The Episcopal Church, through the Office of Congregational Development, participated with other mainline Protestant denominations in a watershed study of new church development. Congregations that were founded between the years of 1980 and 1996 were surveyed to determine the state of new church development and the commonalties of successful new starts. The Lilly Foundation and the participating denominations funded the study.
The goal of the study was to learn the characteristics and growth patterns of new congregations, characteristics of their leaders, and what it takes to successfully plant a new church. Questionnaires were sent to the founding clergy, the current clergy, and five lay leaders who were knowledgeable about the founding of the new congregation. 'Success' was defined as a congregation that grew large enough to achieve self-sufficiency within seven years. An average Sunday attendance of 250 or more was determined by the ecumenical partners to be the benchmark for determining successful self-sufficiency.
The first important result of the survey was learning that the Episcopal Church had very limited records about our new churches. In the future Parochial Reports will track new churches.
The founding clergy of the new churches that had reached an average attendance of 250 or more have been invited to participate in ecumenical focus groups with other successful new church developers to deepen the understanding of what it takes to grow a new congregation.
You can view the full survey results on line or in print by downloading the report in Acrobat at the bottom of this page or ordering the report "New Church Development: A Research Report" through Episcopal Parish Services at 1-800-903-5544 (38 pp., $10.00). The print version provides color graphs and charts.
