Large Churches and Missional Centers | Nazarene Presence in the Gulf Coast Megaregion (1907-2018)8/16/2018 The statistics below speak for themselves. Here is some context: There are 108 active congreagtions and only 97 reported attendance. Six churches are 150 or more in worship attendance, or 15% of the total. 59% are fewer than 45 in average worship attendance. The largest congregation by worship attendance is Nacogdoches First Nazarene with 224 in average attendance. The geographic center is Lake Charles, Louisiana, which is about 520 miles from Matamoros, Mexico and Panama City, Florida. Resources
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Nine women serve as senior assigned Nazarene pastors in the Gulf Coast megaregion. Or, ten percent (10%) of the total (86). The largest church with a female senior pastor has an average worship attendance of 72; the smallest is 4. The median is 25. Only one has been in their assignment prior to 2006. ResourcesThere are 86 pastors on this megaregion (note: one is counted twice as a part of a dual assignment). This means there is one Nazarene pastor for 155,814 people in the Gulf Coast Megaregion, using 2010 population numbers (see image below). If the current number of pastors is maintained, there will be . . .
There is currently one church for 124,074 people. The ratio should be one church for 10,000 people to be a sustainable and recognizable presence in a given population. One out of five pastors on this megaregion have been in place for more than twelve years. About 30% have been at their church assignments for under four years, and another 30% for more than nine years. Median worship for churches with an assigned pastor is 36. Median tenure for pastors on this megaregion is five years, or in place since 2013. Nine pastors are women. Resources
Organized and Closed Churches | Nazarene Presence in the Gulf Coast Megaregion (1907-2017)8/14/2018 The megaregion causes some difficulty in trying to find a way to get from one end to the other. It doesn't go quite as far as Tallahasee hugging the coastline around Panama City in the east. The megaregion straggles I-10 toward Houston with a divergence toward Shreveport along I-49. And, then at Houston, while encompassing this huge city that anchors not one but two megaregions, dips down highways 59 and 77 toward Corpus Christi and the Texas-Mexico border from McAllen/Reynosa and Brownsville/Matamoros. This place can be traversed in a 3 hour and 30 minute flight or by road in 15 hours and over 1,000 miles. This megaregion will cause some difficulty in determining which churches to study. It contains parts of six Nazarene districts. It was difficult to determine where to make the cut-off. I decided to stay true to the eastern and western extent of the megaregion. Therefore, Tallahassee is not included in the east and most of Houston west of the coastline is left to the Texas Triangle research. The northern edge follows highway 84 from Dothan, Georgia, north of Hattiesburg, Mississippi through Alexandria, Louisiana (including the churches northward along I-49 and in the vicinity of Shreveport) to Nagadoches/Woodville, Texasa 314 churches have been started and/or organized in this geographic region. About one-third remain active (108). The most churches organized in any single year was 1941 with nine. Two of them are still active. Fifty-nine churches were started or organized in the 1940s. Fifteen (15) are still active. 52 active churches were organized since 1950. 54 active churches were organized prior to 1950. Churches still active that were started or organized in the 1950s - 6 . . . in the 1960s - 4 . . . in the 1970s - 3 . . . in the 1980s - 5 . . . in the 1990s - 3 Churches still active that were started or organized in the 1940s - 15 . . . in the 1930s - 18 . . . in the 1920s - 17 . . . in the 1910s - 4 One-quarter (24%) of the churches in this megaregion were started since 2010. Of the 314 churches started or organized, 66% (206) have been closed. There was only one year when ten or more churches were closed (ten in 1957), just a consistent decline, almost from the first decade. About one-sixth (17%, 35) of churches closed within two years. Forty-five percent (45%, 92) of the churches closed within seven years. Fifty-eight percent (58%, 119) closed within twelve years. One-third (33%, 66) closed with at least 20 years of active ministry. Churches closing spiked in the 1950s with a steady increase starting again in the 1990s. 85 churches have closed since 1990. Or, forty-one percent of the total (206). Twenty-four (24) churches closed after fifty years of activity ministry. It was between the years 2000 to 2018 that fifteen (15) of these half-century old churches were closed. ResourcesOne of the surprising insights from this data is that the largest ethnic demographic among churches in this megaregion are Hispanic. One would have expected Black/African-American. About 9% of the membership is found in an ethnic church, which comprises about 15% of the churches. Only one out of five (21%) ethnic churches have more than 75 in worship attendance, or a sustainable congregation that would be able to pay for space, a senior pastor, and missional endeavors. I do not think this kind of church entity is the goal, necessarily, and if it is not then more organic approaches to church multiplication will need to be considered. This is not just the situation among ethnic churches but across the board among all types of church demographics. Two-thirds of the ethnically-designated congregations are in the North Carolina, South Carolina,, Tennessee and Mississippi. Opinion alert: I think that the ethnic designation needs to be dropped. I would favor a way for local church pastors to report churches by how many languages are spoken rather than by ethnicity or race. ResourcesThere is not much commentary needed here. The numbers are fairly consistent with other megaregions in this study. The congregation size at the top end is much smaller than it is in other megaregions, but but the median attendance is about the same at 30. Although about 25 women are serving as senior pastors, it only makes up 6.5% of the total number of pastors. Half of them have been serving since 2012. There are about six female pastors for every 100 serving in this megaregion. ResourcesThe year 1941 had 32 church closings. One wonders about the impact of World War 2, not only of the many men entering military service but also others moving north to work in the factories to build the war machine. The next time more than 20 churches were closed did not happen until 2002, and, again in 2004. One wonders again what impact the Global War on Terror had upon moving young men and women into military service and out of their communities. The 2000s over all were not very good for church longevity. All of the 16 churches with over 75 years of active ministry were closed since 2005. Of these 16 churches, ten were closed in or after 2012. There were 135 churches closed in the 2000s, almost as much as the 1940s (77) and 1950s (68) combined. Seventy (70) churches closed after 50 years of active ministry. The percentage of churches closed within two years, seven years, and twelve years remains consistent with the other megaregions, for examples: Arizona Sun Church Closings, Southern California Church Closings, Northeast Church Closings. 28% closed within two years 52% closed within seven years 66% closed within twelve years ResourcesLarge Churches and Mission Centers | Nazarene Presence in the Texas Triangle Megaregion (1905-2017)7/27/2018 I decided to tie these two infographs together since there is not much difference between the two slides. Key information from each of them: There is only one church over 1,000 in attendance in the entire megaregion (Bethany OK First). There three churches over 600 in attendance. For every 100 people in a Nazarene church on a Sunday morning in the Texas Triangle megaregion, thirteen of them are in these four churches. Two of them are in Oklahoma City and one is in Houston. The two in Oklahoma City are over 100 years old. Let's look at the an expanded view of sizeable congregations. I usually look at churches over 600 but since there are only four that fit this criterion, and I already looked at them in the previous infograph, I opened up the criteria to include the 16 total churches with more than 250 in attendance. That's right, sixteen churches have over 250 on Sunday in the Texas Triangle megaregion. For every 100 Nazarene attenders in church on Sunday morning in the Texas Triangle, 28 of them are in one of these sixteen congregations. Nine of these churches are in Oklahoma; seven are in Texas. Of the 331 churches reporting attendance, four out of 10 have less than 45 in attendance on a Sunday morning. Average attendance is around 80; median attendance is 49 among all churches reporting attendance. Dallas, Texas is the geographic crossroads of the Texas Triangle megaregion. ResourcesJust another straight forward infograph. There are sixteen female pastors, or 5% of the total number fo 318 assigned pastors in the Texas Triangle Megaregion. Three-fourths of the female pastors have served eight or fewer years. Median attendance at a church with a female pastor is 45; overall, the median average attendance with an assigned pastor regardless of gender is 54. One key piece of information from this megaregion, though, is that more than half of the female pastors (9 of 16) serve an ethnic church. Resources: I can't think of a Scripture passage that encourages it.
Moses was a government official until he wasn't; there was no way to change things within the government. One could cite Joseph but then his influence waned until we end up with the subjugation of God's people and the need for a Moses to come forth. All of the kings from Saul onward were not God's plan (Yahweh was to be the Most High but the people of Israel wanted a human leader, Samuel reluctantly offered one (David): and the people chose otherwise (Saul).). David and Solomon were flawed although remembered as the archetypal kingly leaders. Most of the prophets were counterpoints to political leadership; all of them were correctives to the flawed political leadership of the kings. Every one of the Proverbs that refers to avoiding deceit and seeking humility, both contrary to Machiavellian political methods. John the Baptist and Jesus who both challenged secular authority and paid with their lives. Paul engaged political authority only so far as to move forward the reign of God but never as an active participant. John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul were all at some point in their ministries considered lawbreakers and criminals by the state authority. From the Gospels, I think of Nicodemus as a political leader who was disappointed that Jesus did not try to change the government by the usual means. Just a few thoughts about why I hold my opinion about the difficulty, well, the impossibility of faithful Christian believers holding political office. Should Christians participate in the political process? Sure. Go vote, challenge the status quo, and support causes. Be an activist. I just believe the Christian voice is more effective as a counselor and prophet than as an office holder. |
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