Organized and Closed Churches | Nazarene Presence in the Florida Megaregion (1912-2018)

This megaregion comprises only part of the state of Florida. I took liberties with the boundaries of this megaregion to include Lake City which sits at the crossroads of Interstates 75 and 10 as well as Tallahassee, which is the state capital. Otherwise, the churches included in this research study includes churches from the Florida district and Southern Florida district in the Church of the Nazarene.

Notice the image below which shows the largest populated "neighborhood" within this "megacity," Greater Miami, and the smaller "neighborhoods" of Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa.

n the next thirty years, this megaregion will show 80% population growth, adding almost 13.8 million people to the 17.3 million already living here, most of this growth will be along the Atlantic seaboard between Port St. Lucie and Homestead.

Of the 564 churches that have been started or organized, about 239 remain active, or 42%.

About 27% of the churches were started or organized prior to 1960.
More than half (55%) were started or organized after 1980. 

One out of five active churches were started or organized in the 2010s. 

The next most proliferate decades in starting or organizing churches that are still active:
the 1980s with 33, the 2000s with 31, and the 1950s with 27.  

Three years showed 15 churches started or organized in a single year: 1958, 1986, 1987: 
19 of these 45 churches are still active.

There are four churches that have had more than a century of active ministry:
Miami First, Princeton, Fort Lauderdale Dayspring International, and Jacksonville First. 

Of the 564 churches that have been started or organized, 325 have been closed, or 58%. 

The first year, however, with more than ten churches closed in one year was 1989 . . . with 72 churches closed (that's right, seventy-two!). Followed by twelve more years with ten or more closings. The second most coming in 1992 (23). The infograph shows the steep impact of closings beginning in the 1980s. It should be noted that the closings were offset by rapid starts and organizings since the 1980s as shown in the chart below. 

The correlation between years active and percentage of churches closing remains consistent with the other megearegions in this study.

Most megaregions show one-fourth of churches closing after two years, about half after seven years, and 60% to 70% closing after twelve years. 

The Florida megaregion shows a slight increase in each category with 29% closing after two years, 67% closing after seven years, and almost 80% after twelve years. 

Thirteen churches closed after 50 years of ministry.

Resources:

• ​Pastors | Florida
• Women in Ministry | Florida
• Ethnic Churches | Florida
• Large Churches and Missional Centers | Florida
• Megaregion Raw Statistics | Florida
• More Megaregions