A Case Study of Church Growth by Church Planting in Germany: Are They Connected?

Paas, Stefan

doi:10.1177/2396939317738896

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Overall, this results in net conversion rates that do not really deviate from the average rates in the BFeG. This confirms older research based on a more limited sample (2011-2015) of BFeG churches (Paas 2017). There it is stated that these figures hint at a 'fast metabolism' in these younger churches.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

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The Missional Future of Free Churches in a Secular Context: A German Case Study

Paas

Bartholomä

2020

J. Empir. Theol.

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Similar to most Western nations, Germany has experienced a history of secularization, resulting in church decline. However, some Christian communities have been less affected by decline. The historical free churches (Freikirchen), usually of an evangelical nature, have not only developed a more explicit missionary identity than the mainline churches, some of them have also been able to experience church growth against the larger trends. In this paper quantitative and qualitative data are presented based on a study of the Bund Freier evangelischer Gemeinden (BFeG) in Germany. These data show that general church growth and conversion growth are correlated, that young churches grow better (in both respects) than older churches, that the net conversion growth (conversions minus decline) of younger and older churches is overall largely the same, and that growth results in Berlin outperform the results in other cities and in the BFeG as a whole. These results are put into context by extended case studies of two churches, one old and one young, and they are discussed with a view to existing studies of (free church) mission in the West.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…This set of data is also longitudinal, which includes the possibility of tracing the growth and conversion figures of each congregation over fifteen years. This will allow us to improve earlier analysis by one of us based on much more limited membership records (2011-2015) from the BFeG (Paas 2017).…”

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Missional Future of Free Churches in a Secular Context: A German Case Study

Paas

Bartholomä

2020

J. Empir. Theol.

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“…As far as recruitment goes, there is indeed some evidence that recent church plants do a better job in terms of conversion growth than older churches, and this may have to do with the leadership in these church plants (cf. Paas, Vos 2016;Paas 2016:111-180;Paas 2018).…”

Section: Big Five Studies Among Pastorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the context of mission we might think, for example, of making predictions about personality profiles and church growth (cf. Machel 2006;Paas 2018), sustainability, and theological innovation.…”

Section: Conclusion and Further Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality Traits of Church Planters and Other Church Leaders in Europe (II)

2018

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In search of a renewal of their mission in the secularized West, an increasing number of (Protestant) churches have embarked on the creation of new faith communities with a strong missionary purpose. This entrepreneurial approach of mission raises a number of questions, among which the issue of leadership is paramount. Currently, however, very little reliable empirical research has been done among faith entrepreneurs, or ‘church planters’, in Europe. In this article the personality dimensions of 215 church planters are compared with 307 ‘regular’ church leaders (pastors), based on the so-called ‘Big Five’ personality test. Independent samples t-tests showed that church planters are significantly more extravert, open to new experiences, and conscientious than ‘regular’ pastors, and significantly less neurotic, while scores on agreeableness are more or less similar. These results are discussed with a view to existing literature on church planting and entrepreneurship in the West.

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“…Churches wishing to grow should invest equally in member satisfaction and recruitment (conversion). In addition, the ministry of welcoming new believers and discipling them should be balanced [ 13 ]. De Wetter and Roozen described the health and growth of the church as the concept of church vitality [ 14 , 15 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability of religious communities

Jo¹,

Kim

Lee

2021

PLoS ONE

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This article focuses on the relationship between church population and sustainability. We carried out the study on a sample of Presbyterian churches in South Korea, and implemented dynamic optimization of the church population based on the Susceptible–Infected–Recovered (SIR) epidemic model. In particular, System Dynamics (SD) and Agent-Based Model (ABM) simulations are performed for a prototype model with key parameters that contribute to church growth. Potential parameters reflecting sustainability for churches trigger dramatic growth in church populations. We categorized five dimensions of sustainability with various multi-dimensional indicators in order to measure the level of sustainability, and we obtained the values of the indicators by analyzing a number of news articles searched with a text mining technique. As time-dependent values of sustainability are imposed on the generic SD model for church population dynamics as sustainable potential parameters, the optimized result reproduces specific features for the church population. We discuss the roles of key parameters for sustainable church growth, and the contributions of the churches to sustainability.

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A Case Study of Church Growth by Church Planting in Germany: Are They Connected?

Cited by 5 publications

References 2 publications

The Missional Future of Free Churches in a Secular Context: A German Case Study

The Missional Future of Free Churches in a Secular Context: A German Case Study

Personality Traits of Church Planters and Other Church Leaders in Europe (II)

Sustainability of religious communities

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