Seven Local Church Trends We Are Hearing from Church Consultants

By Thom S. Rainer

There is a small army of church consultants on the field now.

After three years of training and certifying church consultants at Church Consultation University, we get regular input from the field about the churches they are serving. They are our “boots on the ground” and provide us with incredible insights. Here are seven of the most common trends they are reporting.

1. Church leaders are more willing to ask for help. That is indeed a good sign. Admission of need is the first step toward moving toward a path of recovery and health. One of the downsides, if there are really any downsides, is the demand for consultants now exceeds the number of consultants available, especially in normative churches of under 200 in average worship attendance.
2. Church leaders and members recognize that evangelism in their churches is waning. They thus want to hear how best to mobilize and engage the members to reach the community with the gospel. A corollary trend is a renewed interest in the composition of a community, its demographics, and psychographics. You can’t very well reach a community unless you know your community.
3. There is an increased interest in church adoption. This process goes by different names such as church mergers, church replanting, and church acquisition. I like the term “church adoption,” coined by Sam Rainer. It reflects the uniting of two families into one. It indicates the “parent” family chooses to adopt and love the congregation it is adopting.
4. The…