“Yet, the opportunity is still before us-people are searching spiritually, and the gospel is the answer.”

“Church planting is slowing, and the number of closures is growing,” he said. “Starting a church from scratch is not as it used to be, especially with the rise in Boomer pastors retiring and needing to find a successor.”įor Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center, the numbers provide a clarifying reminder to American Christians. “While planting a church is still one of the most exciting things a pastor can do, over the past few years, I’ve noticed a growing hesitancy to plant, which is why these numbers don’t surprise me,” said Daniel Im, co-author of Planting Missional Churches and lead pastor of Beulah Alliance Church in Edmonton, Alberta. This has been a response to a real, growing need to revitalize unhealthy congregations.”Ĭhurch planting experts say the decline in new churches was expected but is still troubling. “Over the last decade, most denominations have increased the attention they are giving to revive existing congregations that are struggling,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. For 2014, an estimated 4,000 Protestant churches were planted, while 3,700 closed in a year.

The current closure gap indicates a shift from Lifeway Research’s previous analysis. The evangelical research organization analyzed congregational information from 34 denominations and groups representing 60 percent of US Protestant churches to arrive at the church plant and closure numbers for 2019. In 2019, approximately 3,000 Protestant churches were started in the US, but 4,500 Protestant churches closed, according to estimates from Nashville-based Lifeway Research. US Protestant churches endured a difficult 2020, including starting the year with fewer congregations.

Lifeway keep it shut