Louie "Does the Numbers"

The never-dull Louie Crew has done an interesting analysis of the largest parishes in the Episcopal Church, along with those with the best attendance. His results, summarized in a note to selected leaders recently, are interesting:

“In the decade 1997-2007 the number of congregations with 1,000+ members increased by 15%. During the same decade, the total number of communicants in the Episcopal Church increased from 1,529,302 to 1,864,312, or 21.9%.

The 7,635 congregations of TEC average 244 confirmed communicants each.

22.7% of all Episcopalians are members of churches with 1,000 or more communicants, yet those 258 congregations represent only 3.4% of all Episcopal churches.

80 (31%) of the 258 congregations reporting 1,000+ communicants failed to show up in the list of the congregations with the best attendance. 40.4% of the congregations with the best attendance reported fewer than 1,000 communicants.”

What is particularly interesting locally is that three parishes in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania did make it onto the list of those with the best attendance. They are St. John's, Carlisle; St. James, Lancaster; and St. Andrew’s, State College. Further proof that, as one of my better clergy friends says, 99% of good ministry is just showing up.

You can read the entire report here.