The High Turnover Church
by David Pederson
January 1, 1999
One month into my first pastorate in Athens, Greece, an elder advised that three years' experience there would equal ten years anywhere else. A high turnover church gives you lots of practice doing most everything.
In my present church in Seoul, 70 percent of the newcomers leave within three years. Here for a while on business, they bring plenty of ideas and energy to the church. But the constant flow of people erodes the traditional bases of ministry.
I see 500 visitors each year, yet our church has plateaued at 250 attendees. At first that discouraged me. I figured I've said goodbye to more than 1,000 regular attenders in the last ten years. While I haven't put it on my resume, I've pastored a congregation of 1,000, just not all at once. This helps me keep perspective—I minister to a procession.
Reaching the sojourners
The high turnover church has two constituencies with different needs. For the church to thrive, these groups must reach a comfortable balance—of power and ministry. Some of the implications:
High turnover requires high visibility. In most churches only 3 percent of people try a church due to an advertisement, while 65 percent come because of a friend's invitation. This is not true in the high turnover church.
A survey of 20 such churches showed that 33 percent of first-time attenders came because of building visibility, a road sign, or advertisement. In addition, 25 percent attended because of a referral by someone who does not attend the church. One Kuwaiti Muslim began attending our church after reading that we were singing carols at Christmas.
Make the connections. We have not adopted the "anonymous" approach to visitors because we know that some people have worked hard to locate and arrive at our ...
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