Download the Q3 2024 Unstuck Church Report
Every quarter, The Unstuck Group compiles all the data we’ve collected to monitor trends in churches in the United States. For this quarter’s report, we only included churches that provided data between July 1 and July 26, 2024.
We received survey responses from 387 churches, ranging from less than 100 to more than 10,000 in physical attendance for worship gatherings. The average in-person attendance of churches that participated was 1,056 people. This provides a very current snapshot of ministries of all shapes and sizes.
Growing vs. Declining Churches: My Findings from the Q3 2024 Unstuck Church Report
The average church experienced weekly attendance growth of more than 150 people in the previous 12 months. More importantly, in these churches combined, there were close to 40,000 people who indicated a decision to follow Jesus in the last 12 months. That’s worth celebrating! In other words, this report reflects the trends of some of the healthiest churches that are making a significant impact on people’s lives.
However, this is only part of the story. Among all the churches that responded to the survey, many also plateaued or faced an attendance decline.
I want to preface this by saying that this doesn’t have anything to do with the size of the church. In other words, this is not a “big church” versus “small church” conversation. This is not a comparison of size; it’s a comparison of trends over time. Additionally, these distinctions highlight the correlations the data offers between growing and declining churches. I’m not suggesting that any of these attributes cause growth or decline.
I noticed some key distinctions between the growing churches and those in decline. Here are a few of those differences:
- Growing churches were about 50% more likely to offer only contemporary or modern worship and no traditional worship.
- Declining churches have far fewer first-time connections to the church, indicating that they’ve become insider focused.
- Growing churches are seeing a much higher percentage of people indicate decisions to follow Jesus within the last 12 months, meaning they are growing AND helping people say “yes” to Jesus.
- Declining churches have larger church boards and four times as many committees.
- Growing churches have a much higher percentage of people viewing online services.
- Declining churches have 30% more paid staff than growing churches, and likewise, they are spending more than 60% of their budget on staffing expenses.
- Growing churches are more likely to have small groups and more people connected to those smaller groups, while declining churches are more likely to have Sunday school.
- Growing churches have 20% more volunteer leaders than declining churches.
- The weekly per capita giving in declining churches is 20% higher than that of growing churches.
I’ve been studying the differences between growing and declining churches for close to twenty years now, and the data confirms these same differences every time. Every percentage point reflects the potential of another person living in God’s grace, mercy and love. It represents the potential for healed marriages, freedom from addictions, finding purpose and so much more.
I hope you and your team find the rest of this report encouraging. We want to help you have better information to make better decisions about the future of your ministry and the mission you are trying to accomplish.
Get Your FREE Copy of The Q3 2024 Unstuck Church Report
This quarter’s Unstuck Church Report consists of 20 metrics that highlight trends with an impact on church health. We focus on 4 key areas to give you benchmarks and an objective look at where the Church may be headed:
- Ministry Reach
- Ministry Connection
- Ministry Staffing & Structure
- Ministry Finances
The report also features additional insights from report sponsor Horizons.
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