Why are small churches 16 times as effective as large churches - these are the surprising results of a worldwide church growth study.
In 1995, the German church growth researchers Christoph Schalk and Christian A. Schwarz of the Ecumenical Church Institute (Emmelsbull bei Niebull, Germany), completed the first phase of what they call the largest church growth research project in history.
In the 150,000 DM project (which they financed themselves), over 1,000 churches in 32 countries on all five continents answered 170 questions. For the first time, the 4.2 million answers enable empirical statements about worldwide principles, and reasons why churches grow. We list below the four that we found most significant.
