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Why are some churches thriving?

I just received Outreach Magazine’s annual top 100 edition. This is the edition that reports the nation’s top 100 fastest-growing churches and top 100 largest churches. The top 100 churches average 6000 in attendance. They showed a combined gain of 105,657—a 28% increase. The fastest-growing—NewSpring Church in Anderson, S.C.—grew by 7,072 in attendance in one year. The list is made up of a variety of churches. The youngest—Destination Church in Colonial Heights, VA—was started in 2011. Traders Point Christian Church in Indianapolis, IN was founded in 1834. There is a new generation of churches that are either starting or re-inventing themselves and are exploding in growth. These churches demonstrate without question that growth is possible in this generation in North America. The fields really are white unto harvest.

The multi-site movement is what makes this movement especially exciting. I predict the multi-site movement will change the church scene as much as franchises changed the world of retail. Thirty years ago, retail was dominated by mom-and-pops. Today it is dominated by franchises. Today’s church world is dominated by local, one-site churches. Thirty years from now church world will be dominated by a handful of multi-site churches that have thousands of locations each. You can decide for yourself whether or not this is a good idea. I am not saying it is good or bad, I’m saying it is coming.

Overseas, things are even better. There is a movement in China called T4T. The rapid growth of this movement has created a desperate need for theological training of its leaders. It has grown so rapidly that there are people overseeing large networks of house churches who have only been Christians for a few months. I have a friend who went to do some training two months ago. He and three other men trained 120 house church pastors. Two months later, he received an email reporting that these 120 groups have won 3000 people to Christ in the last two months. It is just like the book of Acts.

But here at home things are quite different. With rare exceptions, our churches have gone from plateaued to gently declining.

Three years ago, Ed Stetzer predicted membership in Southern Baptist churches would look like this between now and 2050:

It is looking increasingly like this prediction will come true – unless we change. We will change or we will die.