Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 In today's episode, we discuss six church statistics that you need to know for 2022. We hope this conversation helps your church reach more people and grow. This is the reach right podcast.
Speaker 0 00:00:23 You're listening to the retried podcast. The show dedicated to helping pastors and church leaders reach people the right way, hosted by me, Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my cohost Ian Hyatt. We're here to help your church see more visitors and grow,
Speaker 2 00:00:45 Ready to get .
Speaker 0 00:00:50 Hey guys, welcome to the read-write podcast. Episode number 80. I am your host Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my cohost Dan Hyatt. Hey Thomas. Happy new year. Hey, happy new year, man. This is our, uh, our second episode of the new year, but this is our first one. We're recording, uh, this new year here. So it's been, uh, a good year. It's funny, I think right before, uh, we recorded a whole bunch before Christmas and it seemed like this Alma Cron wave was coming. And since then, most of our staff at retreat has gotten COVID. You are recovered from COVID. It looks like. So congratulations on, on making it through that too. So hope it's been, uh, your, your new year's all uphill from here. Hopefully it's a fun ride. Yeah, that's it. You can only get better from here. So that's it.
Speaker 0 00:01:36 Well, we have one of my favorite episodes of the year we're going to do today. I hope we have lots of other good episodes this year, but, uh, each year you and I are in the habit of going over, uh, some of the church statistics that stand out to us. So we have a history. I think this is our sixth year in a row. We've put out a most important church statistics blog, post we'll link to that in the description of this show here. So you can see that. And, uh, we recommend going to take a look at that, but what you and I do is we take a look at that post that we do every year. And then we pick out maybe our three, each of the statistics that stood out the most to us this year. Now we just kind of, uh, have a dialogue.
Speaker 0 00:02:13 The fun thing for us though, is that we don't do, we do a lot of prep on our own end for this conversation, but I don't know which stats you chose and you don't know which ones I chose. And then we're gonna take a, we're gonna take a stab and maybe we'll only have a total of three church statistics and we'll have to change the name of this post or this, uh, this podcast episode. So if we have boldly five or four, uh, don't hold it against us because we didn't know when we started, but we'll have a minimum of three, I think statistics, uh, this time here. So, uh, should be a fun conversation. But yeah, I think that post was really good this year too. I thought it was a really interesting, I think we try to, we, we do a lot of stuff at the beginning of the year to try and focus on last, last week we did one on church trends. A church had a podcast episode on, uh, on trends that were happening there. And then today we have these, uh, church statistics. So, uh,
Speaker 3 00:03:02 We should go first. I'll kick it off. I'll kick it off here. Yeah. And, uh, because, you know, maybe you took this one and this one was actually the first one on the list that I, but it stuck out to me. Uh, um, so I didn't just choose the first one, cause it was the first one. So this one is attendance versus engagement. Uh, and I think I, the reason I chose this, we've been talking a lot about this on previous podcasts since the pandemic and the landscape has kinda changed, uh, in, in, in church life and growth and, and uh, uh, in general, um, you know, this has been a very hot topic, I would say for a lot of experts, church, you know, church marketing experts and people within, within ministry pastors alike that, that, you know, in attendance versus engagement and that we need to be looking at engagement.
Speaker 3 00:03:52 And so, and here's, here's the stat that, you know, that stuck out to me. And as you know, and as we've talked about all the time, I'm on the ground, uh, I'm on the front lines, working with churches consulting with them day in and day out. And this statistic is it's about true from what I've been hearing from churches all over the country from pastors, you know, uh, individually that is that attendance is about 36 to 60% of what it was pre COVID. Um, so that's physical attendance, physical attendance. So, and, you know, I've, I've, I've run across some churches that their attendance is even greater, but that's more rare than it was. But, um, some are back to 70%, but most churches that I talked to and, and that this, this statistic, you know, uh, identifies are in between 40 and 60% of their about so, um, so unfortunate reality, something we're still working through obviously, uh, in the pandemic season and just with our post COVID, if we can even call it that.
Speaker 3 00:04:52 So what's important though, and where there's hope and encouragement for churches is that we don't just, it's important to focus on attendance. That's still a real metric metric and something to definitely track physical attendance. But if, if we can, as ministry leaders and pastors shift our focus to keeping people engaged, uh, then that would be key. And so some of the things that that pastors and ministry leaders can think through are how do we people keep people engaged? Is that not just physically through attendance and events, but small groups, um, you know, online, keeping people engaged online, keeping people giving, uh, maybe if someone doesn't show up, uh, every Sunday they still show up and volunteer at your, you know, soup kitchen or your food pantry or whatever you're doing for outreach and tracking the different ways people stay involved, um, that still gives hope. And it's it. And it's a very important thing to track for, for churches. So,
Speaker 0 00:05:51 Yeah, yeah. That one is tough to, to take it. I didn't choose that one. That wasn't one of mine. It was too depressing for me. So, um, but yeah, I think that that's, I look at my church, um, and pre pandemic, you know, March or February of 2020, we had two services, we had 350 people on average at each service, 700 people on a Sunday. Uh, and you know, this last weekend, and again, I've told our story on the podcast before of our church, hasn't been able to regularly meet until honestly this last Sunday we're like right in the rise of Alma Cron was our first Sunday of every single week service, uh, happening in 18 months or whatever it's been. So, uh, it's been 21 months actually. It's been a really long time. So, but, uh, we had, uh, about 150 people, I would guess there, uh, this last Sunday.
Speaker 0 00:06:43 And there's a lot of reasons for that. I think, you know, it's, it's so weird because I think that I've been in ministry for a long time. I've pastored churches had been associate pastors at churches. I've served in churches, U2. I know you've been in ministry for, for years of gears. Usually if a church goes from 700 people to 150 people, you, you probably did something wrong or something happened like, especially in that short of time, if it's over 30 years, you know, that's kind of the life cycle of a church. But if in 21 months you had 700 people and now you have 150, uh, it, it really, it really hurts. And I imagine a lot of our audience, if that statistic has to be believed, what it, what was it again, 60 to 30 to six to 60%, 36 to 60 ballpark. So that's a huge range obviously, but, you know, w we're down probably bill on the lower end of the 36, but it's something that, yeah, I mean, if you have 36% of the people attending that used to attend your church, you probably are tempted to, to think like, well, what on earth did we do wrong?
Speaker 0 00:07:44 Like, what did, what mistakes did we make? But, you know, I know for our, uh, our leadership at our church and, uh, the team that I work with there, it's just something that I feel. So, uh, I, I know that they're giving it their all. It's not that they did anything differently. Obviously we were forced to not meet for a long time, and that was just out of our hands. But, you know, I just, uh, it's something that I think so many churches have to deal with there. So, uh, I think this solution is, like you said, um, is, uh, kind of really rethinking some of your metrics. And we've talked about this in our, our metrics episodes and some of the things we're measuring our goals for next year. So we did, we talked a lot about this, but really measuring engagement I think is, is vital there.
Speaker 0 00:08:23 So, yeah, but all that to say, if you are one of those pastors that chances are almost all of our audience has fewer people worshiping with them today than they did in February of 2020. Uh, I pray that most of our audience, it's not 36% of what it was. I pray that you're on the 60% end or higher. I know I do talk to some churches that are at 80 or 90%, but I know that that hurts. And so I just want to be an encouragement to our people say, you didn't do anything wrong. This is just kind of the natural phenomenon of something that's happening. I think it's so healthy and keep doing it and really look at what you measure. It's a good invitation to look at what you're measuring and start looking at that engagement number. That's really good. Yeah. Cool. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:09:04 Mine, my first one was number two on the list was about the, the rise of by vocational ministry and here's the stat. Uh, it's according to faith communities today, a survey that they did fewer than two thirds of us churches have a full time pastor. Wow. That's, that's crazy. So it was 62.2%. So almost two thirds of them, uh, do not have a full-time pastor. Um, you know, we've talked a lot also about the rise of both by vocational ministry. We did a whole podcast episode about that on that probably a year ago. Uh, we did a whole episode on that idea and we, this is a trend that we saw coming and it is only increasing. Um, you know, I I'm the first to, uh, to say that I have been a long proponent of this, you know, you know, my story, but for our audience that may not, I, I, you and I worked together and I was a by vocational by choice, or I was a bi-vocational by necessity pastor.
Speaker 0 00:10:02 I pastored a, a very small church. They couldn't afford to, to pay what I needed to raise my, uh, my three kids and my wife and not raised my wife. She raises me more than answer, but to keep our family afloat to everything. So w w I had to take another job and that's how you and I met, was working out of necessity. I was working another job that over time as the church I pastored grew, and we had more money in the bank, we, we really took a hard look at our lives. And I've moved from being bi-vocational by necessity to being bi-vocational by choice, because it really freed our church up to be able to invest more in our community, into having a broader, we had a much broader staff at our church. We could have afforded maybe two full-time people on our staff.
Speaker 0 00:10:50 Instead we had, uh, myself and four or five other people that were in part-time positions. And we all kind of had that by vocational mindset. And I think that this is a really a really a major trend that a lot of churches are starting to look at. And I, I, for one, believe that it's healthy in the right circumstances. I think, you know, there's some places where if you're a pastor, a church of 900 people, you may have a challenge trying to make everything work and working a full time, other job or something to that effect. But I think there's a lot to it. Obviously we all know stories about like Paul being a tentmaker and the biblical, um, kind of example, most of these guys were by vocational. It wasn't like, uh, Jesus's disciples. We don't know exactly what they did, but they probably, uh, kept working and kept their, uh, themselves afloat with other ways after Jesus did what he did. So, you know, there's, there's a lot to it there, but, uh, I, for one thing that this is a trend, uh, it's obviously a stat. I welcome it and think it's a good thing. So what do you think?
Speaker 3 00:11:49 No, I think it is a good thing. And I think, uh, there's a lot of encouragement. You, you touched on a couple of those things as far as, you know, freeing up, uh, funds for the church to, you know, invest, put more into outreach or whatever other ministries. Um, and then I think it also puts pastors in the marketplace where they can, uh, form relationships and evangelize and help grow the church, you know? And so I think, uh, uh, and a lot of pastors see it that way. And I think you touched on it too, you know, we've discussed this too in prior podcasts, I'm a part of a mega sized church. And I think for most of the staff at my church had kind of makes sense for, I shouldn't say most, a lot of them, it makes sense to be full time and sure. And that's fine there. And I'm not saying that if, if you're at a large church, you still can't be by vocational as a pastor. But I think we've seen this with a lot of the, uh, smaller to mid-size churches that pastors are that this has become more of a TriNet and not, not just because a church doesn't have the budget to pay for a pastor, but a lot of it's by choice. And so I think it's just a, that's been a good change.
Speaker 0 00:12:49 I think we, we sometimes miss the fact that churches in general are much smaller than we think they are. Like if you took an average church, I mean, so we have the, the luxury of what we see. We receive messages from people, from churches looking for our help. Oh, we get probably a total of 20, 25 every single day. And we ask them in those messages, Hey, tell us how many people worship with you on a Sunday then, you know, better than I do. You're the one that gets all of those requests. And so the average church that comes our way is probably 50, 60 people. You know, something in that range, you know, 50 or 60 person church, uh, you know, it's, it's pretty tight. You know, the finances are pretty tight, just, you know, keeping lights on and facilities and, uh, reaching out and helping people with their needs and all the little things you have to do, doesn't leave a lot to pay a full-time pastor with those situations there. So, yeah, I think people sometimes miss that, but, uh, I think, uh, we, I want to encourage you to embrace the rise of by vocational ministry that we do see coming here. Amen.
Speaker 3 00:13:48 Good. I'll cover. The next one is it's funny. We're going in order, not on purpose, but I chose number three for my next one. So we've done one, two and three and that's, and it kind of had a little bit to do with the first one that I chose. Um, it kind of coincided with that, but it's horizontal growth and the churches need to focus on horizontal growth and not just vertical growth. So vertical growth means, uh, more butts in the seats, you know, higher attendance, uh, in church and events and groups and small groups. And that's all, that's all good to still track, but the pandemic again has kind of forced us to look at a different kind of growth. It, it kind of has some similarities with engagement like I discussed, but ornamental growth is, is to where you want to start looking at attendance online specifically. That's the key thing that this, this and this statistic here, um, is, is what uncovers that it's about recently. So this was a recent study that 65% of people say they've watched a service online. And I think that's huge of people
Speaker 0 00:14:50 In general, of all people church go of Americans
Speaker 3 00:14:53 Of church goers, 60 church goers in America. Thank you for clarifying that. So, so yeah, that 65% of them have watched a message on Ryan online recently. So this, this data was within the last several months or so it seems like, so that being said, that's a pretty high number, that's over half. Um, and that just shows that people are more used to that. And we do know that people have been watching services online even before the pandemic and all of that, but, but it's more prevalent now and more common. And so I think that again, you and I both are on the same page that we would, we prefer the, uh, the old school, uh, if you, if you'd even call it old school, but just, you know, we're under the persuasion that physical being at church in person and worshiping together, that's what we prefer, but it's still valid that someone may be, uh, online, uh, worshiping and those people are important, you know, they're engaged and you want to measure that to and focus on your horizontal growth. So for a lot of pastors, you know, if you're not already tracking online views and, uh, how people are responding to you online, that would be a really good thing to do moving forward based on that stat.
Speaker 0 00:16:06 Yeah. Yeah, I think so too. I think that, um, it's interesting that, uh, are that I know this is what the article said and our researchers kind of wrote some of that there, but it's interesting that we talk about that as horizontal growth. And I get that, you know, it's a different kind of horizontal, more vertical being there, uh, in person, I guess that makes sense. I have found that when people are coming to online services, um, when I think of the term horror, another way I think of horizontal growth, uh, is that I think online services are actually really good at having one person. So the person speaking in the video communicate down, uh, and, and, or I don't wanna say down, but communicating out to people, uh, and then there's also a place for people to communicate back towards them. But I think one of the things that's missed with online services is the communication, the communication horizontally.
Speaker 0 00:17:02 So like, you know, if, if you're watching an online service, Ian and someone else at your church is watching an online service, you don't really get a chance to interact with them. Whereas if they're sitting beside you in service, you know, someone that you haven't met before you, uh, like most churches, you probably have a, Hey, greet your neighbor time or something like that. That's when we can't get away from in churches. Right. We have to have a say, Hey, or give your neighbor a high five time. I don't know if we still do that in the pandemic air hugs. Yeah. So I'm from a very like, Hawaii is a very hugging culture. And so it was so hard for us to move away from the hugging during the pandemic. Like it was just, it was just so weird to have to just wave at people when you go to church with them.
Speaker 0 00:17:43 But yeah, what I guess I'm getting at is that I think that's one of the struggles that we still have yet to figure out is there is a lot of value in church and not just going to hear a pastor speak at a worship team worship with you, but the actual interaction and discipleship that takes place one-on-one with other people within the church. We haven't quite solved that yet. And I think that's the, that's the last barrier for that horizontal growth online to really take off there. So I think I just kind of add that in with that. That's good.
Speaker 3 00:18:13 That's good. Cool. Why don't you get the next one?
Speaker 0 00:18:15 Good. Okay. My next one is there has been much more credit card giving. Uh, that's one of the stats that stood out to me. Um, we crossed the threshold, uh, in 2021. Uh, and as of now more than 50% of all church giving or income for churches, it comes from credit cards. Uh, so, uh, that was not the case. You and I have been in this, uh, industry of digital marketing and websites, and we've never directly been in online giving for churches, but we've partnered with many different companies that have been helping churches get that going for years. Uh, I think when we started, it was like 8% was the original stat that I heard probably in 2007 or eight, like eight in Osos. It was a hard sell to say, Hey, you need to get online giving because about 8% of your people would like to give that way.
Speaker 0 00:19:05 But now I don't know. I haven't given any way, but online in like six years, same here. So it's been a long time for me since I've written a check to a church, but, um, but I think we actually crossed that line. I think the pandemic forced our hand, uh, because all these churches that passed a plate before could no longer pass a plate for at least a few weeks when you shut down or didn't have for a little while you had to do something online, you know, you and I, uh, on our, we saw this on our website. We have one of the most viewed posts when people search for online giving for churches. We have a great post that our team here wrote. That's the top seven online giving providers for churches. From there, we have in-depth reviews of every single, all the main online giving providers for churches.
Speaker 0 00:19:52 So great resources if you want to go check that out. But we saw that post, uh, we saw that go from having 40 or 50 hits a day to like 500 to a thousand hits a day, right when the pandemic happened. And so many people were scrambling and saying, we have got to get this figured out this online giving thing here, but, uh, it is huge. I I'm surprised that it took this long to get there because I have been doing online for so long, but it finally did cross that threshold. I think the stat I saw before there's, I can't tell you when it was, but, uh, it was probably four or five years ago. It was at 36% of people. Uh, they were, were giving online to their church, but now we're up over 50. It's a huge win, I think so. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:20:33 Get this my church. We did some homework on this. Actually. We just, uh, we, we just found this out before Christmas, uh, about 90% of our church gives online. Yeah. So that's yeah. So yeah, it is, but it's just a, that's just might be a shock to some churches, but, uh, but yeah, that's, uh, it is where it is now.
Speaker 0 00:20:53 I still do encounter a lot of churches that are a little bit put off by this for a few reasons, you know, credit cards right off the bat, and you're going to get two to 3% Eden in fees. You're going to, you're going to lose that. And then there's the whole question. I, if you're, how can you offer financial peace university at your church and a Dave Ramsey course who says under no circumstances ever use a credit card. And then at the same time, allow people to give via credit cards. Of course, every online giving system allows for debit cards to, as you can, you could phrase it that way, but, um, you know, there's some pushback I have, I think, as the, when it comes to the two or 3%, uh, every church I've ever worked at or worked with and reach, right, we have only seen increase if you just be willing to eat that percentage. Sometimes churches will be tempted to say, Hey, you know, we, we can give via credit card, but please don't because it costs us more. And we'd rather you give with a check or something like that. You know, what, like anything you do that would dissuade somebody from giving in that way. I think that just adds more confusion. So I really encourage people against it. There are some companies out there that, uh, that make it so that the giver would cover the fees.
Speaker 3 00:22:04 If that's what I was going to say. Yeah, there's one called
Speaker 0 00:22:07 Rebel. Give that's a good option. If you're looking that way, I still don't recommend that because I don't want my people thinking about the fees that go into it or any of that stuff. I just want it to be a seamless experience where if I have to eat 2.2 to 2.9%, whatever it is, you know, then so be it. I think you're going to see an increase at your church. Anyway. It's just kind of the way things work. It's the cost of doing business and it saves you a ton of time of stamping checks and taking them to the bank and doing all that stuff that we used to have to do too. So I think it's something we embrace
Speaker 3 00:22:40 A good segue into my last statistic that I chose, which was number nine, which is that women donate more frequently than men. Um, so, uh, that we'll just leave
Speaker 0 00:22:49 It for a second. No, I know.
Speaker 3 00:22:52 I'm sure it's true. Uh, but, uh, but, uh, yeah, so, uh, 64% of all donations across the country come from women, uh, and the same study found that that women are more likely to be involved in ministry. And of course we've known that for years, that just, you know, we've, we've known for years and in church life that, uh, it's often mom, that drags dad and the kids to church on mother's day. And that unfortunate thing. So my take away from this was though it was, it was really interesting that 64% of all donations came from women. So w what my takeaway for that was like, okay, how do we encourage a pastor with that? Well, we would say challenger men, but also, um, affirm your women to continue to be generous. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:23:38 That's really interesting. I think that's something I would use at my next offering time if I was giving a thing before that, just, yeah, that's a great, uh, great anecdote, I think that way. So I think about my
Speaker 3 00:23:50 Boss.
Speaker 0 00:23:50 Exactly. It's challenged them that way. You know, I think about it in, in my, uh, in my marriage. Um, so we, we have an auto giving set up and I happened to be the one that does that. My wife obviously isn't full of support, but we tie, uh, on the first day of the month and it automatically comes out and it's just something we we've done. And so we believed in and done for a long time. I encourage everybody. That's something that I've always believed in and tithing has been one of the most important things in our life, but when it comes to offerings, I think that I don't even think about stuff like that. It doesn't even cross my mind sometimes. It's not like I'm getting these thoughts and saying to the holy spirit, no, I don't want to give, forget that. Or, you know, you be quiet. I'm going to, I've got to not give in this way, but my wife just feels, it seems to get prompted a lot to be giving to people, causes those things. It's just something that innately happens. So it rings true for us. I guess if I can be candid with everybody, it does ring true for me and my marriage. How about you and your family?
Speaker 3 00:24:52 No, actually you're bucking
Speaker 0 00:24:53 The system. Huh?
Speaker 3 00:24:54 I am actually. So I w I, as you know, uh, I'm a tither as well, and that's been, uh, some very important to me and my wife, but I do that. And for some reason, uh, I'm, I'm more not than my wife is. She's a very generous person in many ways, but, uh, and lovely and compassionate, and the list goes on. He's going to listen. That's right. And, uh, but for whatever reason, I feel prompted and more compelled often, uh, anything above the tie that usually is something that I've felt compelled in. But here again, uh, I'm I guess I'm, I'm in that, uh, 36%. Uh,
Speaker 0 00:25:27 So yeah, you're on the feminine side. Got it.
Speaker 3 00:25:30 There you go. That's fine. I'm secure enough to take that. So, yeah.
Speaker 0 00:25:34 Good. Good. All right. So we didn't have any of the same ones as my, uh, my last one is the fact that more pastors are stepping away. Uh, I don't know that this is going to be an encouraging one, but I just think it's an important one for us to know. Uh, and this is a very recent Barna study. Uh, it will have the link in there and nearly 38% of pastors are considering stepping away from full-time ministry. That's up from 29% that was recorded last January. So in one year we've gone from 29% that are, uh, considering it to 38%. So a 9% increase. This is from Barna there, in my opinion, the gold standard when it comes to, uh, church and Christian research, those kinds of questions. They're. So boy, uh, that is a, um, I I've long expected this. Uh, and I think that this is something that we've been seeing.
Speaker 0 00:26:29 I think people are surprised by this. I was just talking to someone who wasn't involved in ministry the other day. I was talking to them and telling them that, you know, there's kind of this, uh, we see this w what's been termed as the great resignation, uh, that's happening out there, uh, in all kinds of jobs, right? So, uh, usually in service industry type jobs, people have been resigning at record numbers of levels. Uh, so, and it's very strange when we have such high employment, but everybody is resigning. It's also the same for ministry. It seems like. Um, I think it's a variety of a lot of pastors delayed retirement. I think that happened. And it became, uh, a good time to start thinking about it. Now, I think it's been, you know, the discouragement of having the pastor through a pandemic and going from, you know, a third down to 36% of your attendance or 60%, whatever the bad number is.
Speaker 0 00:27:18 I think a lot of those things add to the challenge of all of that. Uh, so, um, it's not surprising to me, but I think to, uh, our audience and to your church, it may be surprising to them. Uh, I think, you know, most one thing we're not good at as pastors is letting people really know what we're thinking. And I think usually when a pastor resigns, it's a total shock to everybody that hears it, right. You're just like, unless guys in his eighties or something like that, people are usually surprised to hear something like that. So, um, I just think it's really something we need to be aware of. Uh, I think for younger pastors out there, um, who have maybe had a hard time finding, uh, that next place in ministry, maybe that's an encouragement to you that there may be a lot of opportunities and openings and pastorates that are coming up out there. Um, but I think this is just a, it's a really unique season. I think we're going to have over the next, probably five years, this will be playing out. I think people kind of got, they kind of stuck it out through the pandemic, but I think that time, if it hasn't already started is really starting to come where those people that are thinking about stepping away are going to take action and actually start stepping away in the near future. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:28:28 No, I've seen that too. And I think it is a kind of a sad thing at the same time. I think, you know, the encouragement would be to obviously know that there is hope there's a lot of positive things going on. There's a lot of people engaged and there's a lot of growth happening in churches and in different ways, not always in physical attendance. I, I talked to a church today that, uh, and I've heard this, I will say this, I've heard this from most churches, but this hasn't happened to every church, but church stage has talked about how their giving is gone. And this was a smaller church about 70 folks, or so average, weekly attendance, their giving has gone up over the pandemic. They become more healthy financially than ever before. There's still a lot of positive things happen out there, but yeah, it is a reality. And I think just like the pandemic kind of, uh, it, it caused a lot of people to stop attending that maybe were already on the fence and on the fringe there. Uh, so to speak, um, same thing has happened with, with pastors. Um, so it's just a reality we're dealing with. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:29:30 I want to say this because our audience is almost all pastors and people involved in ministry. So we want to thank you guys for, you know, being a part of our retried family, obviously, and then just, you know, we thank you for what you do like for the fact that you're out there on the front lines, doing ministry, helping people. I mean, you know, most of you had people that you lost or lost almost every church has people that lost loved ones within it. Uh, so this has been a really hard season for you. And so I don't want to, um, miss the fact that that's our audience, 38% of the people listening to this podcast are probably considering, you know, maybe my time is up. Maybe it's time for me to step away from this. Maybe it's time for me to retire, to go into some other line of work, whatever it would be.
Speaker 0 00:30:13 Um, I want to encourage you, uh, that, um, number one, that that's okay, you know, as someone who is a, uh, you know, who was in vocational ministry and stepped out to do this, there's nothing inherently wrong with that. I know that was a really hard hurdle for me to get over was the fact that, you know, can I, uh, is it, you know, I was kind of ingrained with this. It was running from my calling and some of those things where I think God has really shown me and I've had a much bigger impact on the kingdom doing what I do today and a much bigger audience that we're able to reach with a important messages that we carry here at ReadWrite than I ever did, uh, pastoring a church of a couple of hundred people. Uh, so I want to encourage you that, number one, God's not done with you that yet, even if you decide, that's the way you're gonna go, God is it's not a, it's not necessarily a sin.
Speaker 0 00:31:01 Uh, it's not, God's not done with you yet in those situations, but at the same time, I want to encourage you that, that he's still, the Lord is still, uh, he's still pleased with you. He still loves you. And you're still doing, uh, if you're out there serving people and doing everything you can, and it feels like man, everything is going against us. Yeah. Don't look at those metrics and make it feel like God is not he's, he's pleased with you. And I just want to encourage our people with that. And as part of our retried family, we just thank you guys so much for what you're doing. I know it's been a hard season. I hope this has been an encouragement to you in total. That's our, our hope. I know that there's a lot of tough stats and it's good to get those out there and kind of deal with them. So if it has been helpful to you guys, uh, we really live on you guys giving us those ratings, reviews, likes, and subscribes, all those things that you can do on there. So thank you guys so much for being a part of our retread family. Anything to add in before we close up,
Speaker 3 00:31:58 No, keep up the good work. Don't give up, uh, your calling. Uh, if you're listening to that out there and be encouraged because, uh, as we know when we're keeping our hand to the plow, even if we don't see the fruit right away, we do reap what we sow and it's coming your way, pastor. So that's what I would say.
Speaker 0 00:32:13 And that's it. Amen. Have a great new year, a retried family, and we'll catch you guys next week. Thanks for listening to the reach right podcast. We hope this episode will help you reach people the right way, looking for more resources for your church. Check us out online and reach right studios.com. If this episode has been helpful to you, it would mean the world to us. If you would rate, review and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening. And we'll see you next week.
