What's it like.....

[TreeWalker]

...at the church you attend ??

What is the size of your community and What kind of attendance do you see at your church ??

Do you have a organized youth group ?? If so, do you have a youth pastor on staff ??

It got me to wondering, because I live in a small community of about 800 people, and our church has a steady attendance of about 70-80 people.....and not only do we have a Senior Pastor, but a Youth Pastor as well...........many of the other churches can hardly sustain one pastor, in fact a couple of them are sharing pastors with a neighboring town.........yet God just keeps smiling on our little Church, to the point that our Board is visiting the idea of building a new Church, to allow for the anticipated growth (we're nerely maxed out now).......The good Lord just keeps providing.......it's hard not to get excited when you see him at work in all aspects of your church.......Glory be to God....

[Tominator]

Our parish is probably approaching 1,000 members I'd say.

We have what's called a PSR program, which used to be called CCD classes when I was in school. We have a director of the PSR program, and a teacher for every grade. I taught the 7th and 8th grade for 6 years, but got out of it because the old director didn't like the way I taught. I might get back into it someday.

Our community is really growing, and in fact, we will be in our new church very soon. As it is, you better get there 15 minutes early or you'll be standing.

[TreeWalker]

Is that like a Sunday School program, as we have that too...in fact I am the teacher for the preschool kids and love it.....but we do have a youth program as well, where they meet on Wednesday and Fridays and then go to youth events and camps, etc.....

Sounds like your church is hopping....fantastic news on the new church.....keep us posted on how things go. Are you gonna have a big celebration or anything ??

[HoppeMan]

We got probably 40-50 people a week at our church. There are like 5 churches in this denomination within a 40 mile radius, so there is a lot of church rivalry Our little community is VERY closely knit. There is no real youth group, seeing as I'm like one of the handful of youth. So we don't have enough to support it

Take care,
Nathan

[markyj987]

I'm not a member of the church I attend yet, but it has 221 members and I'd say probably 70% of the membership is there weekly plus a good chunk of nonmembers (mostly "unchurched" youth from the neighborhood and their parents.

After services on Sunday, there is a half hour or so of fellowship followed by Sunday school for kids and there is usually an ongoing adult series as well, such as the missionary journeys of Paul.

The congregation itself does not have a youth group, but the school attached to it was merged into another congregation's a few years ago and revamped for a youth center. Though of the same synod, it is technically separate from the congregation. They do have a youth pastor for the center and do a great deal of neighborhood outreach to the kids in the inner-city neighborhood.

The church itself has one pastor--a younger guy (2003 seminary graduate) who really spearheaded neighborhood outreach when he came to the congregation.

To make a long story short, membership went from 800 in the early 80's to what it is now due to lower interest rates, people moving out to the suburbs, and completely different demographics. What was once the west side of the city is now basically the inner city and there are a great deal of people (actually pretty surprising to me) that have never heard the gospel.

[preacherman]

We are a smaller church in a small town in Mississippi. We average around 100 in a 105 seat auditorium.........and we are growing; so we are looking at plans now to build a new sanctuary.

Our worship style is blended, we sing hymns and praise choruses. We also have a big emphasis on youth on Wednesday nights.

[Mathews XT Man]

We have around 600 attendance for the two worship services every Sunday..the first service at 8;30 is traditional, with a blend of contemporary praise music, (my favorite) then a sunday school time of study between services,..then the 11;00 am service is more comtemporary, and tends to draw the younger group. Both services hear the same scriptural message, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, no watering down of the Word here.We have a full time pastor, and an associate pastor, who happen to be brothers(no pun intented)...and also a full time youth pastor.We are affiliated with the Great Lakes Baptist General Conferance. We have just aquired a neighboring house and land to expand the parking lot and sanctuary, as we are running out of room. Ashland WI. is a city of 8,500 and the church draws people to 30 miles out. We are reaching out to the communtiy thry many ways, gudions jail ministry, a house for temporary tranisional living, food shelf, bible study groups, recovery program for drugs/ alcohol, senior citizens events, weekly youth events. Plenty of things to get involved with, and become part of the solution.

[christsavedme]

I am totally guessing here but I would say we have at least 5000 members at our church. We have 2 services every Sunday morning. The first service is a traditional service then the second service is non traditional. We attend the second service and love it! Lots of praise and worship songs. Both services are usually maxed out and I am sure we will be expanding to 3 services in the near future!

[unioncountyslayer]

I go to a church that is around 7 years old (having been a member for almost that long) that usually sees between 2500 to 3000 people every weekend. We were at around 200 2 1/2 years ago when we moved out of a local high school and built our first building. We currently have a Satruday night service and 6 Sunday morning services. We are in Union County, NC which is one of the 5 fastest growing Counties in the Nation right now. We have broken ground on our new building that will sit roughly 1300 so we can cut down on the number of services. Our Full-Time Pastors are Lead Pastor, Associate Pastor, Facilities Pastor, Youth Pastor, Worship Pastor and Childrens Pastor. We are growing at an incredible pace and trying our best to keep up. The Lord is at work at Southbrook! Check us out at www.southbrookchurch.com

[TreeWalker]

What's the populations of some of your communities ??

[buckee]

The Comox valley's population is currently well past the 30,000 mark

[bfletch7441]

Sapulpa, the town I live in has around 20,000 people in it. I attend a small Church Of Christ and this past Sunday, 90% of our members were there, and there were probably 20-25 people there.

There are much much bigger churches in town, some have attendances in the 300-400 range, but the really big churches are in Tulsa. They'll have average attendances in the 1000's of people every Sunday.

Ben

[Andrea]

I live in a medium sized town that has a church on just about every corner. The church I attend is very small. Probably about 40-50 people on A GOOD Sunday. Youth group just started it's AWANA program so it is growing very very fast. There seems to be more kids than adults now. I used to attend a big church but it got so big that services had to be twice a day and no one knew each other anymore. The singing was some praise team that took up most of the service with singing. Seemed like the choir never sang anymore. Almost took on a "show" like atmosphere. Sure, growth is great. I'm all for it.. But when it changes the way services are conducted and almost total elimination of a SERMON.....then it's not for me anymore.

[wtnhunt]

There are some good sized churches around here, and some small ones as well. We are between two towns that have populations between 8 to 9 thousand people.

Last church we belonged to had an active congregation of around 70 or so, most of those people were there every Sunday. Would guesstimate that some of the bigger churches in this area have a couple thousand members, no clue how many are there regularly.