I’m not certain it’s all bad news. Sure, the majority of congregations are experiencing declines in attendance. And many more churches are growing at a pace that is slower than the growth of the community in which they are located.
To be clear, I am not suggesting that attendance declines are good. Such trends mean fewer people are engaging with believers, and fewer people are being exposed to the gospel.
But our nation is no longer a “churchy” culture. More and more, to be involved with a local congregation means you are counter-cultural. It’s now easier to see where the home base for congregations ends and where the mission field begins. There are fewer and fewer persons who show up at church services because they simply want to be part of the crowd. To the contrary, active congregants are now the exception in our nation rather than the norm.
For now, I simply want to share eight common factors that are negatively impacting church attendance. Some of the reasons apply specifically to the unchurched, while others could be related to either the churched or unchurched person.
- In most areas, it is no longer culturally expected for persons to attend church. I live in the heart of the Bible belt in the Nashville area. But when I leave for church services on Sunday mornings, I see numerous families out playing with their children, walking the subdivision, or just enjoying the day outside. They don’t feel the cultural pressure to attend church. To the contrary, they are joining the majority who opt out.
- Congregational expectations of the attendance of members are lower. In the recent past, the absence of a frequently-attending church member was noticeable. He or she might get a call from another member to check on them. Today, if a church member attends three of four weeks, rarely does another member inquire about their absence. By the way, if every member, on the average, attends one less Sunday per month, the overall attendance of the church drops 25 percent.
- Unchurched persons are often very demanding about the perceived quality of worship services. Though some of us bemoan this reality, the entertainment culture is now pervasive. If an unchurched person attends a perceived low-quality service, he or she may not return.
- Many church members are less friendly to guests today. I understand that this statement is categorical and not statistically verified. But I can say, after over 25 years of doing surveys of church guests, I hear more and more about unfriendly church members. So either the expectations of friendliness are higher, or many church members are really not that friendly to guests.
- Churches do not emphasize involvement in groups as much as they did in the past. Simply stated, if a person is only involved in the worship services, he or she is likely to leave the church within a few years or even months. But those involved in groups, such as home groups or Sunday school classes, have natural accountability. They also have stronger relationships to other church members that engender more frequent attendance.
- Most churches have no clear purpose. An organization without a clear and poignant purpose will have members wandering aimlessly. And many of them will wander out the figurative door of regular attendance.
- Most churches have no clear plan of discipleship. This factor somewhat overlaps with the previous issue. Church members are more likely to be faithful attenders if they understand how they can become a better disciple for Christ through the ministries of the church.
- The typical church in America is a low-expectation church. I have written on this issue extensively. And the less you expect of members, the less you will get, including attendance.
Of course, it’s easier to write about problems than offer solutions. But I will be doing the latter rather extensively in the months ahead.
In the meantime, I would love to hear from you about these eight issues.
Posted on May 5, 2014
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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83 Comments
Where I go to church in Tx many folks have no sense of community. In the past most members depended on each other like family, cared for one another and worked together as the church. But the last decade there’s been a trend where people get their feelings hurt, get angry with one member or another and just quit. They’re willing to throw away all relationships just to take their toys and go home. It’s sad and discouraging issue.
It has been 8 years since I have been to church. My reasons may be weak for some but I was deeply affected by each one. When I was 26yrs old, I was a single parent of 2 young children. I wanted more than anything for my kids to know and love the Lord like I did and still do. I was confronted by a lady who was embarrased by me because I wore pants on communion Sunday. I told her that I didn’t think the Lord cared what I wore as long as I came to church. I also reminded her that He wore a robe and sandals when He was preaching the word. Later on, when I joined another church, I was told by the pastor that I was going to hell because I was divorced. It didn’t matter to him that my marriage was physically abusive and ended with my husband having an affair. There are a couple more reasons but everyone gets my point. I give thanks to the Lord every day and give Him all the praise and glory for the things in my life. Maybe someday I will go back to church but for right now I’m going to continue with the way I’m doing things now.
Thank you for your transparency Dena! Although you have clearly walked into a couple of guilt-zones, please know that there are likely several churches near you that are grace-zones. For your children’s sake – avoid the former and pursue the latter. You will have no regrets when they are grown, and you all won’t miss out on the many benefits of the imperfect Bride Jesus died for.
No, she needs to realize that God is right where she is. This is coming from someone who spent 12 years in church only never allowed to be a part. From the beginning, the women were petty and competitive. Oh, you don’t have a child, well, we have one. Oh, now you have a child, well, we have 3. Oh, now you have 2, well, we have 7. My baby showers were sparse and the last time they gave me one was after my son was a month old. Oh, I didn’t realize you already had one and it was a boy, I thought it was a girl and you didn’t “show” as huge as we did and why we didn’t realize you were due, from the pastor’s wife. It was awful, especially when the membership was only about 100 members. But, boy did the “others” get huge baby showers. When our pastor sold our church into a bond program which was totally against what God wanted but he pushed it anyway so he could build his mega church, 14 babies died that year with a couple sets of twins that were miscarried and mine was the first and only that was full term. Please understand, our church had no prior deaths before this. Just a few months prior to that our pastor and his family was in a car wreck. Most every single elder and deacon drove 2 hours to pray them through it. Two should’ve died but they all walked out. When my son was born at 3am and we realized he was having trouble breathing, we called for support. NOT ONE PERSON showed up and not until AFTER he spent 5 hours in surgery and was taken to a hospital 100 miles away only to not make it. He was born without a diaphragm and his lungs didn’t form. He barely lived 10 hours. Not even our pastor should up until we got the news. Why?????? Our $5,000 tithe a year wasn’t enough, I guess.
Hubby served as deacon and I on praise team and I also created a nursery program for 65 children under the age of 6 that were just thrown into rooms to be merely babysat with no purpose. Even the pastor refuse to promote these little children as he felt it wouldn’t do not good and he had no young ones, per his conversation with me. When they turned 6 or 7, the children’s church didn’t want them because they couldn’t sit down. My son was 2 and my having a teacher’s heart and wanting my son to know why we were in church, I started my own ministry with his class and was able to get 3 others to help in rotation. It got noticed and I was asked to run the nursery, paid staff. Well, that worked for several months until our “pastor”, who asked me to do this, had a change of heart and felt that a mere ‘woman’ shouldn’t run a ministry and replaced me with the husband of a couple we were very close to. The day he took over I was treated like dirt. The friend became cold and wouldn’t even look me in the eye. Within a couple months, I quit and was quickly replaced by a another woman who was chomping at the bit to have my position and the nursery was never the same after that. That was one of a few reasons we left and when we did, the pastor lied about us by saying I was demon possessed and took my hubby out when he was the one who had enough. Everyone we met after that treated me with so much disdain and contempt including elders we served under for most of those years who knew us and our hearts. Needless to say, the pastor was finally forced out after his 5th affair (at least 5 we knew of and each was swept under the rug by the leadership and one was a family member), each being his secretary and not before taking most of the churches money and dividing it amongst his 5 children. To this day, that church still struggles.
We visited several churches after that and let me tell you God was not there. They sang the songs and claimed to serve Him, but they didn’t. You will know them by their fruits or lack of. One pastor claimed to be a womanizer and a alcoholic. That church folded within 3 years. Another church was built around their gymnasium. It was promoted more like a YMCA than a church. I guess people prefer fitness over God as it’s still going. Visited a baptist church. Don’t get me started on their false teachings. Homeschooled both my boys and with being president of our local Christian support group we used a quaker church, a baptist and methodist church to meet in over the last 8 years we were active. The pastor of the quaker church was not a nice man. He watched over us like a hawk the moment we set foot in there and the only activity we used his facility for was graduation and we made sure we cleaned everything before he left. He lied to me about his calendar as I tried to schedule a meeting and I saw his book, opened right there in front of me. There was NOT one entry for the day I asked for but he said that one of his members might need it that day. Found out later he only allowed us to use his facility if hopes we could provide him with more members. Didn’t work. The baptist church had issues because I wasn’t a member even though they allowed other non-members to use their facility over the years. They even allowed us to use their softball field when my church started their first softball team which I coached and played on and we didn’t have a field to practice. They quickly changed their mind when their own church team found out and threw a fit, even ran us off the field.
So, what did we do, we realized that God was in our hearts, not in a building. Took us some time, but we finally got it. He is our soul reason for being here and with that we KNOW Him. Not something we EVER found in a building called a church. No petty competitions, no stomping on people and treating them like dirt because they didn’t have a dime to put in the offering plate but DID serve in every need the church had from nursery to cleaning, you know the jobs the decent members couldn’t lower themselves to do because of some stupid spiritual gifts test they took which said it wan’t their gift. Happened to a great couple but were brought in front of the church and ridiculed for losing his job, but praise to those who finally know their spiritual gifts and can now use it as an excuse to weasel out of everything including their own children.
Does Dena need a “church” to find God and to raise her children in a Godly environment, NO!!!!! My youngest son was 6 months old when we left and never looked back and he has such a heart for God. He is almost 21 and spent the last few years letting God use him for His glory, studying and witnessing to his friends in God’s way not some beat them over their head and drag them to church like so many think that Jesus did. So wrong. My oldest serves God by helping others as an EMT and an 8 year assistant scout leader/counselor in the Boy Scouts and knows who is God is. Both boys are Eagle Scouts like their dad. We let God into our home and lives which is unheard of by today’s christian standards. We lived the example we wanted our kids to learn and grow by. Bring them up in the way they should go. You can’t do that when they are indoctrinated by the Government run school system and by godless churches. You couldn’t pay me to set foot in either let alone to send my children for “education” not to mention countless pastors are under the thumb of DHS to rat on their members for being patriots, prepping and survival and are 501-C which is also government control (don’t believe me, try promoting a conservative candidate and see what happens), not to mention caving to sodomy agendas, schools teaching common core and promoting islam . No thank you!! In essence, parents have no clue in how to live by example when they go to church on Sunday and act like heathens the rest of the week and you wonder why our kids are the way the are. They are too busy having both parents work so they have have the status to compete with their peers. Forsaking their family for things.
Churches losing attendance to me is the wheat being separated from the chaff. Those in church being the chaff and who have NOT yet learned to hear God’s voice and depend on HIm and only Him, read their own Bibles and do their own studies. Ask God and He will lead you but instead asking everyone else’s opinions. What will you church goers do if ALL your churches were destroyed and the people scattered? When will God’s people learn to grow up and stop feeding off of everyone else for “support” when God IS our support system. I know there are some good churches out there, few and far between, but they are in many cases for laying a sound foundation but after that, we are to go out, not sit back fat and happy on everyones else’s hard work. No one is going out but building their own version of Babel. Not why God put us here.
I say, Dena, you do what God is calling you to do. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Pray, seek Him and He will show you His plans for you and your family. Lean on God, not man. Amen!
Thom,
I see a lot of truth in every one of your reasons. The two reasons regarding clarity, purpose and discipleship, depend upon the perspective. I have found that often times what is clear to me is not clear to another. This seems to be a very difficult issue, too. I have had teachers who have served for years, and who have sat in training sessions and read flyer after flyer from me, who have difficulty recognizing the purpose of church education ministry. Now maybe I’m just a poor communicator, or maybe there are other competing issues vying for awareness. Or, maybe it is a result of another issue you referenced: quality. Small group discipleship is built on community, and community depends on oneness which is a function of commitment and regularity. In other words, are the higher absentee rates today having an adverse effect on quality of ministry? How about on comprehension of and engagement with purpose?
Another good read, Thom.
Mark Lindsay
I follow Paul’s writing to the Thessalonians that Christ’s return will not happen until the “falling away” or “apostasy” and the “lawless” one is revealed happens first. Fulfillment of prophecy has never been more accurate.
Another issue we have had in church attendance decline is school sports. Schools use to view Sunday as a family day or even as that sacred day most of the population attended church and would never put games or practices on that day. Now we seem to have some family gone nearly every week during their child’s particular sports season.
We have that same problem in my church and community Sara. I don’t think our culture is going to shift back in our favor however. Historically, the church has thrived when it has been forced to be counter-cultural. Some pastors fight this trend in a negative way from the pulpit, which makes the the difficult job of parenting even harder.
Thank you for your input
Great thoughts. All true in our SoCal culture. One affirmation and one addition.
I affirm the dire need for clear vision and a simple discipleship plan. Every church has the responsibility to REACH people for Christ, ESTABLISH them in Christ, EQUIP them for Christ and free them to MULTIPLY in Christ.
I would add the emphasis on church as the body of Christ and not a building (all good) has led to a “downsizing” of the value of the weekend service.
Only time will reveal the fruit of all of this. May God’s kingdom come and will be done as we all figure this out together.
I think #8 is huge. Often we think that lowering the expectations makes something easier or more accessible when in actuality people tend to live up to the expectations of a community. If a community expects little, then people will do little, but when a community has higher expectations then most people will live up to them. (The natural caveat to this is that a person must value & have some investment in the community for this to happen)
I think these are all things we generally know, but sometimes feel powerless against. It is stark reminder of the reality of what our churches and Pastors are facing. It is easy also to react in the tyranny of the urgent, and “sell out” the gospel, especially in terms of addressing number 3. It is tempting to get caught up in the pressure of justifying my paycheck/existence and do whatever is necessary to pack the pews. At least I sometimes, feel like empty seats reflects on my inabilities to lead. Certainly that is distraction and discouragement from Satan. But in the midst of all that, it is reality that we feel the pressure to keep up with the entertainment factor, and forget the power of the Holy Spirit, and that the preaching of the Word will not return void. We must remember that what the world calls success is not necessarily success to God. As Bill Stafford once said, “Jesus didn’t come to engage the culture; He came to cross it.”
You are not alone Brian, I think all of us pastors take church attendance personally. I know I do. It is one of the main reasons I dread summer. Empty seats are haunting reminder that somebody is not doing their job. And we have to look at those seats during the whole sermon!
Although we will never be able to personally pack all the pews, we can lead by example by bringing some folks who we brought into the “Father’s house” that we met in “the highways and hedges.”
I agree that all of these factors negatively affect church attendance, but the bottom line is that the Bride doesn’t love the Groom as she should, or once did. That problem and solution start with me, the lead pastor. To influence my members or community, I must take personally the rebuke to the Ephesians in Revelation 2. They had good theology, but had lost their first love.
Dr Rainer addresses this personally and directly in my favorite blog of 2014:
“I must love Jesus more deeply and tell others about Him more often… I have no proposal. I have no new programs for now. I simply have a burden.
And as a commitment to God first, but then a commitment to you, I am asking God to lead me to love Him more deeply than I ever have. I am asking God to put people in my life where I can show His love, and tell them about my Savior.”
To see the whole blog, go to the top right corner of this page to a search box that says “Search ThomRainer.com.” Put “lost love” in that box and press “go.” It will take you there.
Most modern churches are very ecumenical. Leading to a lack of doctrinal stance or teaching. My issue is that it is hard at least in my area to find a church that is both growing in doctrinal teaching and also dispensational.
There’s an axiom in the sales business that, when the client says “your price is too high”, what they’re really saying is “your value is too low”. Translation: non-attenders don’t see the value of church attendance, i.e. what they’d rather do on Sunday morning is more important to them.
It could be caused by a lot of things. Things like “easy joinism” where we let in folks who have no intention of being serious church members. Or “easy believism” where folks join without really understanding salvation and/;or the Bible. Or weak preaching that does not really engage the members.
There are a whole lot of reasons why, but I’d say we cannot really blame the members who don’t attend..
I am reminded of the story of the dog food company whose sales were lagging. They had an expert come in and analyze everything and they agreed the company had the best product, the best distribution system and the best sales force, and the most efficient production system in the business. But it took the janitor to tell them all that the problem was: the dogs didn’t like it.
One way or another, for the non-attenders, they place more value on whatever they’re doing on Sunday morning, than they place on attending. Somehow, that has to change.
Thom, I also think that many church members are exhausted with the way churches are operating, ie. committees for everything. Many churches are now calling them “Teams”, but let’s face it, call it what it really is. Certain people trying to get their ways into the church. I do speak from my own frustration with this and quite frankly, I’m tired of going to church because of it.