Just this week, the Outreach Magazine with the 100 Largest and Fastest Growing list hit the streets. It is a great issue with some great articles.
Only one problem.
The Fastest Growing list is... well... wrong.
I won't go into all the details since they will be out tomorrow from the people at Outreach, but Kent at ChurchRelevance.com noticed it and graciously brought it to our attention. He has also gone above and beyond to give us a couple days to sort out what happened.
Lynne Marian, the V.P. at Outreach, sent Kent an email (reprinted here with permission) that explained:
Dear Kent,
You are right, and we were wrong.
It was discovered, after the issue was printed, that there are in fact errors in the ranking of the top 100 fastest-growing church list. The list has been pulled of our Web site and we are in the process of finalizing a corrected list which will be posted by tomorrow.
We are working in partnership with Ed Stetzer and LifeWay Research on the correction, but Outreach magazine takes full responsibility for publishing the incorrect list. The actual numerical survey data (numerical and percentage growth) is accurate, however the sortation and, as a result, ranking is under review.
Thank you for your vigilance. I know that your goal, like ours, is to encourage and inspire the church with the stories of God's work through these congregations. We are grateful for your appropriate concern, and for contacting us directly.
Sincerely,
Lynne Marian
Vice President of Communications
Publisher, Outreach Magazine
All the details will be out tomorrow, but the list as printed is wrong. The folks at Outreach Magazine are making it right... and watching them handle it was a great encouragement to me. They are good people and they care that what they distribute is correct. Even though only Kent noticed the full extent of the problem, they will be sharing the information with all of their readers. That shows character.
So, tomorrow will be a busy day! I will post the info here when the correction is up and then will answer questions as they come in.
It's hard to admit you're wrong. But, the fact is we had a miscommunication and made a mistake. Tomorrow, we will make it right. As soon as Outreach has the info up, I will post it and answer questions here.
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