North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church
Clergywomen Leading Larger Churches
|
The charts below are based on data about the top 10 clegywomen led churches for worship attendance and membership for each year. Means and Medians are calculated for each year and comparisons are made across multiple years. The goal is to record changes in clergywomen serving larger churches.
In 1991, the largest church led by a clergywoman had 342 members. Considerable change has occured over time, yet this change has not been a steady increase. There was a period of significant decrease after an initial rapid rise. The last few years have been a time of pronounced increase. |
Church Membership
The chart above displays a rapid increase in the size of churches served by clergywomen between 1992 and 1997. Between 1998 and 2004, the median membership numbers for clergywomen displayed a pattern of significant decrease. The mean value for the top ten churches pastored by women displayed a less pronounced decrease between 1998 and 2004. For 2005, there was strong upward movement for both the mean and median values. For the first time in eight years, the mean exceeded the 1997 value. For 2006, there was a small increase in the mean and a small decrease in the median. In 2007, two new appointments to large churches and significant growth at one church resulted in a dramatic rise, with both the mean and the median increasing by more than 200 persons.
From 1998 to 2006, the means and median values were at least 100 persons apart. These kinds of differences occur when you have a skewed distribution of values, rather than a normal distribution of values. For example in 2002, one church in the top ten had membership of 264. Six of the churches had membership between 344 and 382. The other three churches ranged from 737 to 800 members. With this kind of skewed distribution, the median is typically the preferred statistic over the mean.
Worship Attendance
The chart above displays the mean and median values for the top ten churches in worship attendance pastored by women. Between 1994 and 1999, there appears to have been a rapid increase in worship attendance. A large drop in the median worship attendance for this group was observed in 2000. The mean dropped, but less dramatically. The median values began to climb again in 2001. The mean began a pattern of growth in 2002. The 2005 mean value represents the first time that the mean reached above the 1999 level. In 2006, both the median and mean values rose significantly.
A downward trend was observed for the median in 2007. Six of the 10 highest worship attendance churches for 2007 had lower average worship attendance in 2007 than in 2006 with losses ranging from 10 to 21 persons. The three with worship attendance gains had increases of 9, 20, and 84 more persons per week. One church reported no change.
Two appointments made in 2007 have the potential to significantly increase the 2008 values. Without major appointment changes in 2008, we can expect an increase of at least 40 persons for both the mean and median.
(For clergymen serving the 10 highest attendance churches in the North Texas conference, the worship attendance values for 2006 were a mean of 1829 and a median 1628.)
Worship Attendance & Membership Gains
This is a scatter plot that displays growth in worship attendance and membership for clergywomen during their tenures at large churches. Large churches are defined as those with 750+ membership or 275+ worship attendance. Each diamond shaped mark represents a church. Values toward the top of the chart represent large growth in church membership. Values toward the right of the chart represent high growth in worship attendance. Values toward the top right are optimal since they represent both high worship attendance and membership growth at a church. (For example, the mark at the top right indicates an increase of 995 members and 299 more persons per week attending worship.)
Of the 14 churches represented, 7 have had a net gain in worship attendance during the tenure of a clergywoman serving as Sr. Pastor. Eight of the 14 churches reported an increase in membership.
If all the changes are summed together, there is a net gain of 1562 members and 331 more person per week attending worship.
Statistics for the Entire Conference
Local Churches
| |
Journal Year |
Actual
Year |
Membership |
Annual Avg. Worship |
Profession of Faith |
PF-WA Index |
WA-MEM Index |
07 |
06 |
159,490 |
61,490 |
3583 |
5.79 |
38.8% |
08 |
07 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clergy
| |
Journal Year |
Actual
Year |
Active & Retired
Male Elders in Full Connection |
Active & Retired
Female Elders in Full Connection |
Active
Male Elders in Full Connection |
Active
Female Elders in Full Connection |
07 |
06 |
351 ( 81.3%) |
81 ( 18.8%) |
183 (72.6%) |
69 (27.4%) |
08 |
07 |
|
|
|
|
|
The above numbers are provided to give some context of the conference as a whole.
.
Mean
The Mean is the average of the scores. It is calculated by adding up the scores and dividing this value by the number of scores.
Median
The Median is the midpoint of a series of numbers. The median is found by arranging values in order and then selecting the one in the middle. In the case of an even number of values, the median is calculated by taking the average of the two numbers in the middle. For example, to calculate the median of this group of numbers: 1, 4, 5, 7, 12, 20; take the average of 5 and 7, which is 6.
Medians can be especially useful when working with a statistically skewed series of values. For example, medians are often used to describe family income. If you had a group of 5 persons with annual incomes of 3 million, $35,000, $30,000, $25,000, and $20,000, the mean would be $622,000 and the median would be $30,000. The median would provide a better sense of where the group was as a whole than the mean. The mean value can be heavily impacted by a small proportion of the values.
Membership
These are persons who have formally joined a church. They are persons who have been baptized and have publicly declared their faith. Typically, this does not include any young children. The practice in many United Methodist churches is for those who are in sixth grade to participate in confirmation and to make a decision about if they are ready to profess their faith and join the church. The term Professing Members is often used.
Average Annual Worship Attendance
This value is determined by taking the mean of the number of persons at the principal weekly worship services for a year. For most churches this refers to their Sunday morning services. However, some churches include services that occur on Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon. When comparing years, keep in mind that extraneous factors can create variability. These include weather (icy roads, rain, . . .) and calendar issues like January 1 falling on a Sunday. (Worship Attendance statistics for a specific year are only attributed to a pastor when that person served the church for the full year.)
Profession of Faith
This is the number of persons who joined the church who are not transferring from another church. This includes youth who complete confirmation and decide to join the church. It also includes youth and adults who simply step forward and express that they want to join the church who have never done this before.
PF-WA Index: This index denotes how many persons jointed by profession of faith for every 100 persons in worship each week. (The profession of faith value is divided by average annual worship attendance and multiplied by 100.)
WA-MEM Index: This index denotes ratio between average annual worship attendance and the number of church members (professing members). (The average annual worship attendance value is divided by church membership and reported as a percentage. ex. 100 worship attendance / 300 members = 33.3%)
|
|
