A couple weeks ago we asked what size church you attend. 42% say the attend a “medium” size church, 32% attend a “mini” church and 19% attend a “mega” church. Of course we didn’t define each of those words numerically, so it’s anybody’s guess what all that means (hey, we’re still learning).
But it did prompt an interesting discussion. Justin Broome pointed me towards the stat that 85% of churches have fewer than 200 people in attendance. (It comes from a statement by Rick Warren that if your church has more than 200 people, you’re in the top 15% by size. It’s backwards, but I think the math still works.)
That’s amazing to me that 85% of churches bring in fewer than 200 people. But then there’s the real question: does size really matter? Justin pointed out that size isn’t as important as how effective a church is, and he pointed to stats from Thom Ranier’s Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them that most churches average one convert per 84 members per year, which means the average church brings one person to Jesus each year. That doesn’t exactly seem effective, and in fact Ranier suggests a 1:20 ratio is considered effective.
One conversion per year just seems pathetic. It’d be interesting to see how churches of all sizes measure up to that statistic, but I think it’d be clear that size isn’t everything.
The most interesting result of our survey: 7% said they don’t go to church.
