‘Another source of useful information came from a booklet entitled Leadership, Vision and Growing Churches – a study of 1,100 congregations, sponsored by the Salvation Army. From this small volume I learned, among other things:
• that in a situation where the church leader is in his early forties or early sixties the church is more likely to grow
• that growth was more likely after the leader has been in post from seven to nine years, followed by ten to thirteen years
• that of the gifts a church leader may have, the one characteristic (out of eight types) that distinguished fast-growing churches was that their leader was a ‘Shaper’ (this is from the Belbin typography)
• that beyond the leader himself, churches that had run an Alpha course were twice as likely to have a vision for the future as those that had not (31 per cent to 17 per cent)’
This next quote from the book contains information from the research of an American called Bill Tenny-Brittian: (www.billtennybrittian.com/archives/288. The Top Five Reasons Churches Don’t Grow)
‘Research shows that if a first-time visitor to your church gives you their contact information and is followed up within twenty-four hours, they are 86 per cent more likely to return. Leave any contact until the end of the week and that percentage drops to less than 25 per cent.’
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