#EvidenceToAction From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 An early look at some key themes and data analysis Church growth and size: Growing larger churches Kevin Norris – Senior Strategy Officer Resource Strategy & Development Unit

What does the data about larger churches tell us? Factors relating to growth for larger churches Challenges faced by larger churches An example: St Thomas Crookes, Sheffield From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 Overview

From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 What did the research involved? Defining and sampling: Large church: 200+ attendance Very large church: 500+ attendance Focus where significant growth or decline Data analysis Interviews with leaders from 39 larger churches of different: size geographical location growth or decline records tradition

From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 Some headline figures: Large Churches (200+): Very large Churches (500+): 7.3% of parishes 31.5% of the attendance of the Church of England Pay £5,000 more in parish share than they receive in ordained ministry provision 0.6% of parishes 6.5% of the attendance of the Church of England Pay £45,000 more in parish share than they receive in ordained ministry provision

From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 Proportion of churches made up by larger churches? Area typeProportion of churches which are large (%) City centre27 Towns18 Suburbs17 Council estates4 Commuter belt rural villages1 Rural villages0.5 RegionProportion of churches which are large (%) Greater London18 North West12 South East11 Yorkshire & Humber 5 South West5 East of England4 East Midlands4

From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 Where are the 500+ churches?

From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 Are they growing? – the case of churches that are now large Grew by 4.6% in the last 5 years (compared to churches of all sizes which shrank by 3.9% Churches now very large grew by 8.3% over the past 5 years ago. Much of the growth in the C of E comes from churches becoming large in a short space of time

From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 However – this growth is fragile… Churches that were large 5 years ago have declined by more than the national average: 7.9% Very large churches that were large 5 years ago have declined by 9.2%

From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 Findings from the interviews: growth factors… -Critical importance of being intentional about growth and establishing a vision & strategy for doing so. - Importance of a clear identity and not neglecting the spiritual health of the church

Importance of expanding the staff team in advance of the growth curve Most common first appointment for church growing to be large was a Children and Families Worker – Quality of children's work & attracting families important By 150 – 200 an administrator was needed by 400 most had switched to an Operations manager From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 Staffing…

Many have no more than 2 clergy allocated even after significant growth – (E.g. USA 545, 1 plus a curate, USA 336 – 1) By many had appointed an Associate Vicar. Clergy were withdrawn more swiftly from declining churches than they were allocated to growing churches. Ambivalence to getting training curates in terms of underpinning growth. From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 Staffing (clergy)…

From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 Multiple congregations (worship) Declining large churches stuck to one, ‘one size fits all’ morning service Ceilings shatter as new congregations are launched. Few ‘congregations’ of over 300 – the largest churches spread across the Sunday (80% capacity rule). Some models: Repeat the same offer Traditional, Family, Contemporary ( Traditional offers from large churches are often growing) More specialist approaches: Students, highly targeted

From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 Leadership… Concern about succession and finding leaders who can grow larger churches Often significant decline associated with leadership difficulties Churches have often broken a ceiling (after a period of coasting) following a new appointment (sometimes a particular person can only take a church so far) Some churches have got quite large without adopting a ‘large church structure – though this needs to be adopted sooner or later

From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 Church planting… A good number of larger churches are getting on with it even if: -They are not that large (or in some cases wealthy) themselves (e.g. c200) -Are based up north -A number are planting within their own parishes -They are not of an evangelical tradition -They are giving away some of their best people, staff and financial resourse -Facing hostility and having to do a lot of ground work -Many who had not yet planted would strongly like to do so -Almost all will only plant in co-operation with and with the blessing of the diocese though some dioceses are strongly applying the brakes on planting

From Evidence to Action 4 th December 2014 Challenges faced by larger churches… Relationships with diocese: seen as a threat Parish share – being treated as a ‘cash cow’ Resistance to church planting Finance can be tight – resources fully committed Costly building work or funding re- development to facilitate further growth