Reversing the Trend

RACOC Admin | Posted 29 September 2011 | 1 Comment
Tags: Harry Fitzgerald

Are churches loosing members? David Roozen, director of the Harford Institute for Religion Reasearch, compared a survey of 14,000 Protestant churches in 2000 and compared another study of 11,000 churches in 2010. He released his findings and shared that the median number in Sunday worship dropped a little more than 20%. He points out that 1 in 4 religious institutions have less than 50 in attendance. "The decline hit across religious and denominational lines, sparing no one", Roozen wrote.

He also found that on the average, one third of the congregants are over 65 years of age. He concludes that it has become harder to interest and to hold younger generations. What about Robinson Avenue Church of Christ?  This weekend's seminar on "The Importance of Communication and Understanding Generational Conflict" by Dr. Bruce McLarty should be a good beginning of discussions on how we can work to turn that trend around. The future of this church will depend on the ability for our generations to interact in meaningful discussions and sharing in efforts that builds personal spirituality, church growth, meaningful worship and fellowship.