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How Are Mainline Churches Doing?

George Barna came out last month with a report looking at the state of mainline Protestant churches.

For church leaders, interesting elements of the report include:
The median age of mainline senior pastors has increased from 48 to 55 in the last decade.
The percentage of mainline senior pastors who are female has risen from 15% to 21% in the last decade.
Compensation levels have risen by 40% in the last decade.
On average, pastors last four years before moving to another congregation, about half the average among non-mainline Protestants.

According to the report summary, Barna identified “the quality of leadership provided, especially regarding vision, creativity, strategic thinking and the courage to take risks — as being the most critical element in determining the future health and growth of mainline congregations.”

Read the full report summary here.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 11:52 am and is filed under Congregational Life, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “How Are Mainline Churches Doing?”

  1. Tripp Hudgins Says:
    January 12th, 2010 at 7:32 am

    Thanks for this reminder. I posted on this as well. My comments are a bit too lengthy for the internet, but it’s yours to read if you like.

    http://www.anglobaptist.org/blog/archives/2009/12/reflecting_on_b_1.html

  2. Margaret Marcuson Says:
    January 12th, 2010 at 4:48 pm

    Thanks for commenting, Tripp. I’m pretty sure I saw the reference to the report first on your blog, now that I think about it. Be sure to check out the link to Tripp’s blog in his comment to see his thoughtful remarks and the interesting comments.

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