The sudden drop in membership, ASA, and contributions is almost entirely due to the departure of Christ Church in Overland Park, now in Kampala Diocese, Uganda. Apart from that, the Diocese of Kansas is quite clearly stagnant.
Christ Church was by far the largest in the DoK, yet for many years its members had been completely frozen out of all diocesan committees and decision-making. Send us your money and shut up.
Bart – I believe I remember you posting earlier that you are a member at Christ Church. Do you have any statistics on the parish’s ASA since they left the Episcopal Church?
Broadly speaking ASA dropped about 20% in the first year or so, most of it immediately after the departure. It slipped a bit the second year, mostly due to normal attrition — job transfers and such — that was not fully replaced by newcomers. Since that time it has been climbing gradually.
Anecdotally, what I’ve also noticed is the very encouraging growth of ASA at the 8 am traditional service we attend. More importantly, it includes newcomers and younger families, and at present it alone has ASA significantly greater than the average ASA for TEC.
So, if I am reading that chart correctly the ASA has dropped almost one-third since 2002. Are you saying the departure of one parish accounted for much of that decline?
Prior to our transfer to Uganda, Christ Church accounted for about 20% of DoK ASA, but some of those folks joined other DoK churches when we left. Netted out, the departure of Christ Church is responsible for about half of the ASA decline since 2002.
As to where the others have gone, especially in ’07, I can’t say. We’re picking up some of them, but nothing like the erosion currently under way.
The dismal data for 2002 through 2007 is well explained by comments above. And “stagnant” appears to be a fair assessment for the 2007 situation. The diocese had 189 Infant Baptisms and 185 Burials in 2007 which does not indicate rapid aging and is about average for TEC. Its 11,954 Members produced the 189 Baptisms, or 63 to ONE. And that is almost the same ratio as for the entire TEC in 2007. One might say that the diocese matches TEC and faces the same fate; a barren childless future. Statmann
wow Bart, if you’re getting families to an 8AM service, that’s nearly miraculous. 9 or 10AM is generally the sweet spot for the families in my experience.
Statman, the biological term for what you highlight is “moribund.”
Chris, our 09:30 is obviously the main family worship. 11:00 is also pretty well packed. We have [i]some[/i] families at the 08:00. ASA at the 08:00 varies between 100-150, excluding the 15 or so of us in the choir. Attendance is always a bit higher in the autumn when the KC Chiefs have a home game. Somebody told me they play football, but evidence to that effect is rather scarce.
Check out Dean Wolfe’s convention [url=http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/7128 ]speech[/url] last year.
[blockquote] We believe our membership is growing. Over the past two years we may have gained more than 500 new members! Now let’s remember that these numbers have been accumulated by human hands, and so it isn’t time to throw the party just yet, but if this is in any way accurate, it means we have grown by as much as a parish the size of St. John’s, Wichita.
This increase in membership remains to be confirmed, and it will have to continue for several more years to be a clear trend, but I believe a sustained focus on membership and growth will result in a sustained increase in membership and growth.[/blockquote]
That small uptick of less then 400 in 2006 (after a drop of 2,000 in 2005) was more than erased by a drop of 466 in membership in 2007.
The sudden drop in membership, ASA, and contributions is almost entirely due to the departure of Christ Church in Overland Park, now in Kampala Diocese, Uganda. Apart from that, the Diocese of Kansas is quite clearly stagnant.
Christ Church was by far the largest in the DoK, yet for many years its members had been completely frozen out of all diocesan committees and decision-making. Send us your money and shut up.
Bart – I believe I remember you posting earlier that you are a member at Christ Church. Do you have any statistics on the parish’s ASA since they left the Episcopal Church?
Broadly speaking ASA dropped about 20% in the first year or so, most of it immediately after the departure. It slipped a bit the second year, mostly due to normal attrition — job transfers and such — that was not fully replaced by newcomers. Since that time it has been climbing gradually.
Anecdotally, what I’ve also noticed is the very encouraging growth of ASA at the 8 am traditional service we attend. More importantly, it includes newcomers and younger families, and at present it alone has ASA significantly greater than the average ASA for TEC.
So, if I am reading that chart correctly the ASA has dropped almost one-third since 2002. Are you saying the departure of one parish accounted for much of that decline?
Prior to our transfer to Uganda, Christ Church accounted for about 20% of DoK ASA, but some of those folks joined other DoK churches when we left. Netted out, the departure of Christ Church is responsible for about half of the ASA decline since 2002.
As to where the others have gone, especially in ’07, I can’t say. We’re picking up some of them, but nothing like the erosion currently under way.
The dismal data for 2002 through 2007 is well explained by comments above. And “stagnant” appears to be a fair assessment for the 2007 situation. The diocese had 189 Infant Baptisms and 185 Burials in 2007 which does not indicate rapid aging and is about average for TEC. Its 11,954 Members produced the 189 Baptisms, or 63 to ONE. And that is almost the same ratio as for the entire TEC in 2007. One might say that the diocese matches TEC and faces the same fate; a barren childless future. Statmann
wow Bart, if you’re getting families to an 8AM service, that’s nearly miraculous. 9 or 10AM is generally the sweet spot for the families in my experience.
Statman, the biological term for what you highlight is “moribund.”
Chris, our 09:30 is obviously the main family worship. 11:00 is also pretty well packed. We have [i]some[/i] families at the 08:00. ASA at the 08:00 varies between 100-150, excluding the 15 or so of us in the choir. Attendance is always a bit higher in the autumn when the KC Chiefs have a home game. Somebody told me they play football, but evidence to that effect is rather scarce.
A choir at 8am? Now that’s impressive.
yeah, I can barely [i]speak[/i] at 8AM let alone sing. And when I try, people tell me to do just that — let it alone!
Check out Dean Wolfe’s convention [url=http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/7128 ]speech[/url] last year.
[blockquote] We believe our membership is growing. Over the past two years we may have gained more than 500 new members! Now let’s remember that these numbers have been accumulated by human hands, and so it isn’t time to throw the party just yet, but if this is in any way accurate, it means we have grown by as much as a parish the size of St. John’s, Wichita.
This increase in membership remains to be confirmed, and it will have to continue for several more years to be a clear trend, but I believe a sustained focus on membership and growth will result in a sustained increase in membership and growth.[/blockquote]
That small uptick of less then 400 in 2006 (after a drop of 2,000 in 2005) was more than erased by a drop of 466 in membership in 2007.