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more churches than starbucks?

In a masterly stroke of 'good' timing the guys at Christian Research issued this story to the press a few days before the Mission 21 congress in Sheffield. It strangely echoed a very similar press release put out by Mission 21 suggesting that "More new churches were planted in the UK than new Starbucks opened in the last few years!"

Anyway, regardless of the apparent piggy-backing it was good to hear confirmation of the trends I also had found and presented in Sheffield.

Here are some quotes:

More than 1,000 new Christian churches have been created over the last seven years, double the number of Starbucks coffee shops, new research has found.

All the major denominations opened new churches but the biggest growth was among the black Pentecostal churches.

About half of the new congregations were created by the Pentecostal churches, with help from other ethnic minorities such as the Chinese and the Croatians.

New initiatives such as "Fresh Expressions", alternative worship services aimed at young people, accounted for a fifth of new congregations.

But before Church leaders start celebrating, the survey also found that slightly more churches had closed than had opened, with the Methodists shutting the most.

For the full article in the Telegraph go here.

posted by alexander @ 10:20 AM 2 comments

2 Comments:

Hi Alexander,

I never quite understand statistics like this (as well as being disturbed by what feels too similar to the early 90s triumphalism).

Is the number of churches planted really any sign of success whatsoever? We need to compare it to the number closed, the reason new ones were started (which can be very negative in itself), the impact of all of these new churches, how they were planted, how they relate to the other churches and so on.

What do you think?

By graham old, at 3:50 PM

Don't be fooled by the numbers! They're only one indicator (among many) and as you identify probably not the best way to measure things! But they're about all Peter Brierley has to go on unless people pay him to do indepth research, which often can also be floored!
At Mission 21 you would not have heard much in the way of 90's triumphalism; it was pretty sobering.
I would measure success by whether churches are making real disciples (who follow Jesus not another person) who are able to make more disciples.
To be honest I feel the church landscape is changing so rapidly that much current statistical research is meaningless! It all reflects a paradigm of church which is gradually becoming obsolete.

By alexander, at 4:22 PM

emerging church, emergent, simple church, house church, home church.

2 Comments:

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