PROFESSOR PRICE
  • Blog
  • Megaregions
  • Courses
  • Trip Info
  • C.V. & Research
  • Transformational Ministry
  • Contact
    • About
  • French
  • Missional Church
  • Gospel & Culture
  • Global Diversity
  • History | Church of the Nazarene

Large Churches and Missional Centers | Nazarene Presence in the Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion (1898-2017)

8/11/2018

1 Comment

 
The significance of these infographs is found in the first first data point: 

There is only one church in this megaregion that is over 1,000 in worship attendance. But that's only part of it.

There is an even more startling statistic: 

Three people attending worship out of every 100 in this megaregion are attending this particular church: Nashville (TN) First Church of the Nazarene.

Notably, only three churches in the top 20 in worship attendance were started after 1950 in 1977, 1990, and 2016. One of them is a predominantly Hispanic congregation. 
Picture
There are also only five other churches over 500 in attendance, and three of them are in the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee. The other two are less than 80 miles apart along I-20 in South Carolina. This is important because I consider churches between 500 to 900 as missional centers: hubs of missional activity like leadership and discipleship training, financial anchors, mission support. These churches become a critical mass for new works to be developed.  There's only five and in only two locations along a long geographic setting in which Charlotte, Atlanta, Birmingham, Knoxville, and Memphis, as well as Nashville, need to have missional impact throughout the megaregion.

One of every ten members and worship attendees will be in these six churches on an average Sunday morning in the Piedmont Atlantic megaregion. 


There are only 136 churches that average more than 75 in attendance. I consider this number to signify a sustainable congregation that can support missional endeavors, a full-time pastor and some sort of meeting space. I do not believe this kind of church is necessarily the goal but if not then there needs to be openness to more organic forms of ministry or a re-consideration in how the mission is funded.

The geographic center is along I-85 to the northeast of Atlanta in Commerce, Georgia. 
Picture

Resources

  • Church Closings | Piedmont Atlantic 
  • Church Presence | Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion
  • Pastors | Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion
  • Women in Ministry | Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion
  • Ethnic Churches | Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion
  • Other U.S. Megaregions
1 Comment
Joe Bell link
8/13/2018 12:46:35 am

Are you publishing your statistics?

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture

    Bio

    teacher, writer,
    talker, do-er

    Type Seven.
    ​
    Supposed Strengths:
    ideation, activator, strategic, learner, positivity

    Tweets by @JaMaPrice
    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    August 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2020
    November 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014

    RSS Feed


    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Asia
    Autobiographical
    Bible
    Books
    Church
    Coffee
    COVID-19
    Diversity
    Film
    Folk Beliefs
    Holiness
    Intercultural Studies
    Luther
    Megaregions
    Microchurch
    Ordination
    Organic Church
    Public Library
    Road Trip
    Sci Fi
    Sci-Fi
    Skeptics
    Suggested Reading
    Theology
    Training Video
    Urban

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blog
  • Megaregions
  • Courses
  • Trip Info
  • C.V. & Research
  • Transformational Ministry
  • Contact
    • About
  • French
  • Missional Church
  • Gospel & Culture
  • Global Diversity
  • History | Church of the Nazarene