Church demographics - humor me

[shinyhappypeople]

What are the demographics at your place of worship? Do you look around and see a lot of other people in your stage of life? Is your demographic in the majority? Is this important to you one way or the other? Would you choose to attend another church/parish/synagogue/etc. of the same faith if it meant being around more people in a similar life stage?

 

What brought this on:

 

Last Sunday I realized that the church I'm attending is mostly empty-nesters and retirees in their 50s-60s. The pastor said something about it. Otherwise, I'd have remained blissfully oblivious. I'm not very observant, I guess.

 

All of a sudden, so much makes sense. How else do you explain 500+ adults in the service I go to and maybe, on a good day 50-60 kids in K to 5 Sunday school? Middle school / High school attendance is around 50-60 kids per weekend (combined, all services). (There are 3 services, 1,300+ attendance) Maybe those kid-attendance numbers aren't unusual for a church this size. I dunno. They seem low to me, though, given the church's size.

 

In addition to the E-N crowd there are a lot of singles w/o kids. Parents with kids at home are in the minority.

 

Anyway, all of a sudden it feels really weird for me to be there. (I'm well aware that it's dumb to feel that way, but it is what it is.)

[Whereneverever]

We're pretty evenly spread across the ages.

[Lara in Colo]

I am changing churches and one of the things I look for in a new church is similiar life stages. I hope this will do a couple of things:

 

1) have more children for mine to get to know

 

2) have more people I have stuff in common with (like raising children)

 

3) have a church that sees to my needs (hopefully a babysitting co-op :D) and more younger activities (picnics, movie nights..)

[lcelmer]

What are the demographics at your place of worship? Do you look around and see a lot of other people in your stage of life? Is your demographic in the majority? Is this important to you one way or the other? Would you choose to attend another church/parish/synagogue/etc. of the same faith if it meant being around more people in a similar life stage?

 

What brought this on:

 

Last Sunday I realized that the church I'm attending is mostly empty-nesters and retirees in their 50s-60s. The pastor said something about it. Otherwise, I'd have remained blissfully oblivious. I'm not very observant, I guess.

 

All of a sudden, so much makes sense. How else do you explain 500+ adults in the service I go to and maybe, on a good day 50-60 kids in K to 5 Sunday school? Middle school / High school attendance is around 50-60 kids per weekend (combined, all services). (There are 3 services, 1,300+ attendance) Maybe those kid-attendance numbers aren't unusual for a church this size. I dunno. They seem low to me, though, given the church's size.

 

In addition to the E-N crowd there are a lot of singles w/o kids. Parents with kids at home are in the minority.

 

Anyway, all of a sudden it feels really weird for me to be there. (I'm well aware that it's dumb to feel that way, but it is what it is.)

 

 

Well, if it were just you and 2 other families that might be hard, but it sounds like you have a large enough pool of kids & families to have connections, etc. I guess that it wouldn't bother me in that case.

 

The singles should start marrying & having kids, hopefully before too horribly long. :D

 

Our church is pretty varied, but there are many families with kids, and fewer empty nesters, but I'm really glad to have a wider group with wiser older folks, people at the same stage, and singles. We all have slightly different focuses, and that helps the whole church be more effective in ministering to more people I think. It is also nice to be able to chat with an older person who has been there before.

 

We started with a young family homeschooling group of people probably in their 30s, and now the kids that were being hsed are now married and having families of their own, and we have grown quite a bit too. It is neat to get wisdom from these older lades who have already home-schooled successfully.

Edited March 20, 2012 by lcelmer

[milovany]

We have about 60 on a Sunday in our mission parish and it's pretty evenly spread out, I think. Well, maybe it would be nice to have some more elderly folks, although we do have some retirees. We used to have more, but some have passed on and some have moved. For 60, we have a goodly amount of kids of all ages (although the youngest right now is almost 4, so it will be nice this summer when a couple of babies are born), some men and some women who are either not married or who attend without their spouses, college students, and families with young and older teen kids. I guess it's a nice mix! Most are white American coverts, but we also have some "cradle" Orthodox (Greeks, Arabic, Inuit, Romanian). That's also nice in such a small parish. When we do the "Our Father," it's repeated in three different languages.

Edited March 20, 2012 by milovaný

[sgilli3]

I am very new to our church, and now I totally understand their excitement when I rang to enquire about timings etc.

 

The first 3 Sundays there were 8 people in attendance:

the minister ( lady in her late 60's)

organist ( in her 70's)

2 x ladies ( mid- late 70's)

1 x man ( early 80's)

 

.......myself and my 2 daughters! ( ALMOST 40, 13,5)

 

One week it was a combined service with next town over, and there must have been about 15 of us- again it appears all were aged 70+

 

They loved the day I also bought along 1 yr old son- they keep saying how wonderful it is to have young ones in the church again.

[shinyhappypeople]

I am very new to our church, and now I totally understand their excitement when I rang to enquire about timings etc.

 

The first 3 Sundays there were 8 people in attendance:

the minister ( lady in her late 60's)

organist ( in her 70's)

2 x ladies ( mid- late 70's)

1 x man ( early 80's)

 

.......myself and my 2 daughters! ( ALMOST 40, 13,5)

 

One week it was a combined service with next town over, and there must have been about 15 of us- again it appears all were aged 70+

 

They loved the day I also bought along 1 yr old son- they keep saying how wonderful it is to have young ones in the church again.

 

I have to ask: why is it so tiny? Are you in a super small town? An unusual denomination? Sorry to be so nosy, but I'm really curious!

 

My favorite church experience was about 15 years ago or so. There was one service on Sunday, about 75 to 100 people attending. I *loved* that church. We were a fairly even mix of parents, non-parents, college students, married, single... plus one fabulous elderly woman. I smile just thinking of her :) It worked because the church was so small it felt more like a family get-together. The weird mix of ages/stages worked.

 

I think when churches get bigger the demographics start to really matter more to me. Large churches feel more like organizations and less like families. I'm not bashing them. There are some real advantages to large churches. But, for reasons I can't really articulate, it does make demographics more important.

[sgilli3]

I have to ask: why is it so tiny? Are you in a super small town? An unusual denomination? Sorry to be so nosy, but I'm really curious!

 

My favorite church experience was about 15 years ago or so. There was one service on Sunday, about 75 to 100 people attending. I *loved* that church. We were a fairly even mix of parents, non-parents, college students, married, single... plus one fabulous elderly woman. I smile just thinking of her :) It worked because the church was so small it felt more like a family get-together. The weird mix of ages/stages worked.

 

I think when churches get bigger the demographics start to really matter more to me. Large churches feel more like organizations and less like families. I'm not bashing them. There are some real advantages to large churches. But, for reasons I can't really articulate, it does make demographics more important.

 

This is a town of about 700 ( a few hundred of those are not permanent residents- just here for weekends)

The town has 3 Christian churches-

1 x Uniting Church ( which we attend)

1 x Anglican Church

1 x Catholic Church ( which I think due to numbers, only has a service in town once a month)

 

Generally, the population in town, is on the older side.

[SKL]

The service I attend seems to be mostly elderly people, but some families with children do attend. Nearly everyone is white. Since I'm a 45yo single mom by transracial adoption (with two 5yos), my family is not in the majority there, but I don't feel funny about it. They seem to be happy we're there.

 

I don't attend the most popular service, due to my work hours. I think more families and non-elderly singles attend that service. We still would not blend in there, though.

 

Before I started attending church with my kids, I looked around for a church that would be more diverse or something. I though I'd located one, but they would not return my call/email, so I just decided to do what I was familiar with. So far, so good.

[MamaSheep]

We do seem to currently have a majority of families with school-aged children, but there are also a good number of young families with small children and older retired couples. A good-sized handful of people who had school-aged kids when we moved here are beginning to see their kids off to college, and we've started getting more and more wedding invitations. There are only a few singles in our current congregation, but that's largely because there's a specialized one for singles that covers the same area.

 

In the past, we have certainly spent time in some congregations in which we were in more of a minority age/stage of life. It does present some different challenges, but also has some benefits that differ from those where we were more of a majority demographic. We felt more 'needed' in one ward where there were a lot of older people and fewer young'uns to fill needed leadership and teaching positions. I think we also had more of an opportunity to interact with older people who had more experience with life in general. There were times I felt very frustrated with some of the older people who were still very much capable of helping out with much needed assignments, but who declined to do so because they felt they'd already put in their time running things and it was someone else's turn to bear the burden now (and they felt perfectly entitled to criticize how it was done too...lol). But most of them were very nice and helpful to the extent they were able.

 

I would not choose to attend a different ward of the same denomination in order to interact with a different demographic. The thing is, we consider the whole denomination, worldwide, to be a single "church", but obviously it's impractical for all 14 million or so of us to get together at the same time in the same location for worship and instruction. That being the case, the members of the church are sectioned up geographically so that all the church members who live between Oak Street and 45th and north of the river (I'm totally making these boundaries up, but you get the idea) meet at the building on Maple Drive at 9:00 am, the ones between the other side of 45th and Roosevelt Drive meet at 11:00 am in the same building, but have their own separate structure of leadership. Everyone south of the river meets in the other building down on Main street. And so forth (again, those boundaries are all made up). When a congregation gets too big to manage easily, it's divided (again geographically) into two wards. At any rate, my point is that there are specific geographical boundaries assigned to each congregation, and everyone who belongs to our church within those boundaries pretty much goes to the assigned ward. There are some exceptions, of course (like the singles ward I mentioned earlier, our local Spanish-speaking ward, or individuals or families who need to make special arrangements due to extenuating life circumstances), but for the most part we don't really "shop around". It's just not how things are done.

[gardenmom5]

My congregation is very mixed. young families with young kids all the way to empty nester great-grandparents. we also have those who are financially struggling to those who are quite flush. education (and experience) ranges from not much formal to doctorates. cheap apartments to seven figure manses.

 

we attend a given congregation based upon geographic location, so congregation demographics can vary greatly. Mine just happens to have a huge cross-section.

[gardenmom5]

my point is that there are specific geographical boundaries assigned to each congregation, and everyone who belongs to our church within those boundaries pretty much goes to the assigned ward. There are some exceptions, of course (like the singles ward I mentioned earlier, our local Spanish-speaking ward, or individuals or families who need to make special arrangements due to extenuating life circumstances), but for the most part we don't really "shop around". It's just not how things are done.

Or one family in our ward/congregation from years ago - they'd had a major house fire and the father nearly died after he went back in to retrieve a child who ran back inside to hide. (wow, I'm tearing up just remembering the many miracles and outpouring of service for this family from the secular community and the local church members and it's probably been going on 20 years.)

 

they couldn't find another house to rent in our ward, but received permission to continue attending during the year they were here following the fire as he was recovering. mentally and emotionally they needed to stay as part of their healing.

[raceNzanesmom]

Ours range from newborn (born just before midnight! :D) to a few in their upper 80s. We might even have a 90 y/o thrown in there. The only group we really lack is teen boys in the 14-19 y/o range, but that's simply because we have a lot of families with girls. Our biggest group is probably 30-50. The nice thing is our ages mingle really well.

 

We also have quit a few hs'ers, and we're in a bi-state area so we have folks from all over.

 

We range from 400-500 on most Sunday mornings. We also have quite a few teens and youth that attend on Wed night that don't come on Sundays.

[MamaSheep]

Or one family in our ward/congregation from years ago - they'd had a major house fire and the father nearly died after he went back in to retrieve a child who ran back inside to hide. (wow, I'm tearing up just remembering the many miracles and outpouring of service for this family from the secular community and the local church members and it's probably been going on 20 years.)

 

they couldn't find another house to rent in our ward, but received permission to continue attending during the year they were here following the fire as he was recovering. mentally and emotionally they needed to stay as part of their healing.

 

 

Yes, that's the kind of thing I mean when I say individuals or families can make special arrangements when there are extenuating circumstances. (I hope they're all ok now!) Generally we attend meetings, and our records are kept, at the ward in which we actually reside, but sometimes there are good reasons not to, and in those cases the church can be very flexible and make sure our records are transferred to, or kept at, the appropriate ward rather than automatically sent where we actually live. Someone wanting to attend a different ward because they didn't like sister so-and-so's hat, though, would probably be gently encouraged to re-think her motivations, and the request would likely be denied. Of course that doesn't mean they couldn't ATTEND a different ward, anyone can attend any ward, you don't have to even be a member of the church at all. But you wouldn't receive a calling in a ward in which you are only considered to be visiting rather than residing. And I'm pretty sure you have to go to your "home" ward's bishop for a temple recommend interview whether that's where you've been attending church or not. But yes, absolutely things can be shifted when circumstances warrant.

[jennsmile]

Ours is mostly older retired with only a handful of kids. Of those with kids I think I am the lone stay at home mom. There is one other I think but we are in very different circumstances not to mention she is a 30 minute drive away.

 

I do like having the older people around. I can look to them for guidance as they have been there and done that. They also like have the little ones around and they are reminded of their young parenthood. My boys have older ladies in the ward that they have adopted as kinda "grandmas" that they will go sit with during sacrament meeting. It is sweet to see.

[cottonmama]

It is neat to get wisdom from these older lades who have already home-schooled successfully.

 

I feel the same way, and not just about homeschooling wisdom, but parenting wisdom and wisdom about life in general. I would be more concerned if your church didn't have enough older Christians to learn from, or if the older Christians were not setting a godly example.

 

I attend a small church, maybe 100 in attendance on Sundays, and the demographics are pretty even across the board.* This means we have just a handful of families in our life-stage. Our previous church was much larger, and I felt like we were spread so thin among so many peers that we really didn't get to develop friendships that were as close as I wanted. I much prefer how it works at our current church... I don't feel like I have to compete socially to get someone to invest in a friendship with me. They don't have that many other options. :D

 

*age-wise... we could use some more racial diversity, but unfortunately our worship style really doesn't attract much diversity

[8circles]

We attend a small church with about 50 members and about 15-20 regular attenders. Its a good mix of elderly all the way down to infants. The only area somewhat lacking is young adults (20's) but that is beginning to change.

[runmiarun]

Our church is evenly represented, I think. The exception would be Sunday evenings and Wednesday nights. We lose about 70% of Sunday morning attendance on those 2 nights. We do have Sunday night services and Wednesday night bible studies but with families with kids, those nights are taken with getting ready for school the next day or extracurricular activities. I have noticed that the majority of the homeschool families attend those night since we don't have to make the bus at 7:15am.

 

We have about 300 in worship on Sunday mornings. At the Wednesday night functions (including fellowship supper), we have a large percentage of E-N'ers. This actually is one of the things that kept us at this church when we visited. Several of the retired ladies made it a point to help me with the kids when I finally made it into the fellowship hall from the parking lot. My hubby was coming from work and arrived 15 minutes after me. In talking to the ladies, they told me that they made it a priority to help the families with little ones on Wednesday nights so the parents could eat and attend bible study. They had all BTDT so they were helping share the burden of getting multiple kids fed from a buffet line by yourself. As we drove home that night, I told hubby we weren't leaving that church anytime soon. It's been 6 months and we're no longer the newbies but the ladies still help out every week.

[mumto2]

We go to a church plant with 40 people in attendance on a good week.

 

We have several families with children of various ages, a couple of university students, and an assortment of others.

 

We have a nice mixture. None of the other children are home educated.

 

Small is nice but we need to grow. We are in a metropolitan area where there is only one church for several thousand people.

[rhreinke]

Very interesting question. I thought I was the only one out there thinking this way. I think it does matter some if there are like minded people but not dominating the congregation. We moved back to the states about a year ago after being over seas, and let me tell you finding a good church is one of the most challenging things for me. We had a great church in New Zealand. The whole family enjoyed it and we all had some great friends there. Now here in the states every church we attend seems to be predominantly elderly, oh say in there 60's and older, mainly older.

 

I don't mind even going to different denominations as long as it works and we get the message of God, as is christian. However, when you go to a church and realize you are the only young family with children in attendance, you notice these things. We still don't have a church to call our home, but i'm praying we will find one.

 

One issue here, without hurting anyone's feelings, is we live to close to Salt Lake City. Enough said.

 

So I do think it makes a difference, because I want to have friends, people that I can relate with and create a friendship with like minded christians.

[G5052]

Smaller church, but pretty even public/homeschool, single/married, old/young and various nationalities and races. I like that. This is a church that we hope to be involved in for the rest of our lives, and one that our children could raise their families in if they chose to do so.

 

In my single days in another area of the country, there were periods where I was the only single person and the only woman who worked for pay, and I indeed did feel very out-of-place as the years went by. For various reasons it became a church oriented around families with stay-at-home moms, and I just really didn't fit anymore. Ultimately that and other factors led to a move to the area where I live now.

[Remudamom]

Most of our members are younger than us, but there are a good bit our age and some older.

[FaithManor]

Let's see...about 225 -250 people on a Sunday. 40-50 children in the children's worship program - children go out during the sermon only - and that's for ages 3 yrs. to 5th grade. The youth group is divided into 6-8 grade and 9-12 and probably has 35-40 on Wednesday night. We've got several singles and college students, young newlyweds, retired folks, and middle aged folks as well.

 

14 families homeschool.

 

Faith

[Trish]

For us, the demographics change depending on which service (Mass) we go to. But, there are whole churches nearby with the demographic you describe.

[beaners]

We love our church here, but we are one of only two families who attend with young children. When the children's choir sings there are more, but not many of them attend the church. Almost the entire small congregation is elderly, and I really don't know how the church is going to survive as people keep dying. 50 people would be a really high attendance for a non-holiday Sunday service. Almost the entire population in this town is Catholic, which contributes to the smaller congregations for other denominations.

[justamouse]

It's everything. Every age, so many nationalities. And I noticed because I was so astounded. And we're NOT a huge town, only 6000.

[shinyhappypeople]

We have about 300 in worship on Sunday mornings. At the Wednesday night functions (including fellowship supper), we have a large percentage of E-N'ers. This actually is one of the things that kept us at this church when we visited. Several of the retired ladies made it a point to help me with the kids when I finally made it into the fellowship hall from the parking lot. My hubby was coming from work and arrived 15 minutes after me. In talking to the ladies, they told me that they made it a priority to help the families with little ones on Wednesday nights so the parents could eat and attend bible study. They had all BTDT so they were helping share the burden of getting multiple kids fed from a buffet line by yourself. As we drove home that night, I told hubby we weren't leaving that church anytime soon. It's been 6 months and we're no longer the newbies but the ladies still help out every week.

 

I love this! This is the type of thing that would have happend at the church I mentioned in a previous post (we'll call it "Surf Church.") The demographics were across the board, but people were engaged with and invested in each other. I miss Surf Church. At our current church... it's not a bad place at all. But due to the size, you just don't get that level of engagement unless you really work to find it. I guess I just don't have the emotional energy to treat fitting in like a full-time job. It's just one of the potential pitfalls to a big church.

 

Last week's sermon was basically "Hey, E-N'ers, I know you're enjoying having an empty nest, but we're losing the next generation, so get off your butts and engage with kids and teens!" (said in a much, much kinder way than that, though) Oh, and this is part of the "parenting" series. Yeah, even the "parenting"series is geared towards them. I think that's when the demographic divide hit me.

[Scarlett]

What are the demographics at your place of worship? Do you look around and see a lot of other people in your stage of life? Is your demographic in the majority? Is this important to you one way or the other? Would you choose to attend another church/parish/synagogue/etc. of the same faith if it meant being around more people in a similar life stage?

 

 

500 people!!! Wow, that is a big congregation. We keep ours small...

 

But as to your question, in my current congregation, where I've been for almost 9 years, there are lots of families with kids, LOTS of widows, and quite a few married women who come without their dhs.

 

I like it very much. My previous congregation where I spent 19 years (until ds was 3) was much different. Far fewer families with kids, a lot of E-Ners...I am still in contact with that congregation and that has been naturally changing there with old ones dying, younger people moving in and starting families.

 

I wouldn't make a change in order to have more peope 'like me' in my current season of life. We are about to make a move to another state though and the congregation we will be going to there has a lot of young people which I am happy about since I still have a young son and 2 young stepsons. I like older people too though...

[shinyhappypeople]

500 people!!! Wow, that is a big congregation.

 

That's my estimate of the number of people at the service I attend. There are 3 services, one of which is at a less convenient time and, I think it has much lighter attendance than the other two services.

 

FWIW, it's not that I don't like older people. I do! Just wanted to clear that up :)

[Scarlett]

That's my estimate of the number of people at the service I attend. There are 3 services, one of which is at a less convenient time and, I think it has much lighter attendance than the other two services.

 

FWIW, it's not that I don't like older people. I do! Just wanted to clear that up :)

 

LOL...I know. I wasn't implying that you don't.

 

I remember in my former congregation how alone I sometimes felt...out of the loop so to speak...but I really believe most of that was because my then husband had ceased involvement in our religion. In other words, it was ME not the make up of the congregation.

[mom2scouts]

For the first 13 years of our marriage we attended a church that was mostly people ages 45+. I was 20 and dh was 25 when we started there. The people were nice, but we didn't make too many real friends and they couldn't relate to our place in life. We left that church and now we go to a church with people in every age group. There are tons of children, teens, college age, middle age and elderly. About 1,000 attend church there each week. It's a very different environment, some good and some bad. We still see many of the people from the former church around town and are friendly with them, but most are very elderly now.

[gardenmom5]

Of course that doesn't mean they couldn't ATTEND a different ward, anyone can attend any ward, you don't have to even be a member of the church at all. But you wouldn't receive a calling in a ward in which you are only considered to be visiting rather than residing. And I'm pretty sure you have to go to your "home" ward's bishop for a temple recommend interview whether that's where you've been attending church or not. .

 

You can receive a calling in whatever ward your records are in - and if you have permission to attend a ward outside your geographical "home" ward boundaries - well, that is where your records will be and it becomes your home ward.

and yeah, we've had a few people who were required to travel extensively and were seldom in our ward over the course of a year - but they did recommend interviews/tithing in our ward.

 

the family with the fire recovered, though the dad will have physical scars for life despite wearing a spandex/compression bodysuit and glove for a year (reduces scarring). He elected to not finish his PhD program (the uni held his place.) and they moved to another state for employment within two years of the fire.

[JSnow]

People are drawn to a particular church for many reasons: preaching style, people make up (are they like me), even music preference. Our church is diverse, but the majority is certainly young marrieds and young families. Youth group is not huge, but I see that as an advantage. More kids is not more better :). Our youth group has leaders for each grade and gender and they really get to know their kids. I have 3 involved in youth group and each had a very close relationship with their leader. This was a plus for them and for us as parents because they were young enough to connect with our kids, but had our backs as parents.

 

It's good to check in with your family to see if the church is meeting your needs spiritually - are you growing. If you decide it is, then I would focus on mentoring the younger and gleening from the older and wiser. :)

[myfunnybunch]

Our church is tiny. The only families with school-age children are ours and the pastor's. Most of the attendees are couples with adult children.

 

Cat

[KrissiK]

About 75% are over the age of 60. We are considered a "young family" and we're in our mid-40's. We love our church, though. The older people just dote on our family and we can learn a lot from them. Our church has been through some horrible stuff, but there's a core group that has just stuck together through thick and thin and it's a good church. We love it.

[runmiarun]

I love this! This is the type of thing that would have happend at the church I mentioned in a previous post (we'll call it "Surf Church.") The demographics were across the board, but people were engaged with and invested in each other. I miss Surf Church. At our current church... it's not a bad place at all. But due to the size, you just don't get that level of engagement unless you really work to find it. I guess I just don't have the emotional energy to treat fitting in like a full-time job. It's just one of the potential pitfalls to a big church.

 

Last week's sermon was basically "Hey, E-N'ers, I know you're enjoying having an empty nest, but we're losing the next generation, so get off your butts and engage with kids and teens!" (said in a much, much kinder way than that, though) Oh, and this is part of the "parenting" series. Yeah, even the "parenting"series is geared towards them. I think that's when the demographic divide hit me.

 

 

I agree with your statement of emotional energy and trying to fit in. I had that problem at my old church. It was small, maybe 25 families. All but 1 homeschooled. We were getting a little Stepford-y, if that makes sense. I think being so worn out from trying to fit in but still being "left out"/snubbed/forgotten/whatever you call it at my old church left me with a "wait and see" attitude towards the new church. We still haven't had much involvement with other families with kids our ages beyond Sunday morning stuff. I think it will come in time, mostly since the majority are tied heavily to public and private school schedules.

 

It's interesting that the E-N'ers were "encouraged" to participate more with the younger folks. That's a new thing for me to hear but encouraging nonetheless. I know at other churches I attended growing up and in early adulthood, age segregation was strongly encouraged. At my IL's church, it's still heavily encouraged.

[mytwomonkeys]

i think our church has a fairly wide demographic. there are 2 locations with multiple services though, and our membership is large. i think that has a lot to do with it. the more people there are are, the wider the variation, ykwim?

[mytwomonkeys]

That's my estimate of the number of people at the service I attend. There are 3 services, one of which is at a less convenient time and, I think it has much lighter attendance than the other two services.

 

FWIW, it's not that I don't like older people. I do! Just wanted to clear that up :)

 

that's interesting. is the demographic of your town a reflection of your church? it seems a larger church with 3 services would have a wider age gap. you must have a higher population of older adults in your community perhaps?

[shinyhappypeople]

that's interesting. is the demographic of your town a reflection of your church? it seems a larger church with 3 services would have a wider age gap. you must have a higher population of older adults in your community perhaps?

 

No, that's what's weird. I can't remember the statistics exactly, but roughly 40% of the population are kids age 0-17.

 

I think what happened was that the young families who were the backbone of the church for the last 20 years have aged and stayed at the church, but there hasn't been any real effort to continue reaching out to young families. After all, they (the original families) are now E-N'ers and are naturally going to consider what works for them at their life stage. I think it's so easy to get caught in that trap.

 

There are a few exceptions, but those exceptions are leaving :( I'm thinking of one person in particular. He's been the backbone of the children's program for YEARS. He finally gave up.

 

The church has historically put it's focus and money elsewhere. Children's ministry has been the red-headed step-child. :( But given the town's demographics, it makes NO sense. They do put on events for kids (an expensive VBS, a free and very fun Halloween thing, for example). But when it comes to the small things, like Sunday school, there just hasn't been the time, money and FOCUS on it. When the children's pastor resigned a few years ago, they didn't bother to replace him.

 

True story: about a month ago, they had to CANCEL the 4th/5th grade Sunday School class during the service I go to because they had no volunteers. In a church of 1,300+ they had NO ONE to help out with the 4th/5th graders. That is *shameful.* The focus of last week's sermon (EN'ers, get off your butts and engage with kids) is also starting to make a lot more sense in light of that situation.

 

Having said all that, this church does have strengths. I don't mean to make it sound like I'm totally bashing it. That's NOT my intention. I'm just frustrated about this issue.

[MamaSheep]

You can receive a calling in whatever ward your records are in - and if you have permission to attend a ward outside your geographical "home" ward boundaries - well, that is where your records will be and it becomes your home ward.

and yeah, we've had a few people who were required to travel extensively and were seldom in our ward over the course of a year - but they did recommend interviews/tithing in our ward.

 

the family with the fire recovered, though the dad will have physical scars for life despite wearing a spandex/compression bodysuit and glove for a year (reduces scarring). He elected to not finish his PhD program (the uni held his place.) and they moved to another state for employment within two years of the fire.

 

Right. That's what I meant. I'm sorry I wasn't more clear. :)

[momofkhm]

We're a small church and I'd say the average age has increased lately as all the families with preschoolers have left over the last couple years. So I'd say the average age is, well, mine - 42.

 

We have about 10 high schoolers, 8 middle schoolers and 5 or 6 elementary age. The the corresponding adults to go with them, but no one has a single child. A few empty nesters and many retirees. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I'd say the average is closer to 50. LOTS of grandparents.

[ScoutTN]

We cover all the bases and I love it.

Students (undergrad and grad), singles, young marrieds, mwkids (lots!), empty nesters, retired/seniors. Pretty evenly spread through all the age groups.

 

large church , 2000+, with traditional, liturgical worship.

[mytwomonkeys]

True story: about a month ago, they had to CANCEL the 4th/5th grade Sunday School class during the service I go to because they had no volunteers. In a church of 1,300+ they had NO ONE to help out with the 4th/5th graders. That is *shameful.* The focus of last week's sermon (EN'ers, get off your butts and engage with kids) is also starting to make a lot more sense in light of that situation.

 

wow! that is really crazy! it's hard i suppose when you don't have a coordinator in place though. regardless if they pay someone, there needs to be a coordinator that can oversee it. even then, it will take many volunteers to execute it. it seems like that needs to become a priority, otherwise sunday school for the children will never become more than what it is. our church is similar in size to your's & has over 300 volunteers a week at the campus i attend. volunteers are necessary and essential. it really makes the campus a ministry. i sure hope it all comes together. it sounds like you love your church:grouphug:

[shinyhappypeople]

We cover all the bases and I love it.

Students (undergrad and grad), singles, young marrieds, mwkids (lots!), empty nesters, retired/seniors. Pretty evenly spread through all the age groups.

 

large church , 2000+, with traditional, liturgical worship.

 

That sounds so cool! Can I come visit? :) Well, except that I live a few thousand miles away.

 

When I lived in Nashville eons ago, I went to a huge church that basically used the Sunday school model to create "churches within a church" for people at different places in life. The group I went to was mainly people in their 20s / 30s (married, single, college), and it made connecting with others so much easier and less intimidating.

[LMD]

We seem to be pretty evenly spread. Our community is probably about 150-200 strong, there are plenty of babies, kids, teens, young adults, adults (single/married/parents), older adults and elderly. I really like it. A good mix of races aswell.

[LMD]

No, that's what's weird. I can't remember the statistics exactly, but roughly 40% of the population are kids age 0-17.

 

I think what happened was that the young families who were the backbone of the church for the last 20 years have aged and stayed at the church, but there hasn't been any real effort to continue reaching out to young families. After all, they (the original families) are now E-N'ers and are naturally going to consider what works for them at their life stage. I think it's so easy to get caught in that trap.

 

There are a few exceptions, but those exceptions are leaving :( I'm thinking of one person in particular. He's been the backbone of the children's program for YEARS. He finally gave up.

 

The church has historically put it's focus and money elsewhere. Children's ministry has been the red-headed step-child. :( But given the town's demographics, it makes NO sense. They do put on events for kids (an expensive VBS, a free and very fun Halloween thing, for example). But when it comes to the small things, like Sunday school, there just hasn't been the time, money and FOCUS on it. When the children's pastor resigned a few years ago, they didn't bother to replace him.

 

True story: about a month ago, they had to CANCEL the 4th/5th grade Sunday School class during the service I go to because they had no volunteers. In a church of 1,300+ they had NO ONE to help out with the 4th/5th graders. That is *shameful.* The focus of last week's sermon (EN'ers, get off your butts and engage with kids) is also starting to make a lot more sense in light of that situation.

 

Having said all that, this church does have strengths. I don't mean to make it sound like I'm totally bashing it. That's NOT my intention. I'm just frustrated about this issue.

 

Yes, our last church was like this. Full to the brim of EN'ers - who had SO much to give - but they all felt retired from church work aswell :glare: Very sad...

[In the Rain]

As long as thee were enough people for my family to connect with, the demographics wouldn't bother me. We attended a church for a while that mostly had little boys, and my girls weren't happy about that.