heartbreaking stats

Eighty-five percent of all existing churches in America have either plateaued or are declining.

Of the 15% percent of churches that are growing, only 1% percent are growing by conversion growth. The rest grow by Christians transferring from other churches.

In the last thirteen years, there has been a 92% increase in the number of un-churched Americans.

Churches in American lose approximately 2,765,000 people each year.

Between 3,500 and 4,000 churches every year will close their doors for the last time.

Almost every denomination in America is declining because they have been unable to start enough healthy new churches to offset the number of churches closing.

Today there are approximately 200 million non-Christians in the US, the third largest mission field in the world!

During the decade of the 90’s, the US population increased 11.4% (24,153,000 people) while church membership declined 9.5% (4,498,242 people).

Currently, only half of all US churches add one new member through conversion growth.

At this rate, Christians are fast becoming an endangered breed in the US.



[Stats taken from John Herrington's Missional Church Planting Essentials seminar handout quoting Aubrey Malphurs' Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century, Justin Taylor's "How Many Americans Really attend Church Each Week," Georege Barna 2006, Charles Arn's "A Response to Dr. Rainer: What is the Key to Effective Evangelism in Journal of the American Society for Church Growth vol 6, 1995, p. 74, George Barna's Growing Your Church From the Outside In, and Neil Cole's Cultivating a Life for God, p. 11.]