• Research results were released in the May/June edition of Facts and Trends magazine that show the spending priorities of clergy and the people in the pews don’t always match.
• 31% of ministers state that their top priority is to build, expand, or update their church’s buildings and facilities.
  • Next is increasing community evangelism activities (16 percent)
  • Paying off debt (12 percent)
  • Adding staff (10 percent)
• Among laity, three priorities are tied for the top position:
  • paying off debt (18 percent)
• • increasing social programs, such as helping with homelessness or education (18 percent)
  • building, expanding, or updating church facilities (17 percent)

• Adult ministry leaders in evangelical, Protestant churches place the highest priority on Bible study and relationships for their adult Sunday School classes and small groups, according to a recent survey by LifeWay Research:
  • Bible Study - 1.8 SS Class mean rank, 2.3 Small groups mean rank
  • Relationships/Community/Fellowship - 3.1 SS Class mean rank, 2.9 Small Groups mean rank
  • Intentional Disciple making - 3.2 SS Class mean rank, 3.2 Small Groups mean rank
  • Outreach/Evangelism & Ministry/Service - 4.0 SS Class mean rank, 4.0 Small Groups mean rank
  • Worship - 4.4 SS Class mean rank, 4.3 Small Groups mean rank

The Winter 2006 ANSR Poll asked a random sample of Nazarene pastors and members about technology use in their local church.  Of the 320 pastors that responded to the survey, 50% said that their church does not even have a website.

Of the 50% of churches that do have a website, 42% of them say “It is a fairly static online brochure.” This is understandable when you consider the fact that in many cases the responsibility of maintaining the website falls to the pastor (19%).

• Weekly church attendance on average is at 33 percent, according to a recent Gallup poll.
• In a survey of more than 11,000 people, results revealed that Evangelicals have the highest participation for those who attend services weekly or almost weekly, ranging in the 60 percentile.

Washington Post--As they prepared for the holy ritual, the churchgoers had all the essential items: latex gloves, nail clippers, chlorine and antibacterial soap. The only things missing were the feet, and soon enough they poured into the church by the dozen.

Many were callused and cracked from cold nights spent on the streets. Some were sore and infected. What they needed was some old-school -- we're talking centuries here -- Christian doctrine in action. So volunteers at Centenary United Methodist Church in Richmond got down on their knees and scrubbed.

New York--The Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lindner, editor of the 89-year-old annual since 1998, said the number of national church bodies "is reflective of a remarkably robust immigration history and the cultural and constitutional freedom of religion so characteristic of the United States." Lindner is the NCC's Deputy General Secretary for Research and Planning.

• In the U.S., all except Native American churches have significant numbers of immigrants.
  • Some churches were born outside the U.S. and established missions for their congregants who traveled to America. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (ranked 16) and the Orthodox Church in America (ranked 24) were largely established by their European patriarchates for Greek and Russian immigrants to the U.S.
  • Other churches listed in the 2006 Yearbook include several Asian, European and Middle Eastern Orthodox churches or Protestant churches, such as the Korean Presbyterian Church, that serve a largely immigrant membership in the U.S.

The statistics in the 2006 Yearbook, collected by the churches in 2004 and reported in 2005, "reflect the continued overall vitality of church participation, and account for the religious affiliation of over 163 million Americans," Lindner said.

Evangelical Protestants are the happiest people in America. Or at least that's what they say.  Evangelicals are 26 percent more likely to describe themselves as "very happy" than Americans as a whole, according to a Pew Research Center survey released last month.

• Almost half—43 percent—of evangelical Protestants described themselves that way, compared to only 34 percent of Americans.
• As a whole, evangelicals are 30 percent happier than mainline Protestants. In fact, of Protestants who do not attend church at least weekly, mainline Protestants are more likely than evangelicals to say they are very happy.

• Just a third (34%) of adults in this country say they're very happy, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey. Another half say they are pretty happy and 15% consider themselves not too happy. 

• A majority of people alive today do not know the Savior.
  • This includes 1.19 billion Muslims, 811 million Hindus, 360 million Buddhists, 228 million ethnoreligionists, 23 million Sikhs, 14 million Jews, 768 million agnostics, and 150 million atheists. 
• More than 1 billion people live in absolute poverty.
  • This includes 700 million people living in slums, 500 million people on the verge of starvation, 93 million beggars, and 200 million children exploited for labor.
• In 2000, American evangelicals collectively made $2.66 trillion in income.
• Total Christian [including nominal] income in the United States is $5.2 trillion annually, nearly half of the world's total Christian income.
• Among church members of 11 primary Protestant denominations (or their historical antecedents) in the United States and Canada, per-member giving as a percentage of income was lower in 2000 than in either 1921 or 1933. In 1921, per-member giving as a percentage of income was 2.9 percent.
• Only 3 to 5 percent of Americans who donate money to a church tithe (give a tenth of) their incomes though many more claim to do so.
• Among evangelicals, almost 90 cents of every donated dollar goes to their churches.
• Eighty-eight percent of evangelicals and 73 percent of all Protestants donated to churches.
• If members of historically Christian churches in the United States had raised their giving to the Old Testament's minimum standard of giving (10 percent of income) in 2000, an additional $139,000,000,000 a year would become available.

(Ventura, CA) – More than nine out of every ten Senior Pastors of Protestant churches – 92% - now consider themselves to be effective leaders. This is a dramatic increase since 2001, when less than three-fourths of all Senior Pastors deemed themselves to be effective leaders.

But another striking finding from the new research conducted by The Barna Group is how few Senior Pastors believe that they are effective at strategic   leadership. While a large majority contends that they are gifted at motivating people, only one out of every seven Senior Pastors (14%) say that they are effective at thinking and acting strategically.

The 2005 statistical year saw a near-record number of 33,598 people join the Church of the Nazarene in the USA and Canada. Churches that averaged less than 50 in worship received a total of 4,756 new Nazarenes. And churches that were organized before 1940 took in 35% of all the new Nazarenes received.

As church size increases, so does the likelihood that new Nazarenes will outpace Nazarene losses.

• All of the churches that averaged 500 or more in worship received new Nazarenes. The net change in the largest churches—those with an average worship attendance of 1,000 or more—increased an average of 34.3 people.

Most of the churches (63%) in the USA and Canada today were organized before 1960.

• These two groups of churches (1900-1939 and 1940-1959) account for 59% of all new Nazarenes, but they also account for 69% of all Nazarene losses.
• Fortunately, their total number of new Nazarenes is larger than their total number of Nazarene losses so that they do have a positive net change per church of 0.9 and 0.5 respectively.