I find the results of this survey to be interesting. My estimation is that Sunday School ministry done correctly brings a level of evangelism/outreach/inreach in a way unlike any other program we offer. An effective Sunday School impacts every other facet listed (youth/children ministry; evangelism/outreach; worship services, and the like).

Now, if you were to visit my church this Sunday you might wonder how I could come to this conclusion because we have not arrived even close to where we need to be in our SS ministry. But, I am convinced SS will make or break a church's effectiveness in ministry.

That yellow slice of the pie is worrisome.

I was just thinking it needed to be at the top of the list the other day.
See here: http://tinyurl.com/dyo7uu

I guess your goal sets your priorities for ministry.
'Growing a church' has certain priorities.
'Serving the Believers' has certain priorities.
'Making disciples' has other priorities.

I wonder what a study on "What is the "WIN" of the church?" would turn up?

The survey is quite revealing. I attend a Church that at one time had over 1000 warriors on the wall in prayer ministry. Today that ministry to my knowledge does not exist. I wonder if we put more emphasis on prayer in our Churches we might see the hand of God on our ministries once again - just a thought!!

It always saddens me to see prayer at the bottom of the list. Churches can't evangelize if they don't have God's vision for mission and they can't grow in relationship with God either.

I'm disappointed to see preaching/proclamation/teaching so far down the list. Whatever else the church does, it must never neglect the primacy of preaching.

Preaching may seem unpopular or appear ineffective in today's postmodern culture, but it is still God's chosen means of church health and growth. Acts 6:4; Eph. 4:11-12; 2 Tim. 4:2.

Pastors need to invest MORE time in studying and preaching, not less. We must never grow distracted by these other secondary, albeit important, ministries.

Churches that have great children's ministry really view that as another form of evangelism or outreach...especially in the late Xer and Boomer crowds. Having been on both sides, minister and lay person with kids, the church search process is grueling. (You should do a study on that one. Call me.) Many parents will stay at a church (even if they don't like it as much if they feel like their kids like it, are having a positive experience and are being taught "spiritual things". Many wouldn't even say the gospel because they are unchurched themselves.

Most churches I have seen live and die by the children's ministry. 80% of parents just won't stay through several weeks of the "dating" process if there is not a good program established or the vision of a great program that is developing.

Maybe I'm missing the point, but it saddens me to see that "programs and ministries" are given priority over "making disciples." When will we stop out-sourcing disciple making the latest trend in church programing? When will we stop relying on consumer-driven programs to attract people to "our" church? When will we stop dichotomizing the life of the church into preaching/teaching; ministry/mission; evangelism/outreach; worship/prayer?

As prayer sits at the bottom of the list, we have dying, plateaued, impotent, and weak churches that have very little impact on our communities. As a pastor, I am convicted that we have forsaken the very power of God in prayer as we try to become "relevant" to a dying society. Prayer was essential to the early church! I found this quote yesterday that really hit me between the eyes:

No man has any moral right to go before the people who has
not first been long before the Lord.

No man has any right to speak
to men about God who has not first spoken to God about men.

And the prophet of God should spend more time in the secret place praying than he spends in the public place preaching....

A.W. Tozer

Fascinating study. Very surprised by the place preaching/teaching appears on the list.

I see it as foundational to everything else on the list....even to prayer.

Ed wrote, "the size of a church determined which of the ministries described above were considered most important."

This seems to make sense intuitively. Churches of different sizes need to accomplish different things. I've considered this fact in reference to church planting. I'm leading a small Bible study in my home with the hope and intention that the Lord will eventually expand it into a full fledged church. I realize that as we grow we will need to develop our structure, emphasis, and pedagogy as required by circumstances.

I call it the Nautilus Approach. The shell will get bigger as it grows.

I don't necessarily see the top choice on each graph as inconsistent. In fact, they seem to go together to me.

I'm not surprised that small churches are more interested in relational activities such as evangelism. Less relational venues, such as larger churches, will be more oriented towards group events, such as worship.

I'm also disappointed that prayer is so low on everyone's list. To me, that says a lot about how little we depend on God and much we depend on ourselves.

Les

It stands to figure that American, Baptist Pastors would answer this way. When I look at the whole of the Great Commission the first thing that I see is to MAKE DISCIPLES.

T Vowell makes a valid point that an effective SS does effect every other ministry of the church (youth/children ministry; evangelism/outreach; worship services, and the like).

Now, if we are talking worldwide church there are different emphases that need to be made in terms of the focus group (and it is growing this way in the US, as well.)

Anyone want to guess the largest growing segment of the populace? 12-25, 26-35, 36-45, 45-55, 56+?

According to most estimates the largest growing segment is 12-25. Folks, we need to be serious about our ministry to children and youth.

On prayer: Natural Church Development International's research has found that, in the case of many churches/believers, it isn't MORE prayer but BETTER prayer that appears needed. I can agree, if the majority of our prayer has little to do with praying the heart of God primarily, for the lost, the church, and the family (cf. Ted Elmore's "Praying the Heart of God").

On preaching the Bible: unless by "preach" a person means "proclaim generally" and includes "teach/instruct/disciple intentionally" in what he means, I'd suggest that TEACHING the Bible is more necessary than preaching it--at least as that preaching currently is focused on by senior pastors all across the land, which by itself obviously isn't producing mature believers on-mission with God (cf. current growth-related statistics of SBC congregations alone). C. Kirk Hadaway's research, if I remember correctly, found no/little direct relationship between most of the preaching done in SBC churches AND the growth of those churches (see Church Growth Principles: Separating Fact from Fiction). Where there was a direct relationship, the preaching more often had to do with holding out before the church members gathered God's vision for His church affecting change in this world AND what the church stands for. His research was startling at that point, and caused many seminary students to re-think what they believed would be required of them when they would begin serving as preaching pastors.

On their way to the biblical growth God means for them to experience, the strategies/ministry plans of all congregations everywhere may reflect varying priorities. It would be expected. They just can't stay THERE, wherever THERE is for each of them at this time if the potential for additional biblical growth exists.

Rambling related thoughts.

David Troublefield
Minister of Education
Lamar Baptist Church
Wichita Falls, TX
david@lbcwf.org

Like others, this is revealing to me. Seems the chart should be inverted with prayer on top, preaching and so forth.

I agree with those that say the GC is to make disciples, but I fear SB's have stopped short of the whole passage. The focus of that disciple making in Matt 28 is among the ethnos (nations), and they are coming to us in droves. That is why I feel this conference is so important www.24-14.org

IMO the church growth movement drives us way more than the scriptures, with numerical growth being the main determiner of success.

My assumption is that for anything we do prayer is threaded throughout and praying is lifestyle and and like breathing in everything we do.

Having said that, I would be evangelism at the top of the list as it includes so many other things on the pie chart. But I believe in our world today we need to all the more focus on mission and as we do, all those other things will then be part of it.

My big question would be having seen this pie chart - if we examined the churches who took the survey, how would their budgets reflect the pie chart? And how would the time of the staff and where the energy goes reflect the pie chart? Would it match or would it show we have good intention but the reality is we live different? That would be my question.

As always, I love this blog and what you write about.

I find it very telling that Community Ministry/Service is not even on the pie chart and close to the bottom on the bar graph. In the SBC, we continue to have declining numbers of baptisms. Someone might respond, "That is why so many respondents would put evangelism/outreach first." I would argue that the numbers indicate, for many of our churches, evangelism is an espoused value, not a true passion.

Also, the majority of the ministries listed are probably those that happen on Sunday morning, Sunday night or Wednesday night. Does this mean we believe if we just do a better job "in the building", we will see renewal and reach more people?

Jesus did His preaching/teaching, praying, evangelism and discipleship in the community. If we are truly moving towards being more missional, we will find a way of integrating all of these together AS we are engaging our communities.

I am surprised that preaching is so far down the list too. Some preaching doesn't work - it does when we preach the Scriptures. I'd say, all areas will suffer if preaching is not a priority.

I'm not surprised by the results. SBC has a strong DNA in evangelism and thus the results seem in line.

A question that rattles in my mind is not about this survey, but an implication

What do the church members in the same congregations think are the ministry priorities?

Are they the same?

Chris W
EvangelismCoach.org

No wonder our churches are so powerless.

The New Testament mandate for pastors is to devote themselves to teaching and prayer.

I would argue that you may have every ministry listed except "preaching" and not have a church by New Testament standards. The churches primary responsibility is to boldly proclaim the gospel to it's people.

Contrary to popular opinion (see highest ranked entry) the chief end of man is not to "Save souls" but to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

This demonstrates how the gospel has been taken for granted and the cross buried in programs.

What's the sole method (defined in the Bible) ordained by God to spread the Gospel?

Do you see why we're not seeing more souls being saved?

I guess we think the new methods will work better. Well, we're wrong!