Twelve Trends for 2012

Thom Rainer, the President and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources, shared twelve trends for 2012. These trends were developed based on research and observations of America’s healthiest churches. The list includes:

1. Churches have a high view of Scripture.
2. A large number of church members read the Bible daily.
3. The churches have a priority and focus on the nations.
4. The churches have a missional community presence.
5. The congregations have membership that matters.
6. The members are evangelistically intentional.
7. These healthy churches have pastors who love the members.
8. The churches allow their pastors to spend time in sermon preparation.
9. There is clarity of the process of disciple making.
10. These churches do less better.
11. The process of discipleship moves members into ongoing small groups.
12. Corporate prayer is intentional and prioritized.

For Thom’s commentary on each of these trends, see the first article in this series.

http://www.thomrainer.com/2012/01/twelve-in-2012-trends-in-healthy-churches-trends-1-to-6.php

For the remainder of the list, check out this second article.

http://www.thomrainer.com/2012/01/twelve-in-2012-trends-in-healthy-churches-trends-7-to-12.php

Many of these correspond to the systems measured in the Church Health Survey.