data on Diocesan and Congregational size (measured by attendance)
A. T. Mollegen, Jr. (tmollegen@alliedr.com)
Fri, 13 Aug 1999 18:06:38 -0400
In Connecticut, we have a thumb rule that it takes a *minimum* of
roughly about $120-130 thousand to run a "standard" congregation in our
part of the US: full-time rector, with benefits, already-paid-for church
building and parish hall with insurance and utilities (and deferred
maintenance), a part-time secretary plus a very, very small amount of
program (such as a paid organist for the 10:00 service). ("Deferred
maintenance" is a euphemism for not taking care of your buildings until
there's a crisis, and then having a special fund-raising effort.)
Congregations with less than $130 thousand income are considered
"stressed," and about 60 percent of our 185 congregations are in this
category. Our average Sunday attendance per congregation (for 1997) is
126, which indicates that the edge of the stress level in our region of
the US is just a bit above an attendance of 126.
Canon Kevin Martin of the Dio of Texas tells me that the stress
threshold in that diocese is lower, about $100-110 thousand, due to
lower housing and energy costs. He says that they have noticed a
tendency for larger congregations to grow, and smaller ones to shrink,
due to the fact that larger ones have the kind of programs that attract
people. The average Sunday attendance per congregation in his diocese
is 195, substantially higher than the 126 in Connecticut, and nearly
double the ECUSA diocesan median of 103 per congregation.
If the Episcopal Church is to double in size by the year 2020 (a
goal to be proposed to the next General Convention, but it will not be a
goal without a plan!) we are going to need roughly twice as many
congregations as we have now. I say "roughly" because it would be more
efficient to have the new congregations be larger on the average than
the existing ones. According to Canon Martin, it is about as easy to
start a large congregation as to start a small one. (This will
obviously not be true in very sparsely settled areas, but most of the US
population lives in 39 metropolitan areas.) Those planning to plant new
congregations should consider these da very carefully.
Today, the diocese with the largest average size of congregation is
Southwest Florida, whose mean attendance per congregation is 223. The
median diocesan figure across the US is 103 per Sunday per congregation,
and the lowest three dioceses are Northern Michigan with 32, South
Dakota with 29, and Navajo Missions with 16. For more on the effect of
the size of the congregation see the Episcopal Network for Evangelism
(ENE) website page on attendance at
http://members.aol.com/ENE2020/attendance.htm
The website also gives data comparing dioceses by average Sunday
attendanxce in the whole diocese. The data show that based on average
Sunday attendance, the largest diocese is Texas, with attendance of
29,910, followed closely by Virginia with 29,553. Then there is a gap
of about 22% before the next three dioceses: Massachusetts 23,463,
Connecticut 23,343, and Los Angeles 23,215. The only other diocese with
attendance over 20,000 is New York, at 21,991.
There are 32 dioceses with Sunday attendance of less than 5,000 in
the diocese, there are eight dioceses with attendance less than 2,000
(all with average congregational attendance of 65 or less), and three
dioceses with attendance less than 1,000 (all with average
congregational attendance of 33 or less).
What do these data mean from an evangelism and/or stewardship
and/or Jubilee standpoint?
Ted Mollegen
Convener, ENE
Deputy from CT
Please forward this message to others who might be interested.