American Church Life Series: Click | View Series
Continued from: Part 2

Outreach and Service

• There is a tremendous amount of outreach and service available through congregations. Almost all congregations offer some support for congregants in need.
• 94 percent of congregations have a social service ministry; 84 percent have an educational or counseling ministry; and 78 percent have an evangelistic or religious outreach ministry.
• 44 percent of congregations reported mission and service trips, 32 percent offer prison ministry, 30 percent offer street evangelism, and 22 percent provide college campus ministry.
• 81 percent of congregations help others through food pantries or soup kitchens, 73 percent through cash assistance for the less fortunate, 68 percent through clothing donations, 43 percent through assistance for seniors, 43 percent through service trips to poor communities, and 40 percent through home repair for those in need.

Of particular interest was overseas giving and missions work by congregations. Here are some preliminary results from that effort:

• In 2006, about 56 percent of congregations gave money to U.S.-based organizations providing relief and development overseas. 33 percent gave donations directly to programs or organizations in foreign countries, and 35 percent reported that people from their congregation went on short-term mission or service trips overseas. About half of congregations supported other types of mission trips or missionaries overseas.
• Congregations gave about $7 billion in 2006 to support the needy in foreign countries. About $3.8 billion of this amount went directly to overseas causes.

The NDCS reports, "This is the first information that has been available on overseas giving by US congregations. Until now, no one knew the extent and shape of the overseas work by U.S. congregations. We will be looking more closely at these data to better understand congregational overseas ministry, and will send reports to you as these are available."

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American Church Life series.

Staff

• The number of paid staff for the average congregation is three. But nearly half of all congregations have one paid staff member.
• 58 percent of congregations have a youth minister, and half of these youth ministers are volunteers.

Pastors' Commitments

• The head pastor spends, on average, 2.4 hours each week in community organizing, 3.6 hours in visitation of members and their families, 1.8 hours interacting with prospective members, 5.1 hours visiting the sick and shut-ins, 5.7 hours counseling, and 11 hours in sermon preparation.
• In an average week, head ministers work slightly more than 40 hours. However, if we only consider ministers that are paid for their work, the average head minister works nearly 45 hours per week. Of course, some ministers are paid for part-time work. That explains why the median hours worked by all paid ministers is actually higher than the average hours. The median pastor who is paid by the congregation works about 50 hours per week.

Worship

• On average, congregations hold about two worship services per week. About 61 percent of congregations have important differences between services, such as a traditional and a contemporary service, or services in different languages.
• In almost all congregations, about half of the attendees stay after the worship service to socialize for about 25 minutes.
• 62 percent of congregations have prayer services throughout the week.
• 53.4 percent of congregations have small groups meeting regularly. The most common purpose for small groups is Bible study, group prayer, and church planning.

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This past year, Mars Hill Church participated in the Notre Dame Congregational Study (NDCS). I recently received the summary findings of their survey and felt the information would be helpful to other pastors and ministry leaders.

The NDCS summary report said, "Religious congregations are the most basic and important unit of American religious life. They account for half of the volunteer sector in the U.S.—a fact that is not widely known or appreciated. The NDCS continues to educate American leaders and the public about what congregations do and how they fulfill their missions…In the first round of the NDCS, we collected information from a total of 531 congregations."

In the following days I will be posting the NDCS summary findings on church leadership, membership, staff, pastors' commitments, worship, and outreach and service, along with other significant findings.

Leadership

• 95 percent of congregations are led by a head minister, while about 4 percent by an assembly of congregational members.
• About 80 percent of head ministers are male, and 20 percent are female.
• Head ministers have held their positions for an average of 8 years. Of course, some ministers have been at their congregation for a significantly longer number of years (the highest is just over 50 years), which may make the average number of years misleading. The median number of years at the congregation is 5, which essentially means that half of pastors have been at their congregation for less than 5 years and half have been at their congregation for more than 5 years. The average age of head ministers is about 52 years.

Membership

• 207 people regularly participate in the life of the average congregation. However, several very large congregations pull up the overall average. Interestingly, the median congregation has 77 people who regularly participate in the life of the congregation. That is, about half of congregations have less than 77 regular participants, and half have more than 77 participants.
• Of course, many more people are associated with the congregation than regularly participate. On average, 522 people are associated with the congregation. Again, this is high due to a few extremely large congregations. The median congregation has 150 people who are associated with the congregation in some way.

To be continued.

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