based on worship dropped from $1,809 to $1,698 (-6.1%). It has been suggested that people are attending worship services less frequently than in the past; therefore, while average worship attendance has declined, we are still reaching just as many people, if not more. One can find support for this perspective in the fact that discipleship enrollment increased from 787,252 in 2010 to 810,131 in 2019 (2.9%). However, this would also mean that per capita giving has declined even more than has already been noted. While many denominations in the USA and Canada have experienced a loss in the number of their churches during the last ten years, there has been an increase in the number of active churches for the Church of the Nazarene. There has also been a shift in the distribution of cultural groups within our churches. The number of active churches increased from 4,994 in 2010, to 5,113 in 2019. A net gain of 119 (2.4%) active churches. To achieve
this net gain, we started 1,206 churches and closed 1,087 churches. While many of the closed churches were predominantly White, English-speaking churches, many of the new churches were predominantly Hispanic. The result has been the continuation of a cultural shift in the distribution of our churches that really started as far back as the 1980s. Along with a slight increase in active churches and declines in membership and average worship attendance, there is a trend toward pastors being bi-vocational. In 2013, the USA/Canada Region implemented a supplemental questionnaire to the Annual Pastor’s Report (APR). One of the questions asked, “Does the pastor of this church consider himself/herself to be bi-vocational?” In 2013, 59 percent responded “No” to this question, while 32 percent checked “Yes, it is necessary to supplement their family income,” and the remaining 9 percent indicated “Yes” for other reasons. In 2019, the percentage indicating “No” had dropped to 53.5%, while the percentage responding, “Yes, it is necessary to supplement their family income” had risen to 37%. Those responding “Yes” for other reasons remained stable at 9.5%. Given the loss in purchasing power at the local church level, it should come as
24 | GRACE & PEACE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2020
