What are the common characteristics of growing churches? What are indicators of decline? Kirk Hadaway is the Episcopal Church’s chief statistician and researcher, and he has just published New FACTs on Episcopal Church Growth and Decline (do use this link; the links to the report provided at Episcopal Café and in the original press release lead to dead ends). Hadaway’s report is based on a 70% return rate from a balanced sample in 2014 and is an update to an earlier report. The new document is a gold mine of data for those who want to grow their churches.
Hadaway notes dozens of factors that affect growth and decline. I have picked six that I think are essential for churches to practice or, at least, to have considered carefully. One extraordinary factor may grow a church, but growing churches usually attend to several factors. The factors I chose are not geographically specific, nor do they depend on the leadership of the rector, which, of course, is always a substantial factor. Throughout, I assume a robust proclamation of a Nicene Christian faith ought to be part of a growing church.
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