Church leaders have pretty clear perspectives about low attendance days.
They know when to expect them. Some are common across different regions and cultures. Others are unique to specific localities. Most of them are painful for pastors and other church leaders.
So, when I put the question out on social media, the responses were fast, funny and, sometimes, furious. I doubt there will be many surprises on this list. They are still good reminders we are all dealing with the challenges of commitment. Here are the nine most common low attendance days in order of frequency of response.
- Spring break. “We get hit hard on both the weekend before Spring break and the weekend after. I’m ready to move to a church in a retirement community.”
- Holiday weekends. “Labor Day. MLK Day. Memorial Day. You name it. As long as there is a long weekend ahead, our folks will find an excuse to miss church.”
- Bad weather. “We don’t get much snow, so any accumulation above 1/1000 of an inch sends people to get milk and bread at the grocery store, and makes them stay away from church lest their lives are at risk with such dangerous precipitation. But they will be okay to go to work on Monday.”
- Good weather. “We miss as many folks in really good weather as we do in lousy weather. They will stay away if there is a 5% chance of rain; but they will really stay away if there is a 20% chance of sunshine. The lake calls.”
- Sports. “Travel teams. College football. NFL. Kids playing soccer and football. In the Old Testament they worshipped false gods. We still do today. They are called sports.”
- Summer. “Our attendance always takes a hit in the summer time. Vacation. Staycation. Sleep-in. When schools out, any excuse works.”
- Time change. “Let’s see how loud the businesses would scream if the time change took place on a weekday. It’s really convenient to hurt the churches.”
- Pastor on vacation. “I’m almost to the point of not letting anyone know when I go on vacation. When the pastor’s away, the members will play.”
- Christmas to New Year. “Whether that’s one or two Sundays, it’s always lousy for us. Bah humbug.”
What are the low attendance days in your church? Have you found an approach to countering these trends? Let me hear from you.
Posted on April 8, 2019
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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86 Comments
They all make sense and we experience the same. I would add the Sunday or two after Easter, along with Christmas. We’ve gone to a single service rather than two services the Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s. Having a midweek service could help with holiday’s and long weekends, as well as sports!
When we lived in one Wyoming town, opening day of hunting season was low attendance and those who were in church were blasted about it. Next town in Wyoming we lived in Pastor simply announced the previous Sunday “next week service will be after dark, at such and such campground space so and so.” Proved a high attendance Sunday. Most of us got our meat for the winter by hunting and while not in the walls of a church definitely still spent the day with the Lord. Often in the dark before the hunt there was Bible reading and praying and then the group split up to hunt. Isn’t that having church?
As to tardies: some cannot sit through a whole service and skip the music so as not to skip the sermon. Some don’t care for the music, and if it is super loud some find it painful and skip it, or refuse to ruin their own perfect pitch ears with loud services ( rock or hymns and organ, doesn’t matter which.) Some know the kiddoes cannot sit still long enough for a whole service and come for what they can. Once knew an older lady who had fallen on ice and broken her leg. She loved the Lord and loved the church. She would come (skipping SS to make the service longer) and sit in the back, staying as long as pain would allow. Last time she got up quietly to leave the pastor stated “folks if you cannot stay in the entire service please don’t come and disrupt it for the rest of us.” She didn’t go back. So sad. Knew another lady, diabetic, who absolutely had to eat at her scheduled time. If the service ran long she quietly left. Again, much chastisement.
Church services are something we offer the world, not a command performance folks must attend. Sometimes there are extenuating circumstances that make the flock miss the service just as sometimes the pastor isn’t there for a very good reason.
Rather than judge those that skip church or skip part of it, we should find out why and see what can be done about it.
We need to focus on Where Two or Three are gathered together, (who is in the Midst). The devil will do anything to draw our attention away from Jesus!
For us, a guaranteed low attendance Sunday is the first Sunday of deer (rifle) season.
I feel weird about the language of “excuse” or the implicit assumption that we have a right that someone should attend our church, that we’re entitled or that they’re compelled to come no matter what is going on. I see a couple problems in it: 1) it puts the responsibility on the attendee, as if we don’t have any responsibility to help people see that it’s worth inconvenience to hear about Jesus. 2) it assumes that not neglecting the fellowship of believers means weekly attendance, but that’s kind of a weird separation between church and everyday life.
Maybe I’m off on this, but I think we’ve got to check our hearts and not blame someone for skipping a service. If they’re doing it because of circumstances we don’t know (illness, fear of driving in snow, family connection, etc…) then it’s probably okay or even good for them to miss. If they’re doing it because church seems inconvenient or boring, then maybe we have more responsibility to fix our approach than they do to suck it up and come no matter what.
Easter is a big day.
The next Sunday after is a bummer.
Attendance drops lower than the Sunday before Easter.
I pastor a church in a resort community on the Gulf coast. Every other church’s low attendance days are our high attendance days!
In todays mixed up secular world, we need to be in the Lord’s house on every Sunday morning . We need to study, hear and apply God’s Word on a daily basis. We need to worship and to praise God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
This is our number one priority.
Some of these are just excuses, but some of these make sense. Should we really complain if families are taking weekend vacations TOGETHER, or summer vacations TOGETHER? Seems to me family bonding is a good thing, as long as it isn’t every weekend.
Bad weather? Depends on your definition. This winter it seemed we had snow every Sunday for several weeks, and a lot of snow by our standards. As our pastor said, “do we really want to ask our elderly members to come out when roads and sidewalks are in bad condition?”
Many of these excuses are lame, but a few…perhaps we need to reserve judgement.
All those and go ahead throw in Sunday night and Wednesday night services as well.
You might add – any Sunday after you have previously announced that you are going to speak on tithing.
That shouldn’t bother people since tithing was only commanded for Israel under the Law.
I like what you keep doing here CRAIG 😉
That’s a cop-out. Jesus said to render to God what is God’s. He also commended the Pharisees for tithing.
Yes Ken, you are exactly right. Except He was to talking to Jewish leaders who were still operating under the Law. Is Matthew 23:23 Jesus’ command for the church to tithe? While the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are located in the section of our Bible called the New Testament, the New Testament itself doesn’t really begin until after the cross. It is perfectly fine and correct for these books to be located in the New Testament section because they tell us how the New Testament came to be, but most of the Gospel books take place under the time of the Law.
Galatians 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law
In Matthew 8 Jesus commands a cleansed leper to obey the Law.
Matthew 8
2. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
3. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
4. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
In Matthew 23:23 Jesus is talking to Jewish religious leaders who are still under the Law.
Another cop-out.
Ken says the Bible is a cop out. The Bible says tithing was for Israel under the Law. Nowhere does the Bible teach tithing for the church because we in the body of Christ are not under the Law. Each believer gives as they purpose in their heart. On the other hand Ken would rather cling to religious tradition than believe the Bible.
Oh please. Get over it. The culture has changed from underneath you. If you can figure out how to make Sunday worship so irresistible that folks will not take 3 day weekends or vacations, tell the rest of us about it. Except if you use guilt or shame – those are out.
Get angry about greed, or poverty, or putting children in cages – now those are worthy of your ire.
The comments here do reflect a pretty low opinion of the poor dweebs who aren’t doing what their supposed to do— I.e. show up to da meetin’! One might wonder what is being taught and taught so ineffectively that it’s being ignored by so many.
More guilt! More complainin’ from up front, yeah, that’ll do it!
These people with their so poor excuses—what a bunch of losers.
Mirror? I don’t need no mirror…….
Guys (pastors)— listen to yourselves… be ashamed.
I think both of you need to grow up.