https://youtu.be/oyINqkSBOFE
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\nHow many people are really leaving their childhood faith? Ryan Burge joins Thom and Sam on this special episode to unpack important data for churches. Retention rates are a good indicator of how well a church disciples people. Keeping people is a major part of church health. The hosts discuss the data concerning national trends with church retention.
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\n \tA retention rate is the percentage of people who were raised in a certain faith tradition that still affiliate with that same tradition as adults.
\n \tMainline Protestants struggle with retention. The rate was 76% in the 1970s. Today it is 58%.
\n \tConservative Evangelicals fare better. Retention rates in the 1970s were 78%. Today it is 73%.
\n \tWhen a mainline Protestant leaves their tradition, they are almost as likely to become an evangelical as a none (14% vs 20%).
\n \tWhen evangelicals leave, the most likely landing spot is nones at 13%. But that\u2019s that many folks at the end of the day.
\n \tThe exvangelical movement is really not that big. The mainline to evangelical pipeline is actually larger.
\n \tWhat might the future hold? The aging of congregations and "leaky boats" with more holes.
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\nResources:
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\n \tTithe.ly
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\n \t2023 State of Church Giving
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\n \t* \u201cHow Many People Leave Their Childhood Religion?\u201d by Ryan Burge
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\n \tRyan Burge
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\n \tKnow Your Community
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\n \t* Church Health Scorecard
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\n \t* \u201cThe Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church\u201d by Sarah McCammon (affiliate link)
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\n \t* The Everything Church Resource Directory
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\n \t* The Hope Initiative
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\n \t* Get your FREE tool! Attendance Growth Projector
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\nEpisode Sponsors:
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\nTithely provides churches around the world with software tools to help them and their ministries thrive.
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\nNearly 40,000 churches use Tithely for online and text giving, managing their people\u2019s information, volunteer management, child check in, church apps and websites, and communicating through email and text messaging.
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\nMade up of a team of ministry-minded people, Tithely\u2019s heart is to see the local church empowered with the tools to fulfill their mission.
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\nAlso, right now Tithely is offering a free report called \u201c2023 State of Church Giving Report.\u201d You can access that report free by clicking on the link in the show notes.