Old money and older congregations.  New money and newer congregations.  What’s the difference?  That’s what we wanted to learn.  To do that we surveyed Presbyterian churches organized in 1990 or later and compared them to a random sample of 521 older Presbyterian churches and their 40,555 worshipers.  Around 90 new congregations agreed to participate in […]

On the surface, growing PC(USA) congregations have two things going for them. Growing churches: Are bigger than the typical Presbyterian church. The median size of the denomination’s fastest-growing churches is 150 (based on average worship attendance). That is twice the size of other Presbyterian churches—their median worship attendance is 78. Receive more in contributions and have larger budgets, which […]

Easter reminds us to continue to hope—even when the evidence at hand doesn’t support that belief. We’ve been tracking the big trends for congregations for the past decade. We try to highlight the ways congregations show strength and resiliency. Let’s face it—it has been a difficult decade for churches and for our country. Is there […]

We want to answer the question: What are the dynamics behind high levels of giving in Presbyterian churches? Before we can do that, however, it is helpful to have a better understanding of what is unique about Presbyterian churches compared to other congregations. The table below shows a set of factors that previous research has […]