The State of the Church in Colorado

The State of the Church in Colorado 1990-2000
Dave Olson © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

© 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use
This is a Sample Presentation It’s purpose is to give you an idea of what is happening to the Christian church in Colorado, and what the complete “State of the Church in Colorado” Powerpoint looks like. The goal is to encourage pastors and church lay leaders to view and discuss together the missional challenges in Colorado that the Church faces. The complete Powerpoint is $14.95 and is available for immediate download at © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

In 1996, polls taken immediately after the Presidential election revealed that 58% of people claimed they had voted, when in reality only 49% actually did. This is called the Halo Effect. People tend to over-inflate their participation in activities that create acceptability within their social group. For many decades, pollsters such as Gallup and Barna have reported that around 45% of Americans attend church every Sunday. But there is a religious Halo Effect. Actual attendance counts have shown that the percentage of people attending church on any given weekend is much lower than was previously thought. © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

The Intent of this presentation is to answer and then expand on two key questions: “How Many People Really Attend Church in Colorado Every Week?” “Is the Christian Church Going Forward or Backwards in Influence in Colorado?” As the data is analyzed county by county assessing a number of factors, a comprehensive picture of the State of the Church in Colorado will begin to take shape. © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

This study uses weekend church attendance as a more reliable and more immediate snapshot of Christian influence than membership. The following map shows the percentage of the population attending a Christian church on any given weekend in all 50 states in Colorado has an attendance percentage (15.2%) that is less than the average for the nation (18.7%). © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

Percentage of Population Attending a Christian Church
3.1% UT 9.7% NV 11.2% ME 11.4% ID 11.8% NH 13.2% VT 13.4% HI 14.0% WY WA 14.3% AZ 14.4% MA 14.5% OR 14.8% CA 15.1% AK FL 15.2% CO 15.5% NY 16.0% NJ DE 17.4% WV 17.5% MT 17.7% MD 17.8% NM 18.0% VA 17.2% CT 19.1% TX 20.1% RI 20.3% IL OH 20.5% PA 20.6% MI 21.5% MO 21.7% IN 22.0% OK 22.1% KY 22.7% KS NC 23.2% MN 23.3% SC GA 23.5% TN 23.8% NE 24.6% WI 24.7% IA 25.0% AR 26.7% MS 26.9% AL 28.0% SD 28.6% DC 29.4% ND 38.4% LA 0.0% to 14.4% 14.4% to 17.5% 17.5% to 20.6% 20.6% to 23.5% 23.5% to 39.4% Percentage of Population Attending a Christian Church on any Given Weekend in 2000 © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

Broomfield Colorado Percentage of the Population at Worship in Christian Churches on any Given Sunday Blue = Lowest Maroon = Middle Beige = Highest 2.1% Gilpin 4.7% Pitkin 5.0% Elbert 5.1% Park Clear Creek 8.0% Summit 9.6% Grand 9.7% Crowley 9.9% Jackson 10.2% Dolores 10.5% San Miguel Custer 10.7% San Juan Teller 10.9% Adams 11.2% Garfield 11.4% Ouray 11.7% Douglas 11.9% Eagle 12.3% Routt 12.6% Mineral 12.7% Moffat 12.8% Mesa Montezuma 13.6% Rio Blanco 14.5% Gunnison 14.6% Hinsdale 14.7% La Plata 15.1% Montrose 15.2% Fremont 15.6% Bent 15.8% Conejos Jefferson 15.9% Delta 16.7% Weld 17.5% Saguache 18.0% Larimer El Paso 18.1% Boulder 18.3% Lincoln 19.6% Arapahoe 20.0% Denver 20.3% Huerfano Baca Morgan 20.8% Chaffee 21.1% Logan 21.5% Archuleta 22.2% Pueblo 23.1% Cheyenne 23.8% Yuma 23.9% Alamosa 25.1% Prowers 25.6% Sedgwick 26.1% Washington 26.9% Las Animas 27.1% Rio Grande 29.4% Kit Carson 29.5% Costilla 29.8% Otero 30.2% Lake 30.6% Kiowa 32.0% Phillips 0.0% to 12.7% 12.7% to 20.3% 20.3% to 33.0% © 2004 by David T. Olson

The Next 2 Maps show the population numbers for each county in Colorado. The first map shows the population size of each county. Eleven counties have a population of over 100,000 people. The second map shows the growth or decline in population for each county from © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

© 2004 by David T. Olson Colorado - 2000 Population per County
2,747 Sedgwick 20,504 Logan 1,577 Jackson 13,184 Moffat 251,494 Larimer 4,480 Phillips 19,690 Routt 180,936 Weld 27,171 Morgan 12,442 Grand 291,288 Boulder Broomfield 4,926 Washington 9,841 Yuma 5,986 Rio Blanco 4,757 Gilpin 363,857 Adams 9,322 Clear Creek 554,636 Denver 41,659 Eagle 23,548 Summit 487,967 Arapahoe 43,791 Garfield 527,056 Jefferson 175,766 Douglas 19,872 Elbert 8,011 Kit Carson 14,872 Pitkin 7,812 Lake 14,523 Park 116,255 Mesa 6,087 Lincoln 27,834 Delta 20,555 Teller 516,929 El Paso 2,231 Cheyenne 16,242 Chaffee 13,956 Gunnison 46,145 Fremont 1,622 Kiowa 33,432 Montrose 5,518 Crowley 3,742 Ouray 6,594 San Miguel 5,917 Saguache 141,472 Pueblo 3,503 Custer 790 Hinsdale 20,311 Otero 5,998 Bent 14,483 Prowers 558 San Juan 1,844 Dolores 831 Mineral 12,413 Rio Grande 14,966 Alamosa 7,862 Huerfano 23,830 Montezuma 15,207 Las Animas 43,941 La Plata 3,663 Costilla 4,517 Baca 9,898 Archuleta 8,400 Conejos Colorado Population per County Blue = Lowest Maroon = Middle Beige = Highest 0 to 10,000 10,000 to 100,000 100,000 to 554,637 © 2004 by David T. Olson

Complete Presentation has Map of 2000 Population Growth for Each County

The 2 Next Slides show the ethnicity of Colorado in 1990 and The third slide shows the growth or decline in the percentage of the population for each ethnic group. © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

Complete Presentation has Graph of 2000 Ethnicity

The Next Graph shows the attendance numbers for the churches in Colorado in 1990 and Most noteworthy is the strong growth of Evangelical churches. Unfortunately, as overall worship attendance has remained grown, the population has grown much more dramatically. A more reliable standard for evaluating increasing or declining influence is the percentage of the population attending church on any given weekend, shown in the second graph. © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

Complete Presentation has Graph of 1990 & 2000 Worship Percentage by Category

The Next Graph is a Pie graph visualizing the percentage of the population at churches in each category in The “Absent” category indicates the percentage of the population that is not worshipping at a Christian church on any given weekend. The second graph shows the percentage gain or decline for each category in Colorado in 1990 and Most noteworthy is the percentage decline of each group. © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

The 3 Next Charts show the relative strength of the 8 major denominational groups in Colorado. In Colorado, the ‘other’ category represent a variety of predominately evangelical groups. The second and third charts show that all groups have declined with the exception of the Pentecostals. © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

Complete Presentation has Pie Chart of 2000 Attendance by Denominational Families

Complete Presentation has Bar Graph of 1990 & 2000 Attendance by Denominational Families

The Next Chart shows the 1990 & 2000 average church attendance by group for both this state and the nation. The second chart shows the 1990 & 2000 population per church for this state and the nation. This shows how many people live in this state for every Christian church. Among states in 2000, Arkansas is the lowest at 411 people per church, while Utah is the highest at 4,586 people per church. © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

Complete Presentation has Bar Graph of 1990 & 2000 Population per Church for State and Nation

The Next 3 Maps show the attendance percentages for the Evangelical, Catholic and Mainline churches in each county in Colorado in The eastern plains have a high percentage of attendance than the rest of the state. © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

Complete Presentation has State Map of 2000 Evangelical Attendance Percentage for each County

Complete Presentation has State Map of 2000 Mainline Attendance Percentage for each County

Broomfield Colorado Percentage of the Population at Worship in Catholic Churches on any Given Sunday Blue = Lowest Maroon = Middle Beige = Highest Elbert Kiowa 0.7% Gilpin 0.8% Dolores 1.1% Sedgwick Montezuma 1.2% Park Baca Mesa 1.3% Mineral Jackson 1.5% Hinsdale 1.6% Montrose 2.0% Pitkin 2.2% Clear Creek 2.4% Moffat 2.5% Teller Ouray Douglas 2.6% Rio Blanco Delta Summit 2.9% Custer 3.0% Grand El Paso 3.1% Lincoln 3.3% Garfield 3.4% Larimer 3.5% Arapahoe 3.8% Washington 3.9% Weld Phillips 4.0% Logan 4.1% Routt 4.2% Crowley 4.3% Jefferson Fremont 4.4% Adams 4.5% Yuma 5.0% La Plata Bent San Miguel 5.3% Boulder 6.1% Gunnison 6.2% Chaffee 6.3% Eagle 6.4% Prowers 6.6% Kit Carson 7.0% Morgan 7.4% Cheyenne 7.6% Denver 8.3% Saguache 8.4% Rio Grande 9.5% Conejos 10.1% Alamosa 10.2% Pueblo 10.6% Archuleta 11.6% Huerfano 12.3% Otero 17.5% Lake 17.7% Las Animas 18.7% San Juan 22.6% Costilla 0.0% to 2.9% 2.9% to 5.3% 5.3% to 23.6% No data © 2004 by David T. Olson

The Next Map shows the growth or decline in the percentage of the population attending a Christian church on any given weekend from 1990 to 2000 for each county. 22 counties grew in attendance percentage, while 41 counties declined. © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

Complete Presentation has State Map of Christian Church Attendance Percentage Increase or Decline for each County

The Next 3 Maps show the growth or decline of attendance percentages for the Evangelical, Catholic and Mainline churches in each county in Colorado between 1990 and For evangelicals, 22 counties grew in attendance percentage, while 41 counties declined. For mainline churches, 10 counties grew in attendance percentage, while 53 counties declined. For Catholics, 19 counties grew in attendance percentage, while 40 counties declined. © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

Complete Presentation has State Map of Evangelical Attendance Percentage Increase or Decline for each County

Complete Presentation has State Map of Mainline Attendance Percentage Increase or Decline for each County

Broomfield Colorado Growth or Decline in Percentage of the Population at Worship in Catholic Churches on any Given Sunday Blue = Decline Maroon = Growth Elbert Kiowa Mineral Park -88.7% Sedgwick -75.8% Hinsdale -69.2% Montrose -69.1% Logan -65.6% Baca -64.0% Mesa -61.1% Lincoln -55.8% Delta -55.5% Moffat -54.8% Pitkin -49.1% Dolores -47.0% Weld -43.7% Huerfano -39.5% Cheyenne -37.9% Bent -36.7% El Paso -32.8% Larimer -32.3% Summit -31.5% Gilpin -31.2% Jefferson -30.3% Phillips -30.1% Arapahoe -29.3% Chaffee -26.6% Douglas -24.4% Lake -24.1% Saguache -22.9% Rio Grande -21.6% Jackson -20.8% Rio Blanco -19.5% Clear Creek -18.0% Kit Carson -17.6% Alamosa -15.3% Montezuma -15.1% Grand -13.1% Custer -11.3% Costilla -8.9% Routt -7.2% Adams -6.4% Pueblo -4.5% Teller 4.2% La Plata 7.6% Garfield 9.4% Denver 13.0% Prowers 13.3% Boulder 19.7% Ouray 24.2% Eagle 25.4% Crowley 39.1% Yuma 43.7% Washington 48.0% Morgan 50.8% Otero 51.8% Conejos 56.6% Gunnison 57.6% San Miguel 79.2% San Juan 148.4% Las Animas 176.5% Fremont 190.7% Archuleta Decline Growth No data © 2004 by David T. Olson

The Final Chart shows the net gain in the number of churches in Colorado in the past decade. There was a net gain of 144 churches. However, to keep up with the population growth in Colorado, there would have needed to have been an additional 792 more churches started from © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

The State of the Church in Colorado . . .
Because of strong population growth along the Front Range of Colorado, the church has both great opportunities and great challenges. While church attendance has grown for the Evangelical, Mainline and Catholic churches, the percentage of the population attending church has been declining for each group. This resulted in a 13% loss in the state-wide percentage of the population that attended church between 1990 and 2000. A major factor in the overall decline is the insufficient net gain in the number of churches in Colorado. If the present decade is to rectify that state-wide, 792 more churches would need to be started in the state than in the previous decade. © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

For More Information . . . Please go to for additional information on the American Church. 12 Surprising Facts about the American Church is available at The complete Colorado Powerpoint presentation is available at The Complete Front Range Powerpoint presentation is available at A Combo Pack (12 Surprising Facts, Colorado and Front Range Powerpoints) is available at © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

Information on the Information
The spiritual health of churches is multifaceted, and is obviously much more complex than an attendance trend can portray. However, following the example of St. Luke in the Book of Acts, who used the number of people who showed up at various events as a sign documenting the health and growth of the early church, I would suggest that attendance is the single most helpful indicator of health, growth and decline. Information has been compiled only for orthodox Christian groups – Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox. The Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Unitarian-Universalists and the International Churches of Christ have not been included. In addition, information about non-Christian groups has not been compiled. African American denominations publish very little that is statistical – often not even a list of current churches. This study used data from the 1990 Glenmary study on Black Baptist estimates and AME Zion churches, the average African American worship attendance (from the Barna Research Group), and a statistical model based on the population of African Americans in each county in 1990 and These were combined to come up with as accurate an estimate as possible. Independent church data is almost impossible to obtain. (There are actually fewer totally independent churches than is assumed. Most are part of some voluntary association, which typically keeps some records.) Data from the 1990 & 2000 Glenmary study on larger Independent churches (limited to over 300 in attendance) was used along with a statistical model to estimate the attendance at smaller independent churches. In Catholic churches, the definition of what constitutes membership varies with diocese and church, making numbers sometimes inconsistent from state to state and county to county. In addition to actual mass counts from 1/3rd of Catholic parishes, membership information has been merged with attendance patterns from similar dioceses based on the size of the diocese and the region in which it is located. Orthodox Churches are included in Totals, but not included as a separate group because of smallness of size nationwide. Division into Evangelical and Mainline categories is based on the division by the Glenmary Study. This study only looks at how many people attend a Christian church on any given Sunday. The term ‘regular attender’ can be designated to mean someone who attends a Christian church on a consistent basis. Using a simple definition for ‘regular attender’ (attends at least 3 out of every 8 Sundays), between 23% and 25% of Americans would fit this category. Adding ‘regular attenders’ of non-orthodox christian churches and other religions to the totals would increase the percentage to 26% – 28%. © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

This Presentation is based on a nationwide study of American church attendance, as reported by churches and denominations. The database currently has average worship attendances for each of the last 10 years for over 170,000 individual churches. It also uses supplementary information (actual membership numbers correlated with accurate membership to attendance ratios) to project the attendances of all other denominational and independent churches. All told, accurate information is provided for all 300,000 orthodox Christian churches.1 1 This presentation looks only at people attending orthodox Christian churches. Approximately 3 million people attend non-orthodox Christian churches, and perhaps 3 million attend a religious service of another religion. Those ‘houses of worship’ would add another 35,000 churches in the United States and increase the 2000 percentage to 20.5%. © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

For More Information . . . Presentations such as this are available for the largest 100 metropolitan areas, for each state and for the nation as a whole, as well as other presentations to show what is happening in the American church. Presentations are available either by direct download, CD or print. Please go to AmericanChurch.org for ordering information. To Contact Dave Olson, please him at © 2004 by David T. Olson Sample - Not for Public Use

The State of the Church in Colorado

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