There are between 350,000 and 400,000 churches in the United States. Is there really a church on every street corner? Ryan Burge joins Thom and Sam on this special episode to discuss the optimal number of churches in a community. The answer will likely surprise you.
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- “Churches Near Me” is the new way people find you. Few people pay attention to your sign anymore.
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- You are invisible to your community without an outward focus.
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- Distribution of churches is key: There are 356,000 religious congregations. That’s about 113 per county. There’s about 1 congregation for every 1000 Americans. For reference, there are 13,400 McDonalds and about 16,000 Starbucks.
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- Geography is key: Houses of worship are not tracking with population growth in certain areas of the country.
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- The counties that grew the fastest over the last ten years are the most likely to have a very high ratio of churches to people. In other words, they need more churches planted there.
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- A church on every street corner is a kingdom outpost for the gospel!
Resources:
- “From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism” by Darren Dochuk (affiliate link)
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