GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & Church average attendance has dropped from 137 in 2000 to 65 today! Here’s a chart and links to best practices to address that …

by Bob Whitsel D.Min., Ph.D., 7/25/22.

Generally the church has declined from an average of one 137 attendees, 20 years ago to 65 attendees today. Below is a chart that illustrates that. This means if you were involved in a church 20 years ago, either as a pastor or attendee, you would see the average church drop to 50% smaller than it was! That’s scary for many congregants.

But, it’s important that people understand this is a societal motor (yet something we as leaders must address). However, this drop is not fully the fault of the local church. A church can remain comparatively plateaued, but be declining in attendance because of societal motors.

Here’s the handouts from the seminar, “Growing the Post-pandemic Church” with field-tested solutions. And here is a visual from that seminar on the “average” sized church according to the Hartford Institute’s American Religious Identification Survey (one of the most exhaustive surveys available today).

handouts-coker-church-c2a9whitesel-growing-post-pandemic-churchDownload

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & Working From Home: 53% Of Remote Workers Are Quitting Due To Outdated Benefits.

by Jasmine Browley, Essence Magazine, 6/15/22.

Working remotely has become heavily favored by many workers over the last few years for many reasons that include better work-life balance, money saved on daily commutes and comfortable work environments are key factors that come to mind.

But according to a new study, this isn’t enough to keep workers around.

Paychex survey more than 1,000 employees across the U.S across various leadership levels about what they’re looking for in benefit packages. The participants also discussed how important these benefits are when considering the viability of the companies they’re working for.

While 88% of employees reported satisfaction with their benefits while working on-site, and that number dropped to 71% when they switched to remote work. That number rose to 77% for those participants whose companies offered upgraded benefits workers.

The survey also asked which benefits were most important. The most common benefit updates for remote workers included flexible working hours and performance bonuses. When asked which additional benefits were most important, employees said they valued a home office stipend (31%) and reimbursement for internet costs (30%).

The full report can be found here.

And read more from Essence Magazine here … https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/remote-workers-importance-of-benefits-workplace-morale/

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & Angela Duckworth, author of the bestseller “Grit,” explains why, two years into the pandemic, even the grittiest people are quitting, stepping down, or scaling back. And, she suggests three things to do to address this.

by Danica Lo, Fast Company Magazine, 6/15/22.

It’s been six years since psychologist and University of Pennsylvania Professor Angela Duckworth published her bestseller Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. After more than two years of behavioral and societal shifts that have drastically altered cultural values around work and achievement (see: the Great Resignation), Duckworth discusses Grit in hindsight in the first episode of The Next Chapter, a new podcast created for the American Express Business Class platform, out today.

For Duckworth, the tenets of Grit still hold true—that high-achievers are people who not only possess passion, but who also persevere. But, especially in these post-pandemic years, finding passion, or a directional focus, an be difficult and confusing. “For many of us, work ethic, getting feedback, practicing things we can’t yet do, being resilient—all that is easier than knowing what to be persevering about,” she says.

…“When someone is super-gritty, it’s because they’re pursuing something they really love and they actually feel there’s hope to make progress on [it],” Duckworth says. “One reason people might be burning out right now is that, for whatever reasons, there is some erosion of that hope that the future is bright for what they’re doing.”

…“The lesson in the pandemic is that if we want to be grittier or if we want to understand how to make other people grittier, there has to be some valid sense of hope for that person—that what they’re doing is going to be enough and that the future has some reason to believe that it’s brighter,” Duckworth says.

1. Mentorship …

2. Connect workers to a higher purpose …

3. Establish a culture of grit …

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & The Reformation Succeeded because of the Printing Press. Today’s #eReformation is following a similar trajectory with some churches embracing new avenues to make disciples.

by Joshua J. Mark, World History Encyclopedia, 5/24/22.

… There Were Reformers before Martin Luther

Before Martin Luther’s 95 Theses sparked the Reformation, other attempts had been made to correct what were seen as abuses and false teachings of the Catholic Church. The Paulicians and Waldensians had advocated reform while the Catharsseparated themselves completely from the Church. The two best-known proto-Reformers, however, are the English theologian and priest John Wycliffe (l. 1330-1384) and the Bohemian priest Jan Hus (l. c. 1369-1415). Wycliffe inspired Hus, whose efforts were the driving force behind the Hussite Wars (1419 to c. 1434) and the Bohemian Reformation (c. 1380 to c. 1436), two of the earliest attempts at reform. Martin Luther would later reference Hus, who was executed in 1415 as a heretic, as a role model for Christians in pursuing a true relationship with God based solely on faith and one’s own interpretation of scripture. Contrary to legend, however, Hus never ‘predicted’ Luther’s activism; this story is a later invention by Luther’s followers.

The Reformation Succeeded because of the Printing Press

… The Reformation succeeded, while earlier efforts at reform had failed, primarily because of the invention of the printing press c. 1440. Wycliffe and Hus made many of the same points later articulated by reformers but lacked the technology to share their views with a wider audience. Martin Luther’s 95 Theses were popularized through print, as were his other writings which were then translated and printed elsewhere, inspiring a wider movement outside of Germany… Translations of the Bible, commentaries on scripture, and attacks on the Catholic Church – as well as by the Church on Protestant sects – were all made possible by mass-produced books and pamphlets. The popularity of these religious works in print contributed to a rise in literacy in Europe, which is an aspect of the Reformation often highlighted.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & More houses of worship are returning to normal operations, but in-person attendance is unchanged since fall. #PewResearch

by Justin Nortey, 3/25/22.

As COVID-19 cases continue to decline and pandemic restrictions are eased across the United States, churches and other houses of worship increasingly are holding services the way they did before the outbreak began, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. But there has not been a corresponding rise over the past six months in the share of Americans who are attending in-person services.

A line graph showing that the share of churches and other houses of worship operating as they did pre-pandemic continues to rise

… The same survey shows that attendance at in-person services – which grew steadily from July 2020 through September 2021 – has plateaued, as has the share of adults watching religious services online or on TV.

… The survey’s questions about in-person and virtual attendance can be combined to provide a sense of how many people are watching services online instead of attending in person, and how many are watching online in addition to attending in person. The Center’s survey finds that among all adults who say they typically attend services at least monthly, 36% have both attended in person and watched services digitally in the last month, while three-in-ten (31%) say they have only attended in person but not watched online or on TV in the last month.

One-in-five (21%) may still be substituting virtual attendance for in-person attendance, saying they recently have watched religious services online or on TV but have not attended in person. Just 12% of self-described regular attenders report that they have neither gone in person nor watched services virtually in the last month.

A bar chart showing that roughly one-in-five Americans who typically attend services monthly have participated virtually but not in person in the last month

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & The Cure for Burnout, According to Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman: Play More. Apparently, even genius physicists experience burnout. Here’s how one overcame it.

by Jessica Stillman, Inc. Magazine, 5/6/22.

It’s official: Post-pandemic America is incredibly burned out. “According to Google Trends, which since 2004 has collected data on what the world is searching for, queries for ‘burnout’ –from work, life, and school–are at an all-time high in the US,” Quartz recently reported.

In his 1985 book Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! physicist and Nobel Laureate Richard Feynmanrecounted his own case of burnoutand explained what worked to cure him (hat tip to Kottke). His prescription is a whole lot more pleasant than a lot of advice you’ll get about rejiggering your work responsibilities or schedule: Play more.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & How the Great Resignation is turning into a great opportunity for leaders.

by John Connors, Fast Company Magazine, 4/27/22.

… The facts are straightforward: 68% of employees are rethinking what they want from their career.

… The Great Resignation is an opportunity to more aggressively advocate for new working models that enable new talent pools, improve company performance, and encourage people’s well-being.

As we all know, the office model for success has been relatively static since the inception of the knowledge economy post-WWII. Too many companies have abused the model and treated employees as resources to control rather than as people and lives to be optimized. But as we are learning now, the average American daily commute of 56 minutes per day, while perhaps balancing a family or caregiver responsibilities, was not high-motivation strategy.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & Study Shows 74 Percent of Introverts Don’t Want Full-Time Remote Work. They Want This Instead

by Jeff Steen, Inc. Magazine, 4/12/22.

… In a recent study detailed in The Wall Street Journal. In fact, they found something quite different: 82% of extroverted workers would prefer a hybrid work model, with 15% actually preferring full-time remote work. Self-described introverts, on the other hand — a whopping 74% of them — said they wanted to be in the office at least part-time.

CEOs and people leaders who are navigating our new normal should see a lesson here, namely that employee preferences aren’t as black and white as management would like.

As one introverted employee, quoted in the article, noted: “At the end of the day, I want to be home by myself, but it doesn’t mean you can’t crave other people’s company.” Indeed, as Myers-Briggs’ head of thought leadership, John Hackston, noted, the takeaway here is that new work models shouldn’t be all or none — or even as highly regulated as some managers would want. The control should land with employees.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & WFH? Do this one thing to retain your employees and avoid the Great Resignation by Bob Whitesel PhD

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & People’s return to in-person worship services has stalled. There has been virtually no change in average attendance since August 2021… 1 in 4 pre-pandemic churchgoers are still missing from in-person worship services. #LifeWay

“Churches Still Recovering From Pandemic Losses” by Aaron Earls, LifeWay Research, 3/1/22

More than 8 in 10 churches have an attendance of at least half of what it was prior to the pandemic. The average U.S. Protestant church reports attendance at 74% of what it was prior to COVID-19, which means 1 in 4 pre-pandemic churchgoers are still missing from in-person worship services.

“People’s return to in-person worship services has stalled,” said McConnell. “There has been virtually no change in average attendance since August 2021. Some of this is the direct impact of COVID with people getting sick, needing to quarantine or being at high risk. But this also likely includes healthy individuals choosing to not return.”

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & Join me tomorrow at Above.org (Above & Beyond Fellowship) in Houston, TX for my seminar on 38 field-tested tools to grow in the new normal.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & Workplaces are in denial over how much Americans have changed. Now employees “pose the ultimate questions about death, about mortality: what is life for? What is our relationship with God?”

by Alvin Chang, The UK Guardian Newspaper, 3/21/22.

Nearly six months before Covid-19, the Yale historian Frank Snowden wrote a book about epidemics and pandemics. What he found was that these periods of suffering reshape not just how societies function, but also how humans want to spend their limited time on Earth.

“Epidemic diseases reach into the deepest levels of the human psyche,” he said in 2020. “They pose the ultimate questions about death, about mortality: what is life for? What is our relationship with God?”

Two years and a pandemic later, Snowden said Covid-19 has challenged another set of beliefs: how America is supposed to work.

Before the pandemic, Americans were already working longer hours than people in other developed nations. Perhaps it was in the spirit of the American dream – the idea that if you work hard, this country will make your sacrifices worth it. But mere days into the pandemic, it became harder to hold on to this myth.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & where are people now moving? This population map will show you. #USCensus

by US Census Bureau, 3/24/22.

…Metropolitan Statistical Areas

Growth:
- Sixty-five percent (251 of 384) of the metro areas within the 50 states and the District of Columbia experienced population increase between 2020 and 2021.
- Texas was home to four of the top 10 largest-gaining metro areas.
- Sixty-three percent of metro areas had positive net domestic migration. Seeing the largest net domestic migration gains were Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ (66,850), Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (54,319), and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL (42,089).
- Net international migration was positive in 353 (91.9%) of metros.
- Having gained 17,133 residents between 2020 and 2021, Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN, crossed the threshold of 2 million residents, for a total population of 2,012,476.
Decline:
- Metro areas with notable numeric population declines between 2020 and 2021 were San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA (-116,385) and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI (-91,671).
- Lake Charles, LA (-5.3%), Odessa, TX (-2.6%) and San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA (-2.5%) had the largest percent decreases in population.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & #ElmerTowns at #GCRN at #Exponential says a secret has always been using new methods of communication, such as (increasingly) via a camera. #GreatCommissionResearchNetwork

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: My friend and professional inspiration has been Elmer Towns, prolific author (over 200 books), scholar and student of outreach. Looking back over 50 years of studying how churches grow, ne said that teaching/preaching via new methods (today online via cameras) is one of the most important secrets of church growth.

Dr. Elmer Towns at the Great Commission Research Network Annual Conference at Exponential.

Learn more about the Great Commission Research Network at https://www.greatcommissionresearch.com

GENERATION Z AND MILLENNIALS & @BethSeversen at the #GreatCommissionResearchNetwork explains they have high financial anxiety, low financial stability. IDEA? Churches should meet this need with free (online?) training on budgeting, finances, etc. #GCRN

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & For many immunosuppressed, churches stopped being a safe place

by Sarah Pulliam Bailey, The Washington Post, February 27, 2022.

For centuries, Christians have met in sacred places that also provided safety for those seeking asylum, including runaway slaves and undocumented immigrants. But those same sanctuaries where many sing and embrace each other have become anxiety-inducing, and possibly dangerous, for many Americans who are considered higher risk for covid-19.

More than 7 million Americans have weakened immune systems that make them more vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus and can make covid-19 more deadly. Many have chosen to stay home. Those who are immunocompromised include people with medical conditions that weaken their immune response, as well as people taking immune-suppressing drugs because of cancer, organ transplants or autoimmune diseases.

As states across the country are lifting covid-19 precautions such as mask mandates and some churches have dropped online services, the immunocompromised are weighing their risk of possible exposure in worship services. And some are finding their fellow parishioners and church leaders aren’t taking measures to protect them.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & Houses of Worship Face Clergy Shortage as Many Resign During Pandemic. #WallStreetJournal #LeadingInLiminalTimes

by Ian Lovett, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 21, 2022.

…For eight years, Keith Mudiappa accepted the challenges of serving as pastor at his nondenominational Minneapolis church—the 70-hour workweeks, the low pay, the calls from parishioners at all hours—in exchange for the joy of seeing people come to the faith.

But the rewards of the job were tough to come by during nearly two years of online-only services. Late last year, Mr. Mudiappa quit and moved with his wife and children to Florida. He now works at a bank.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & Quitting online church is abandoning the one for the 99. #PhysicallyChallenged

by Shannon Dingle, Religion News Service, 2/2/22.

… COVID-19 proved to be the catalyst for such change. Churches began shifting to online models en masse, to keep people safe from a deadly virus. As weeks passed and we could see that this new normal wasn’t leaving anytime soon, church leaders began moving their faith communities online.

Disabled people who had begged for more accessible models of ministry, who had been told online church wasn’t possible, watched as their requested accommodations became realities. While we were excited to finally be able to engage with our churches through new programs, our pain was undeniable.

Jesus tells a parable, recorded in Luke 15 and Matthew 18, known as the parable of the lost sheep. In it, a shepherd has 100 sheep and one goes missing. The good shepherd goes after the one lost sheep and brings it back to the other 99 with a spirit of joy and celebration. But is that a cute story we read like pure fiction, or do we believe it?

Consider, for a moment, that the story is one disabled person and 99 abled people, and instead of a field, the setting is a church. When one needed to be able to participate in the community of believers from home or a hospital using technology, we in the church stuck with the 99. Those virtual church options that were called impossible for the one became possible when COVID-19 safety measures, like not meeting in person, were necessary for the remaining 99 as well. The accommodation was never impossible for the one. We made a choice that the 99 abled people were worthy of such an option becoming available, which revealed what we believed about the one disabled person: They alone were not worthy, not in how church worked prior to the pandemic.

Now, as churches reopen their in-person services, the inclusive hybrid model can finally work, right?

Yes, but some people don’t want it that way. This past weekend Tish Harrison Warren, a priest in the conservative sect of Anglican churches and an opinion writer for The New York Times, argued for the end of online church, even though she acknowledged the practice would re-marginalize some members who have been included by online worship connection.

… According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 26% of adults are disabled. One in 10 adults age 18 and older — and double that for those 65 and older — have a disability that impacts one or more areas of functioning enough to require support from others. We know COVID-19 disproportionately harms people with medical vulnerabilities, and some people who need to stay home to avoid COVID also stay home for part or all of flu season, in addition to hospitalizations, surgeries, sleep disorders and other circumstances preventing church attendance.

The most important fact we keep overlooking in these debates, though, is that disabled people are more likely to have those conditions that make COVID-19 the riskiest: three times more likely to have heart disease, twice as likely to have diabetes and the most likely to be immunodeficient by nature or due to medications. Relatedly, disabled people experience higher rates of poverty, less stable employment and lower rates of both driving and having access to a vehicle to drive than abled people do — all of which hinder church attendance as well.

Given those statistics, we aren’t talking about one lost sheep but more like 10 or 20 lost out of every 100. With online church, disabled people — including me and my family — were welcomed to church in more ways and more often than ever before. Let’s keep that up rather than shouting, “Hey, Jesus, we’re gonna take that one you brought back and throw them to the elements and predators! We’re going back to the way it was.”

GROWTH & Here are the 3 types of measurable, numerical growth in a church. Is your church growing with the most important type (or the easiest)? #DonaldMcGavran #TomCrenshaw

The Best Way to Grow Your Church

by Tom Crenshaw, guest article, 1/26/22.

How is your church growing?

That is the question every member should be asking. There are three ways a church grows A church grows biologically. Your parents went to church, and as children you grew up attending that church and today you are still a part of that church. You are there because that is the only church you have ever known. In our rapidly migrating culture, not many of those biological members are left today.

A second from of growth is transfer growth. People, for whatever reason, have decided to leave their church and join another, and they show up on your doorstep looking for a new place to settle.

And the third form of church growth is conversion growth. People unite with your church as new believers. That is the way the early church grew and that is the way today healthy church should be growing.

The real measure of a church’s health is not biological growth or transfer growth but conversion growth.

Church leaders should always be asking how many of your members are new believers who have been recently won to Christ, and not just biological or transfer members.

Today in rapidly growing suburbs, many churches are experiencing significant growth, but their growth is misleading, for much of it is simply the result of members moving into a growing area and transferring their membership from one church to another.

If you really want to know whether your church is healthy, leaders must ask themselves who are the new people filling your seats? Are they biological members, transfer members, or members by conversion?
The early church grew because everywhere believers went, they gossiped the gospel. Non-believers watched the way believers lived and they were curious to know what made them so different.

I often remind our church that “every member is a minister.”

Every member should be an AOC member: “Always on Call.” Every Sunday member should be praying for opportunities to meet and serve others, but especially those who are visiting your church and who may not know the Lord.

For such visitors, you may become their ‘Welcome Table,’ or ‘Guest Service’ provider.
I often remind our members that they should come to church with an outreach mindset in anticipation of meeting and making new friends. They should be on the lookout for ways to build relational bridges with those visitors who may be non-believers.

Too often members focus on fellowshipping with their friends on Sunday, while ignoring those who are visitors. What a difference it would make if every member would be outreach oriented, determined to make friends with new people and focused on discovering ways to love and serve them. “How can I help you,” should be in the back of every member’s mind as he/she meets new people.

And, the only way we can find that need and fill it is by taking the time to be good listeners, to hear the hurting heart and offer help and encouragement.

As believers we are called to ‘find a need and fill it.”

If we want to see our church grow in the most important way-through the conversion of non-believers-we must focus on our visitors, build bridges of friendship with them by loving and serving them, while always looking for opportunities to share with them the glorious, good news of the gospel. That’s the best way to grow our church.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & As COVID-19 Death Tolls Rise, More Americans Want Religious Funerals

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: one of the results of previous pandemics throughout history was an increased interest in our eternal destiny (heaven, hell and judgement). I pointed out in my book it’s important for churches to address these questions now. Focus more of your preaching and teaching on these topics to meet the needs of the post-pandemic population.

Here’s a reminder from some recent research that the topic of the afterlife is increasingly important to people in a post pandemic period.

As COVID-19 Death Tolls Rise, More Americans Want Religious Funerals

The trend toward secular memorials reverses for the first time in a decade.

by DANIEL SILLIMAN|CHRISTIANITY TODAY, DECEMBER 13, 2021.

Death abounded in America in 2020 and 2021. According to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 570,000 more people died in 2020 than in 2019, with about 350,000 of those attributable to COVID-19. Another 350,000 people died from the coronavirus by the fall of 2021, bringing the death total to 700,000—and counting.

When roughly that number died over the four years of the Civil War, it had a widespread impact on American culture. Historians such as Drew Gilpin Faust, author of This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, say changesincluded increased attention to cemeteries, the rise in the importance of family photographs, and rapid growth in the popularity of practices of spiritualism, a new religious movement that claimed to help people communicate with the dead.

What impact today’s pandemic deaths will have on American culture remains to be seen. But one shift is notable now: The percentage of people age 40 and older who say that religion is “very important” in the funeral of a loved one has gone up for the first time in a decade.

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A Wiki- on Church Health & Growth Curated by Bob Whitesel D.Min. Ph.D.

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