Church Survival in a ‘Post-Christian’ City: Findings from a Mixed-Method Study on How Boston’s New Churches Have Endured Over a Decade

In an era of widespread church closures and shifting models of religious engagement, understanding what allows congregations to survive is critical. While national surveys document religious decline (Chaves 2011; Pew 2019), few studies follow the long-term trajectories of newly planted churches—especially in urban settings where secularization, economic instability, and demographic shifts challenge institutional viability. This gap is particularly pronounced in the past decade in cities like Boston, where high real estate costs (Lu et al. 2019), shifting religious demographics (Pew Research Center 2015), and external disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic (Pinn et al. 2021) have required church planters to develop new strategies for church survival. Within this context, understanding how new congregations transition from plants to established ministries remains an under-explored area of research (cf. Stetzer & Bird 2010; Ferguson & Ferguson 2021).

The Church Landscape Review (CLR) fills this gap by providing a rare ten-year study on church planting in an urban U.S. context. Unlike broad national surveys that provide aggregated data on religious trends, the CLR is a locally rooted mixed-method study that takes a CBPR-grounded approach to allow for access to communities that would often be skeptical of research participation. In 2014, 100 church plants in the Boston area were identified, and of the 100, lead pastors of 41 of these churches were interviewed. This research revisits these church plants first interviewed in 2014, analyzing how they adapted or persisted over the past decade. Data has already been analyzed, and findings have been gathered into a series of reports that will be released periodically throughout 2025. Two of the reports in this series have already been released. 

The presentation will cover two major aspects of this study: findings and methods. The findings will explore themes such as leadership transitions, shifts in theological emphasis, and the expansion of congregations’ social engagement. Some of these findings confirm existing claims: churches get older across congregational life stages. In 2014, young adults were the predominant demographic in most of the church plants. By 2024, middle-aged congregants had become the largest age group, reflecting both the natural aging of founding members and the integration of new families seeking faith communities amid social disruption. However, other trends revealed that, despite the assumption that urban church plants only struggle in a secularizing, post-Christian city (e.g., Barna, 2019), Boston’s new churches remained active. Since 2015, churches that participated in the CLR have been involved in planting new churches across the world. 

The study also highlights changing ecclesial trends. Churches redefined what it meant to be a congregation by increasingly prioritizing relational rather than geographic growth models. Social networks, workplace connections, and community ties became more common entry points for new members. Churches that remained active displayed a shift toward a more holistic approach to community outreach. Congregations involved in food distribution, refugee assistance, and housing support initiatives maintained strong community ties. Rather than relying solely on attendance growth as a measure of success, these churches redefined success by becoming community hubs providing social support. Churches of pastors who engaged in structured mentoring relationships and peer support networks were more than twice as likely to stay active, and were surprisingly strong indicators of survival. Churches also demonstrated strategic adaptability by navigating Boston’s real estate challenges through the innovative use of space by renting in schools, theaters, and community centers. These innovations allowed churches to remain in cities despite financial constraints and redefine what it means to be a congregation—not as a place, but as a networked community.

A key aspect of this paper will be the unique method of this study. The CLR returns to the same congregations after a decade and integrates qualitative interviews with pre-post comparative analyses of quantitative congregational data to identify and assess key shifts in leadership composition, theological shifts, and mission engagement.  

Another key methodological contribution of this study is its use of Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). Given that many church planters—especially those operating in non-denominational or immigrant church contexts—are skeptical of research participation, traditional survey approaches would have yielded limited access. The CLR’s incorporation of CBPR principles allowed for deep engagement with church leaders as research partners, ensuring that findings reflected lived experiences rather than just institutional reports. 

After outlining the study’s methodology, this paper will comment on the limits and constraints of research conducted in English, which restricted participation and shaped the demographic composition of the cohort. Because the sample is limited to congregations led by English-speaking pastors who remained active in 2024, voices from non-English-speaking church leaders are underrepresented, leading to a less diverse cohort of churches. Nevertheless, the CLR offers valuable insights into the structural, relational, and theological factors contributing to long-term church sustainability. It provides a foundation for future research that incorporates a broader linguistic and cultural spectrum of congregational experiences.

In its unique mixed-methods design integrating community-based participatory research with pre-post quantitative and qualitative analysis, this study bridges applied research and theoretical inquiry. It also provides a case study in urban ministry that illustrates how churches have navigated economic constraints, spatial limitations, and evolving patterns of religious belonging in urban centers like the Greater Boston area. 

The Church Landscape Review has the potential for significant impact across both the church and the academy. This research informs sociological research on institutional adaptation, religious resilience, and urban church sustainability in a post-Christian context. By offering empirical data as well as qualitative insights from a local, community-based participatory perspective, the CLR seeks to bridge a divide between the church and the academy by offering a rare ten year case study on how churches remain active and bringing a fresh dataset for dialogue and analysis. These findings have broad implications—not just for scholars studying religious change, but also for church planters, denominational leaders, and policymakers navigating future sustainability of urban religious institutions in contemporary religious life.