And Five Ways to Address it
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By Thom S. Rainer
Few people will argue that church attendance in many churches in America is declining. Our own research indicates that the majority of churches in our country are not growing.
Most of us have our own ideas why attendance is declining. Many have suggested that our nation is shifting away from its Christian roots, and thus the churches are declining as a smaller proportion of our country are believers in Christ.
I certainly will not argue with that premise. Certainly attendance declines are related to massive cultural shifts in our nation. But I would also suggest that one reason for declines has a greater impact than others.
The Frequency Issue
Stated simply, the number one reason for the decline in church attendance is that members attend with less frequency than they did just a few years ago. Allow me to explain.
When membership becomes truly meaningful, our churches will become an unstoppable force for the Kingdom and glory of God.If the frequency of attendance changes, then attendance will respond accordingly. For example, if 200 members attend every week the average attendance is, obviously, 200. But if one-half of those members miss only one out of four weeks, the attendance drops to 175.
Did you catch that? No members left the church. Everyone is still relatively active in the church. But attendance declined over 12 percent because half the members changed their attendance behavior slightly.
This phenomenon can take place rather quickly in an individual church. And leaders in the church are often left scratching their heads because the behavioral change is so slight, almost imperceptible. We really don’t notice when someone who attends four times a month begins to attend only three times a month. Nor do we typically catch it when the twice-a-month attendee becomes a once-a-month attendee.
Five Possible Approaches to the Problem
Of course, the heart of the problem is not declining numbers but waning commitment. As I addressed in my book, I Am a Church Member, church membership is becoming less and less meaningful in many churches. As membership becomes less meaningful, commitment naturally wanes.
While I don’t want to suggest there is a magic bullet to this problem, I do want to offer some approaches to address it. These five have proven to be the most helpful in hundreds of churches:
- Raise the expectations of membership. You may be surprised how many church members don’t really think it’s that important to be an active part of the church. No one has ever told them differently.
- Require an entry class for membership. By doing so, the church makes a statement that membership is meaningful. The class should also be used to state the expectations of what a committed member looks like.
- Encourage ministry involvement. Many members become less frequent attendees because they have no ministry roles in the church. They do not feel like they are an integral part of the church.
- Offer more options for worship times. Our culture is now a 24/7 population. Some members have to work during the times of worship services. If possible, give them options. One businessman recently told me that he changed congregations to a church that offered a Saturday worship time because his job required him to catch a plane on Sunday morning.
- Monitor attendance of each member. This approach is often difficult, especially for worship attendance. That is why the traditional Sunday school approach of calling absentees was so effective. Perhaps churches can incorporate that approach in all groups. Members are less likely to be absent if they know someone misses them.
When Church Membership Becomes Meaningful
People want to be a part of something that makes a difference. They desire to be involved in something bigger than themselves.
Unfortunately, in many churches membership has become less and less meaningful. Until we get our churches back to the committed membership the Apostle Paul mandates in 1 Corinthians 12, we will continue to see declining attendance. But when membership becomes truly meaningful, our churches will become an unstoppable force for the Kingdom and glory of God.
THOM S. RAINER (@ThomRainer) is President and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources. Read more at ThomRainer.com, where this post originally appeared.
For more on the number one reason church attendance is declining, listen to the Rainer on Leadership podcast episode on the topic.
We studied this at our church in January when our pastor was retiring.
I quit going to church because I AM HAVING FINANCIAL AND OTHER ISSUES WITH NO HELP. So I have given up hope in people, church, myself, etc
I(was) co-facilitate a men’s group in church but decided it would be best for someone else to do this.
Interesting comments, a couple of added issues. Jesus handed out some church report cards in Revelation 2, did he not? He pronounced consequences for what they were doing and what would happen if they did not change. Could it be that we are living out HIS judgement upon our churches for not fulfilling our role as HIS bride, he’s kicking out a few lampstands from under us?
Church is worship only a few hours a week, and it’s for those of the family or the active seekers, it’s not a honeycomb for a bear so to speak. Jesus attended synagogue faithfully, but the rest of the time HE was doing the work of the father.
Bottom line is we rarely do the father’s work, we think by attending worship that we can forget about the rest of the week. We make everything God but HIM.
Do you have any resources on when a husband and wife fight all the time about how much they should attend?
There seems to be several reasons why Christians have stopped coming to worship services. First, many pastors have seemed to preach topics that together don’t cover the whole Bible. The preaching is more to help the family of man not the Family of God. Fellowship on a horizontal level has become more important than the vertical one to God.
Secondly, the music leader has been allowed to change things that impact the worship of those in the pews. Everyone has forgotten that the primary congregation worship activity is singing. New songs written for soloists or small groups are often introduced almost weekly. The words are displayed on a screen with no music and really not arranged for a congregation, anyway. I have stood turned around looking at people in small, medium, and large churches. Extremely few people (I mean few in all churches) are singing. Thus, they are not worshiping either.
It is fine to have an instrumental group, but not one that beats or bellows the instruments. And why is it necessary to have both a mini choir and a full size choir all the time? Plus when the lighting on the stage is intense and the congregational lighting is subdued it seems that performing is more important than participation.
Announcements and extraneous activities must be scheduled at careful times. I have attended a church that always had a great choir introduction to the service followed by announcements, etc. that took away from the preparation for the preaching. Either then or when the preacher stood up to preach he or whoever excitedly recounted how well a particular sports team had done to the great response by some of the members in the pews. So much for a Holy Spirit led service.
Is it not time for us to return to the tried and true manner of worship service that gave us and the Lord the good results of past years. That is the three things we are here for: Win the lost; educate. encourage, and grow the saved; and bring glory to God. Sports, hobbies, and the carnal have no place in a worship service!
Amen to that! This exactly what I have thought!
Amen
I wanted to add my story here. I havent been going to church regularly due to becoming a new mother. My church helped our family through a rough time and prayed for me many times. I had made some friends over 3 years of attending. But lately it’s been challenging for me to go due to my sleep schedule with baby waking up 4am. As I am to be ready for church by 9am or 930 to get to church before it starts. I have to drive 20mins to get there and my husband works most sundays so i am alone weekends with out help with my child. My pastor call me reminding me of my membership and how attendance is very important. He reminded me of all the times the church has helped me and that he married me and my husband. I explained my attendance was due to my lateness. If I’m late by 20 mins I end up not going. I miss the sermon. I end up going to a church down the road 3 mins away just so I can attend church. I have been trying weekly . I explain this to pastor and replies with how he understands with the children he had raised but he never missed church. I personally dont feel that he is sensitive to my situation. Therefore I may just leave my membership since I cant live up to it
Please take this for what it is: a free observation. Your next to last statement is spot on: he is NOT sensitive to your situation.
Your pastor sounds like one who is more interested in “noses and dollars” and not the growth of people. In my opinion, if he (operative word) says he never missed church when his wife had their child (because she took care of the child not him) and berates you for trying to wrestle child care and church you may be better served by a pastor who shows compassion.
It sounds like church is about (1) him and (2) how many people he claims to be in church on Sunday. Sorry.
I believe the opposite is true, not enough horizontal activities. Too much vertical focus just illustrates selfishness. Not very inspiring. Help others – that’s where the enthusiasm comes from.
Ask any church member why they attend and they will tell you it is to hear Christian music and a sermon. You can hear Christian music 24/7 on the radio or TV and probably hear a better sermon there also, so why attend!! The Great Commission says to go make disciples, which so many churches aren’t doing, and we were given a motivational spiritual gift when we were saved to be used in building up the body and most Southern Baptist churches since the 60s have avoided talking about spiritual gifts out of fear of misuse. Until we get back to the basics, we will continue to decline!
Great thoughts! Yes indeed!
I totally agree with the comment above…Ditto…
I prefer to at least sing one hymn at
a worship service. Praise songs are good.
However, if you look at the congregation
during a song, many more people are
singing if it is a hymn and not a praise
song. The general public hasn’t been to
church enough to learn this new songs.
This then makes one feel as if they are
the only one singing. Many are not singing because they are unfamiliar with the song.
Does anybody never account for maybe church leadership has changed and it’s turned into a bad church experience because of the pastor? It’s like the author or other people are in denial. The pastor has a huge impact on attendance, especially at my church where nearly half the membership has stopped attending consistently. Some have changed memberships.
I grew up going to a variety of protestant churches. Long story why. Baptist, Methodist, Christian, Friends. As an adult I settled with the Episcopal denomination. Then, the past twenty years I have been Catholic.
I firmly believe that one of the biggest changes affecting every denomination, from Baptist to Catholic is the way pastors view their calling. They seem to view it as a job. A nine to five job. A career choice.
This is happening across the board in every denomination. It’s some sort of a change in social norms. I am 67 years old. When I was young, pastors modeled themselves on Jesus and the apostles. Look at all the Apostle Paul suffered and everything he sacrificed, including his life in the end. That was the ideal.
Now heaven help the parishioner that bothers their pastor after he has settled in to watch tv for the night! I think people in the pews are simply doing what their pastors do. If it’s their time off or they don’t feel like it, they don’t go.
This is an interesting topic. Not that we shouldn’t do what we can to minimize it, but if we are in the end times, as most evangelicals believe, isn’t this to be expected? I don’t believe any one solution, even when done properly, will completely resolve this issue.
Let’s start with the assumption than an individual actually wakes up and goes to church.
-Which church should they attend? Should they go to the popular one over 30 miles away, or should they go to the one in their neighborhood?
-What about worship? Old hymns, “southern gospel”, or contemporary; choir or no choir; words on a big screen, or hymnals?
-For the service, topical series, (such as loving your neighbor), or 100% scripture? Intellectually, I really like the straight scripture, but emotionally, I often also like a topic based series. A topical based series may take around 4-6 weeks (depending on the topic); but you could take months, potentially over a year, going verse by verse in scripture.
-If the service is live-streamed on the Internet, is it the same as the in-person service, or is it different?
-What about handouts? Will they be somewhat related to the service, or just another avenue of getting announcements out?
-Depending on my mood, I may prefer one of the above options one week, and another option another week. The church will often maintain the same format, but I (and most everyone else) changes; and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
Oh, and let’s not forget all the other rotten, selfish, and sinful people you have to deal with. Especially, if you are relatively new. No amount of orientation classes are gonna make up for the bigger church that is extremely cliquish, or that smaller church where most everyone has known most everyone else for years/decades…except for you…the new person.
At some point, the individual church-goer needs to take responsibility. I could use all of the above for reasons not to attend. However, I love Jesus and I love the word of God. I may not get what I want at times, but I still go.
The best thing the writer says in this article is that there is no silver bullet, “one size fits all” solution.
My opinion: #1 reason – Evangelism has gone dark. Pastors are not winning the lost to Christ, leaving a declining example for all members to follow.
As I read over these responses to the question about church attendance decline, it is obvious to me what the overriding problem is. Our society has become a “what about me” people. Grow up please! It isn’t about you. Sure you need salvation, discipleship, encouragement, but if you take the time to develop that on your own and work on your relationship with God consistently then you will discover what this Christian walk is all about. Othesr! Unsaved others to be precise. Get your eyes out of the mirror and get them back on Jesus. Sorry if this sounds harsh but church attendance will continue to decline if we all have the “what about me” mentality. Churches can’t meet all of the individual expectations, only God can.
Politics and partiality is one of the main reasons many of the Pentecostal denominations have lost many people. I’ve even noticed that many Pentecostal churches that have good music and preaching still are losing members. The problem is also the fact that they have lost a lot of the older generations to death and they are not replacing them with Gen X and Gen Y age groups who are using social media to get churches.
Interesting comments, a couple of added issues. Jesus handed out some church report cards in Revelation 2, did he not? He pronounced consequences for what they were doing and what would happen if they did not change. Could it be that we are living out HIS judgement upon our churches for not fulfilling our role as HIS bride, he’s kicking out a few lampstands from under us?
Church is worship only a few hours a week, and it’s for those of the family or the active seekers, it’s not a honeycomb for a bear so to speak. Jesus attended synagogue faithfully, but the rest of the time HE was doing the work of the father.
Bottom line is we rarely do the father’s work, we think by attending worship that we can forget about the rest of the week. We make everything God but HIM.
My wife and I have rarely attended church in the last five years. Just over five years ago I was the pastor of a small Baptist Church of moderate Calvinistic leanings.
My younger son, a good Christian man was then stricken with cancer, a brutal and cruel illness. He suffered greatly and within five months was dead, but not before he had written to the whole family urging them to trust in Christ and reassuring us of his own faith. He arranged parts of his own funeral and left letters for his little ones to be given when they were much older. He left a young loving wife and two lovely daughters, one aged 5 and the other three. We had stayed committed and hardworking in the church right up to the day our son died. The response of other Christians was generally appalling. We were surrounded by ignorant and patronising comment and question. Few condolences came from our Christian community in the first weeks. Some were marvelous in the short term, but the longer term was forgotten by the great majority.
I resigned my post in the wake of this and took comfort in the care we could give to the rest of the family. Church going is now awkward. We have become members of a club that we did not wish to join, parents who have lost a child in tragic circumstances and daily carry the consequences of that. Churchgoing becomes the experience of the leper. Few Christians have any understanding of the experience and horror of death. They forget that still it is the great enemy of all humankind. It rips and tears the heart. It is present every day in all sorts of ways. I look at my lovely granddaughters, seemingly so happy now, but we know of the moments when the memories sneak quietly up and the tears flow. I don’t want to go to a church where doubt is a sin. Nor do I want trite formulaic answers to questions we can never answer this side of glory. I don’t want magic or condemnation. Yes some have suggested that we must have committed some great sin for such a thing to happen to us. I would just love to hear some preachers and members of churches say “we don’t know the answer.”
If we come to your churches, don’t pry, don’t judge, don’t put us in a corner till you have judged us and made up your minds if we are Christian enough. Please offer us unconditional and permanent love, friendship that is neither cloying nor fading. Take us as we are and don’t try to fix us, for God will do that in his own good time.
Don’t ask if I have lost my faith, rather be to me that abiding sound of silence. Walk with me, neither before or after. Be a friend and then maybe you will see something of the light of Christ in the darkness of your lives.
George, that’s not true of all of us. Please come back, to anywhere they teach the Bible.
My opinion:
1. The prosperity gospel has No Power but its whats preached most in most congregations, all you hear about is tithes and offering except in seeker friendly churches.
2. Most people are worshipping the Pastor and has placed him or them on pedestals.
3. The truth of the Most High God is NOT being preached but a watered down, feel good sermons without any type of corrections because congregations have itching ears and will not endure sound doctrine. Pastors are afraid to address issues for fear of declining tithes and offerings which in turn now you are indirectly worshipping “Mammon”.
4. We’ve walked away from the model of the 1st Church in Acts and churches are either one of those Revalation Churches that Jesus ( Yeshua) rebuked.
5. We are living in the last days where many will fall away from the faith. The apostasy has begun. And churches are just going on with a ritual every Sunday like they have so much time, but with a shortage of Pastor preaching truth many churches have no discerment of what time it is or is it that some just dont care.