Barna.org: Church analysts have noted that most congregations operate independently of the ideas and efforts of other churches. That absence of consensus emerged in the data from a new study conducted by The Barna Group (Ventura, California) regarding the ministry priorities of Protestant churches. When a nationally representative sample of 614 Senior Pastors was asked to identify the top three ministry priorities for their church in the coming year, not a single ministry emphasis was listed by even half of the church leaders.
Three-Stage Ranking
Overall, 12 different ministry emphases were listed by at least 3 percent of the pastors, aligned in three distinct levels of priority.
The most frequently mentioned priorities were discipleship and spiritual development (47 percent); evangelism and outreach (46 percent); and preaching (35 percent).
The second level of priorities included congregational care efforts, such as visitation and counseling (24 percent); worship (19 percent); ministry to teenagers and young adults (17 percent); missions (15 percent); community service (15 percent); ministry to children (13 percent); and congregational fellowship (11 percent).
The lowest priorities among the dozen ministries described by pastors were ministry to families (4 percent) and prayer (3 percent).
