Executive Director’s 2007 Report

 

Last spring I mailed a survey to our churches asking for their help in a project for my Doctor of Ministry course. I really appreciated the work so many put into completing and returning their surveys to me. The surveys were analyzed in many different ways and compared to several national trends and Northeast

demographics. I shared many of the results in a two hour report to our Executive Committee (thank you men!) but want to share just a brief summary in this report. The title of the project was “The Growth of CB Mission Northeast Churches over the Past Ten Years.”

 

Just as Paul and Barnabas returned to the churches where they preached to see how they were doing (Acts 15:36) so it is important for us to know the condition of our flocks (Proverbs 27:23). Although numbers do not tell the whole story of how a church is doing, they are an important part of the story, especially as we remember that each number represents an individual that matters to God. The Holy Spirit inspired Dr. Luke to record the growth of the church throughout the book of Acts (1:15; 2:41; 4:4; 5:14; 6:1, 7; 9:31; 11:21; 12:24; 14:1, 21; 16:5; 19:20; 21:20) and I wouldn’t accuse Him of playing the numbers game.

 

The clear teaching of Scripture is that God wants His church to grow:

  • The mandate of Christ to make disciples is the mission of the church (Matt. 28: 18-19).
  • Jesus taught and demonstrated the heart of His Father (Luke 15) as a missionary seeking and saving the lost (Luke 19:10).
  • Jesus declared His authority (Matt. 28:18) and power to build His church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it (Matt. 16:18).
  • Jesus died so that He might redeem us to God by His blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation (Rev. 5:9). Jesus assured His presence (Matt. 28:20) and the powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) will enable His followers to be His witnesses.
  • Just as a branch bears the fruit of the vine, so Christ’s followers who abide in Him will bring glory to God by bearing much fruit (John 15: 1-8).
  • The history of the early church demonstrated that the gospel did bear fruit through the ministry of Jesus Christ through His followers and the church experienced tremendous growth (Acts 2:24; 16:5) first in Jerusalem (Acts 1-7), and then in all Judea and Samaria (Acts 8-12), and also to the ends of the earth (Acts 13-28).
  • The apostle Paul testified that the gospel was bearing fruit and growing all over the world (Col 1:6).

 

My project was to see if the gospel is bearing fruit and growing through our CB churches in New York and New England. The results were both very encouraging and very challenging. I’ll note a few of the highlights.

 

 

Causes for Celebration!

 

1. CBMNE Churches are growing in all parts of our region and in various community contexts.

 
  1. The majority of reporting churches were growing (53 %),
    7% were plateaued, and 40% were in decline.

 

  1. The percentage of growing churches was greater …

·      in every size category of church except for the smallest
(1-49 attendees).

·      in every age category of church except for churches 100-149 years old. However, among even older churches there was a greater percentage that was experiencing growth.

·      in every category of population size from less than 10,000 to over a million.

·      in every community context: rural, town, suburb, and metropolis. The exception was the city where more churches were in decline.

 

 

 

 

2. New churches were planted and the kingdom expanded.

 

  1. 17 churches were planted in the past ten years by our association

 

  1. Another 10 churches were started by CBMNE churches during that time period.

 

  1. The average number of baptisms reported per church increased from 6 per year to 9 per year over the ten years.

 

  1. The average worship attendance for reporting churches increased by 15% over the ten years.

 

 

3. Creative ministries were developed to reach new people.

 

  1. Churches added new congregations to bridge age, ethnic, and language barriers.

 

  1. Churches merged, one church established a satellite campus, and other avenues were explored to revitalize ministries.

 

  1. Churches opened their facilities to other churches to reach people groups they were not reaching.

 

 

4. Healthy models of growing churches were discovered to celebrate, to study, and to learn from their effectiveness in our region.

 

     These churches represent various sizes, ages, and ethnicity. Some also provide models of church planting.

 

 

 

Causes for Concern!

 

1.  We must discover effective ways of reaching the next generations.

 

      The percentage of Millenials (5-24 yrs old) and Survivors (25-45 yrs old) is greater in the general population of our region than in our churches. The percentage of Boomers (46-63), Silents (64-81), and Builders (82+) is greater in our churches than in the general population.

 

 

 

2.  We must discover how to reach the growing ethnic diversity.

 

      The percentage of Anglo Americans is greater in our churches than in the general population. The percentage of Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asians is greater in the general population than in our churches. These three groups are projected to increase and the number of Anglos to decrease.

 

 

 

3.  We must focus on conversion growth.

 

      The percentage of transfer growth (49%) was greater than the percentage of conversion growth (29%) experienced by our churches.

 

 

4.  We must accelerate church planting efforts.

 

 

Across America in spite of church planting and church growth efforts the church is losing ground.

·         In the US from 2000-2005, there was a net gain of 3,162 churches. However to keep pace with the population growth during that period 15,957 churches needed to be planted.

·         If church attendance patterns and population growth continues, the percentage of the population in America attending church in 2050 will be almost half of what it was in 1990.

·         No state saw an increase in the percentage of church attendance from 2000-2005.

·         New England and New York are now among the states that have the lowest percentage of the population attending church on Sunday.

 

 

Although we have seen there is tremendous cause for celebration, there is also tremendous cause for concern if we are going to be faithful in fulfilling Christ’s mandate to make disciples. As churches, our faithfulness to this calling will be marked by our fruitfulness as seen in the conversion, baptism, teaching, and enfolding of people into the church to the glory of God.

 

CB Mission Northeast exists to “assist churches in fulfilling the Great Commission with a Great Commandment passion as they bring the diverse peoples of our region to new life and maturity in Jesus Christ” (from our Bylaws). Our role is not to fulfill the mission of the church, but to assist the church to accomplish her mission.

 

Therefore as a region, we must focus on three priorities:

1.      encourage, equip, and challenge churches to be healthy, missional, communities making disciples and multiplying churches to advance the kingdom of God.

2.      support and develop healthy pastors to be transformational leaders in their churches.

3.      discover an associational structure to facilitate the connecting of churches to each other and to the other resources that will accomplish the first two priorities.

 

The challenge is great, but for the numbers that need to come to Christ, there is no other option!

 

 

CB Mission Northeast

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Randy M. Keeley, Executive Director

PO Box 441, Nassau, NY 12123   Phone: 518.935.4619  

www.MissionNortheast.org