How important is it to have a lot of people near a Church of the Nazarene? Recently, the Research Center updated its studies of community population to help answer that question.

The more people that live around a local church, the more likely the church is to grow larger, at least to a point. Most of our churches (339 of 386, or 88%) that average at least 250 in worship have no more than 100,000 people within 3 miles of their location.

Of course, the churches that have hundreds of thousands of people in their immediate neighborhood face difficulties with obtaining sufficient property to grow much larger. Such locations tend to be in central cities, where property values can be prohibitive for congregations that want to expand in the same location.

Of those churches with less than 8,000 people within three miles, only 1 in 50 averages at least 250 in worship. On the other hand, with at least 8,000 peopleonce the population reaches 8,000 or more, 1 in 10 Churches of the Nazarene reach at least 250.

We also checked to see if there was an optimum community size for churches to pass the 50 barrier in worship attendance. Until a church has at least 3,500 people within 5 miles, it only has a 1 in 3 chance of averaging more than 50 in attendance. Only 9% of US Churches of the Nazarene are in such small communities. In areas with larger immediate populations, 1 in 2 of our churches average more than 50 in worship each week.

Of course, ability to support a pastor is one key element of church life in the United States. This is not as easy to determine as “What is the average worship of the church?” However, by including the presence of a parsonage, the amounts spent for pastoral salary and benefits, and amounts reported as housing allowance, a minimal threshold was established for thinking a church was able to support its own pastor.

Nationwide, about 57% of our churches met this minimal standard of pastoral support. This has implications for ministerial training, church expectations, and certainly for pastoral families. But for this article, we are looking to see if community population affects such support. The answer is, not very much.

Nearly all of the Churches of the Nazarene in the United States have at least 2,000 people within 10 miles. Up to that size, only 1 in 3 of our churches reach the minimal pastoral support level. Above that size, about 1 in 2 do so.

Community size does affect Churches of the Nazarene to a degree. Until there are at least 2,000 people within 10 miles of a church, the church is significantly less likely to provide adequate pastoral compensation. Unless the church has at least 3,500 people within five miles, it is significantly less likely to average more than 50 in worship. And unless the church has 8,000 people within 3 miles, it is significantly less likely to average 250 in worship.

But a large majority of our US Churches of the Nazarene meet all these criteria. Only 1% of our churches meet none of them. To see the 2009 population estimate within one, three, four, five, and ten miles of your local church, go to SOMEPLACE on the web.