Measuring the Reality of African-American Church Planting Today

Lindy Lowry —  November 14, 2013

Research reveals six characteristics of healthy church plants

This week, LifeWay Research released a new report sharing findings from a survey of African-Amercian church planters. The new research identified and measured several different factors related to church planting–such as worship attendance, new commitments to Christ, community demographics, facility use, promotion and outreach–and offers across-the-board insight into what it takes to plant and grow a healthy church that makes disciples.
“We have conducted large national studies on church planting in the past,” notes LifeWay Research President Ed Stetzer. “But it would be wrong to assume that national factors are the same for every sub-population of church plants. We are grateful that key sponsors came forward wanting to measure the reality of African-American church planting today.”
To measure and identify characteristics of healthy church plants, LifeWay surveyed 290 African-American church planters from more than 20 denominations (including several from non-denominational churches) who started churches before 2012. Almost half (43 percent) were started since 2007. Ninety-four percent of them are still in existence today.

Worship attendance and new commitments

The study found a steady increase in attendance to be the overall trend among African-American church starts. Average worship attendance for the first year was 37, and by year four, the average attendance had doubled.
The survey identified three characteristics that had the most positive impact on worship attendance (present in more than two-thirds of the churches surveyed): delegation of leadership roles to volunteer: leadership training for new church members; and a plan of personal spiritual formation for the church planter.
Worship style also impacts attendance, the study found. The most common worship style used by African-American church plants was blended, cited by 45 percent, followed by contemporary gospel, contemporary and urban contemporary, ranging from 12 to 14 percent. However, church plants with a more distinctive style, urban contemporary for instance, had higher attendance than churches using a blended style.
The study also measured eternal change happening in and through these church plants. For the first year of a church plant, the average number of new commitments to Christ was 16, which in year three peaked at 20 new commitments. For the rest of the years that were measured, commitments remained at 12 or higher.

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