Here is an interesting statistic that certainly appears to be counterintuitive.  There is an inverse relationship between church closure rate and the growth of a denomination. The lower the closure rate, the more likely the denomination is declining. The higher the closure rate, the more likely the denomination is growing.

The figure below shows that the denominations with high closure rates are growing rapidly and those with low closure rates are declining.  The mainline instinct never to let a church die actually discourages energy from being directed toward the development of new churches.  Growing denominations create an atmosphere that encourages and provides for health and growth in all their churches while allowing unhealthy or marginal churches to die with dignity.  Growing denominations also reinvest the assets of closed churches into new church-planting projects, usually producing multiple new churches to replace each closed church.

From: “The American Church in Crisis” by Dave Olson

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