance of the growth curve
• Most common first appointment for church
growing to be large was a Children and
Families Worker
– Quality of children's work & attracting families
important
• By 150 – 200 an administrator was needed
by 400 most had switched to an Operations
manager
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
Staffing (clergy)…
• Many have no more than 2 clergy allocated
even after significant growth
– (E.g. USA 545, 1 plus a curate, USA 336 – 1)
• By 250 -300 many had appointed an Associate
Vicar.
• Clergy were withdrawn more swiftly from
declining churches than they were allocated to
growing churches.
• Ambivalence to getting training curates in
terms of underpinning growth.
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
Multiple congregations (worship)
• Declining large churches stuck to one, ‘one size fits all’ morning
service
• Ceilings shatter as new congregations are launched.
• Few ‘congregations’ of over 300 – the largest churches spread
across the Sunday (80% capacity rule).
• Some models:
• Repeat the same offer
• Traditional, Family, Contemporary
(Traditional offers from large churches are often growing)
•
More specialist approaches: Students, highly targeted
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
Leadership…
• Concern about succession and finding leaders who
can grow larger churches
• Often significant decline associated with leadership
difficulties
• Churches have often broken a ceiling (after a period
of coasting) following a new appointment (sometimes
a particular person can only take a church so far)
• Some churches have got quite large without adopting
a ‘large church structure – though this needs to be
adopted sooner or later
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
Church planting…
• A good number of larger churches are getting on with it even
if:
-
They are not that large (or in some cases wealthy) themselves (e.g. c200)
Are based up north
A number are planting within their own parishes
They are not of an evangelical tradition
They are giving away some of their best people, staff and financial resourse
- Facing hostility and having to do a lot of ground
work
- Many who had not yet planted would strongly like to do so
- Almost all will only plant in co-operation with and with the
blessing of the diocese though some dioceses are strongly
applying the brakes on planting
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD
From Evidence to Action
4th December 2014
Challenges faced by larger churches…
Relationships with diocese: seen as a threat
Parish share – being treated as a ‘cash cow’
Resistance to church planting
Finance can be tight – resources fully
committed
• Costly building work or funding redevelopment to facilitate further growth
•
•
•
•
www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk
@ChurchGrowthRD