The Burge Report: Retention Rates in Churches Are Not What They Used to Be (Here’s Why)

Episode #BR004
June 21, 2024
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How many people are really leaving their childhood faith? Ryan Burge joins Thom and Sam on this special episode to unpack important data for churches. Retention rates are a good indicator of how well a church disciples people. Keeping people is a major part of church health. The hosts discuss the data concerning national trends with church retention.

    • A retention rate is the percentage of people who were raised in a certain faith tradition that still affiliate with that same tradition as adults.
    • Mainline Protestants struggle with retention. The rate was 76% in the 1970s. Today it is 58%.
    • Conservative Evangelicals fare better. Retention rates in the 1970s were 78%. Today it is 73%.
    • When a mainline Protestant leaves their tradition, they are almost as likely to become an evangelical as a none (14% vs 20%).
    • When evangelicals leave, the most likely landing spot is nones at 13%. But that’s that many folks at the end of the day.
    • The exvangelical movement is really not that big. The mainline to evangelical pipeline is actually larger.
    • What might the future hold? The aging of congregations and “leaky boats” with more holes.

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