Hi Ed, "long time listener first time caller" and a big fan.

Interesting research but for the record it appears to be on the US not North America in general. I can't speak for Mexico but I know that here in Canada the assumption that our culture and religious climate is the same as the US has held us back from kingdom effectiveness. I try to give the benefit of the doubt in cases like this and assume that folks think Canada and Mexico are generally the same as the US as opposed to thinking they don't matter and if we have researched the US we have researched the parts of North America that really matter.

Doing research on Canada is much needed and would be very welcome but calling US research "North American" doesn't necessarily help with that problem.

It would be interesting to see this pulled out across the globe. There are more than a handful of people that would like to really see hard numbers on the health of the European church.

One of the things that I've found to be truly interesting about this is that while most churches are small most church-goers are in large churches. That is very interesting. I would why it is. Its almost an inverse relationship.

Thanks for the info, and being above another series of "articles" that are calling you out. You're a prince among paupers...I being the poorest of these.

You are the Church!
R.A.

AJ,

Last I check, U.S. was in "North America." ;-)

But, I get your point. I have always tried to include Canadian data in my studies, but not everyone does. Of course, I may be biased as my wife is Canadian.

Ed

Ed, My husband and I have kind of been doing a mini review of each church that we have been visiting while we have recently moved to this new area for us. We have discovered, that the smaller the church body, the more traditional the service, which for us is a 'crying shame', it ought not to be that way !!!! The more 'contemporary' the church worship service the larger the numbers, and hardly anything that we 'as former choir memebers' can really enjoy to sing in worship. Congregations with a blend are about median in size, and we are able to at least sing the music that we have grown familiar with over the last 10 years or so. The size of the congregations, to us is interesting, the Sunday school classes equally so, i.e. the larger the contemporary church, the more choice in classes, and the more choices in teachers, and a fairly good subject being taught at large. The smaller the churches, the less choice of class teachers, yet more of a 'pastor' teaches both the class, and the preaching of the sermon, unless there happens to be another to do the teaching. Musically speaking, the better the tradtional music, the smaller the choir, and congregation but the Spirit is still present and strong in outreach. The larger the congregation, the presence of the Spirit is there, yes, but the sense of it, is not always in the pleasing frame of mind, as in 'lip service is being given' not whole hearted service. That is the sense at least that I am getting. What I don't understand is why, is it, that the more contemporary the music, and approach, the less singability of the music, and that is a heartache, for my husband and myself. Those who are the larger, have no hymnals, no pew Bibles, and no sheet music, and no order of worship service so the preparing of one's heart for worship is not easily accomplished, when the music played is so loud you can't hear yourself sing, or speak, or even think. IT can be highly offensive to the spirit in one's soul. Such was our experience this particular morning. They had a communion service, which was the only quiet music that was really presented aside from the 'offetory solo'. You could hear the voice, but the words were muffled it seemed from the microphone, how can one understand what is presented when you can't understand the words ? Again, the voice was pretty, but the words, left one wondering what was actually sung. We have however come to what we think will be our church home, but my husband wants to be sure, and check out some other churches ? He admitted to making a mistake on this last choice. This particular church, being very multi ethnic, and a bit on the noisy side even in the teaching, three tables in one room with a full table, and a teacher at each table, made it hard to hear your 'table's teacher amid the talking of other tables where they were not that far apart from each other ! Noise and almost confusion there in the teaching was not what we wanted to have. The teacher was good, in what was able to be heard, the pastor gave an overview of the lesson, before he left to prepare for his sermon. Something that was really different for us. So that's just a mini picture of what we have discovered in our visit this am. To be sure, we won't return there. But we think we have found one, that has met our critiera, that is a blend, worshipful, not loud and noisy, not huge, but balanced, and a multi generational class with a great atmosphere of sharing and teaching. That spoke both to my husband and myself, I am only sorry that we haven't returned back there again, as their name keeps coming into my mind, each time we visit elsewhere. So hopefully it will work out for us there. I am not leaving the churches names, because I know everyone has their preferences.

Thanks for your response. I know the US is in North America I just get all crotchety when people talk like it IS North America.

Ironically my wife is an American. Maybe I am bizarro Ed Stetzer...