Attending Church Is About Him, Not Us

[Thousand Hills]

Here is a short, but good commentary about some recent Barna research regarding Church attendance trends. I'm sure the research crosses all denominations. Regardless, just like everything else in our society, what it means to be a church member is being redefined.

To the folks in BB land, what is your church doing well to get the point across that membership (and attendance) matters?

Attending Church Is About Him, Not Us
By Lonnie Wilkey
4/2/2014
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

The Barna Group released some interesting research last week about the church-going habits of Americans today.

More and more Americans apparently are attending church less than ever before.

According to Barna research, overall church attendance has dropped from 43 percent in 2004 to 36 percent a decade later.

What’s interesting is that the definition of “attending” church has changed over the past 10 years. According to the Barna Group, regular church attenders were defined as people who went to church three or more weekends a month or even several times a week. Now, a regular churchgoer identifies him or herself as one who attends church every four to six weeks.

Barna research also discovered that “the percentage of people who have not attended a church function at all in the past six months has surged in the last decade from one-third to nearly two-fifths of all Americans. That percentage jumps to nearly one-half of younger Americans born between 1965 and 2002.

And, we wonder why our churches are not reaching people for Christ.

For my generation (ages 50 and above), going to church was natural for Christians. Unless you were sick you went to church on Sunday.

Today, according to The Barna Group, only 49 percent of Americans say that attending church is “very” or “somewhat” important while 51 percent say going to church is “not too” or “not at all” important.

Apparently, today’s church has done a poor job of helping its members understand the importance of attending church.

I can’t help but wonder how many churches actually have in place procedures to “check on” members who are not attending. The Sunday School is a natural place, but again how many Sunday Schools actually contact the folks on their roles who do not attend regularly? My guess is not many.

It’s easy to “get lost” at church if you so desire and the bigger the church, the easier it is.

In its recent research project, Barna asked those who attend, why they did so. The responses included “I want to be closer to God,” “I need to learn more about God,” “The Bible says to be with other believers,” and “I’ve always attended church.”

The two primary answers of those who don’t attend church were “I find God elsewhere” and “The church is not relevant to me personally.” The relevance question pretty much sums up why people don’t attend church. If the church doesn’t meet their needs/wants, then they will not go. It doesn’t matter that church is not supposed to be “about me.” Too many people are looking for what the church can do for them instead of going to church to worship the Creator of the universe.

Going to church has to be centered around a mindset of “It’s all about God, not me.”

These trends will continue to spiral downward unless church ministers and lay leaders mount an all out effort to reverse these trends.

We need to show today’s world that going to church is relevant because we are praising and worshiping our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It has to be about Him, not us.

http://www.tnbaptist.org/BRARticle.asp?ID=5132

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

TH......lets be honest and admit this topic has been exhaustively discussed to death. So why are you trying to resurrect it?

 

[Thousand Hills]

TH......lets be honest and admit this topic has been exhaustively discussed to death. So why are you trying to resurrect it?

I'm trying to ask others here what is working in their churches, what are they doing differently. Is it new member classes? Life Groups? Better follow up/communication from Deacons or staff when someone doesn't come as often as they used to?

 

[plain_n_simple]

Being fed the Word, fellowship with like-minded faith, worshiping in truth and spirit, edification, going out to the world.

 

[Thousand Hills]

The Back Door

http://thomrainer.com/2011/10/10/closing_the_back_door_in_churches_four_keys/

I had an extended conversation with a pastor of a church this past week. The topic was not that different from those I’ve had with church leaders for nearly twenty-five years. The pastor’s words were similar to those I’ve heard repeated hundreds of times: “We have a pretty good front door with a healthy number of guests. And we’ve had a steady increase in our number of new members. Our problem is really not the front door; it’s the back door. If we could just keep a fourth of all those who become involved in our church for a few months or more, we would be triple our size.”

He then asked the questions I was anticipating: “So how do we close the back door? What do we do to keep people from leaving our church or just becoming inactive?”

The Trend

I wish had sufficient historical data to know when the trend began. All I know is that every year for the past quarter century, assimilation rates in American congregations have been poor. For example, in the largest Protestant denomination in America, the Southern Baptist Convention, the reported membership is over 16 million. The realistic membership is around 12 million, and the average weekly attendance is 7 million. So the largest denomination cannot account for four million of its members. Less than half of the members attend on a given week. And millions more have been lost who are no longer on the membership rolls.

And that’s the report of just one denomination.

Of course, aggregate numbers of denominations are nothing more than the sum of the local congregations. The problem of the open back door is endemic to hundreds of thousands of churches.

The Solution

In our research of thousands of churches, we have found four common characteristics of congregations that have effective assimilation by almost any metric. But these churches that have effectively closed the back door are few in number, suggesting that the solution is easier said than done. Look at the four keys to effective assimilation. They are obviously not mutually exclusive.

Key #1: Membership high expectations. More is expected of members in high assimilation churches. Church discipline is more likely to be exercised in these churches as well. These churches typically have required entry point or membership classes. Becoming a part of these congregations is more than completing a card or walking an aisle. Members are expected to be involved and stay involved.

Key #2: Small group involvement. A concerted effort is made to get members and attendees involved in small groups. The form of the group may be a Sunday school class, a home group, or a small group meeting elsewhere. The key is to get people connected to others, typically in weekly groups. The majority of small groups study the Bible or biblically related material.

Key #3: Ministry/missons involvement. High assimilation churches encourage people to be involved in ministry. A few even require ministry involvement prior to accepting someone into membership. Members who are involved in missions and ministry feel connected to the church. The Millennial generation, those born between 1980 and 2000, will not likely stay with a church at all if they are not involved in the ministries and missions of the church.

Key #4: Relational connections. In any organization, people stay connected more to other people than the organization itself. We are relational creatures. Local congregations are no exceptions. People are more likely to stay connected to the church if they have developed meaningful friendships and relationships with others in the church.The Practice

If these four keys are the solution to assimilation problems, why do relatively few churches practice them? Simply stated, the solutions require hard work. Often getting people in the front door is easier than keeping them from leaving through the back door.

Also, many churches have established traditions of low expectations. Changing almost anything, particularly expectations of members, can be a challenge. Members who came into the church with low expectations often resist the change. Their desired comfort is greater than their concern for the overall health of the congregation.

Our most recent research indicates that the American population as a whole is not resistant to visiting a church. The potential for an open front door is good. The greater challenge may be closing the backdoor.

And that challenge can only be met if congregations are fundamentally willing to change their attitude of “we’ve never done it that way before.”

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

I'm trying to ask others here what is working in their churches, what are they doing differently. Is it new member classes? Life Groups? Better follow up/communication from Deacons or staff when someone doesn't come as often as they used to?

So....is this an SBC/PROGRAMS Based orientation type question?

 

[Thousand Hills]

So....is this an SBC/PROGRAMS Based orientation type question?

No, its a hey we realized there was a problem. We took steps to address the issue, here's how we did it, type question.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

No, its a hey we realized there was a problem. We took steps to address the issue, here's how we did it, type question.

Are confident you have enough data to come up with the right diagnosis? Also, would you liken this to a Return on Investment synario?

 

[salzer mtn]

I sometimes go and visit the churches I use to attend when they have a revival and the things that use to be the norm with me are like a sore thumb that get's your attention. The attendance board that some churches worry over each Sunday and if attendance or offerings are down it ruins their whole Sunday for some people. The testimony services and special singing that are nothing more than competition to see who is more Godley. The altar calls where the whole church prays out loud and you really can't concentrate to get your mind on praying. The altar call to the lost at the end of the service that the evangelist uses pear pressure or guilt trips as the means to get someone to come. Then when a person does come and the church comes around the old fashion altar as they call it to pray for them, and at the end of the prayer time which last no longer than five minutes seems like the sinner is programed or this is the Q for them to get up and confess jesus which they do. I'm glad the Lord brought me out of will worship into a church where the gospel is preached each Sunday without all the bells and whistles.

 

[Revmitchell]

Attending church is about Him and not us. It is not about finding the kind of worship style we want or prefer but it is about giving Him our worship. It is not about what we can get out of church it is about what we can give God which is our worship.

The difficulty becomes when lost people and even young Christians begin to choose to attend church they do not nor can they understand this. It needs to be taught and practiced in our churches. The question is how can we do that and retain the people.

 

[righteousdude2]

Thanks....

Here is a short, but good commentary about some recent Barna research regarding Church attendance trends. I'm sure the research crosses all denominations. Regardless, just like everything else in our society, what it means to be a church member is being redefined.

To the folks in BB land, what is your church doing well to get the point across that membership (and attendance) matters?

....this has more truth in it's core than anything I've seen in a while! :thumbsup:

As a pastor, the reason I was so nervous about Sunday services, or any service held, was because it was being held for Him, and I just wanted it to be all it could be to glorify Him, and feed those in attendance! It was never about me, my messages, the songs, the prayers, testimonies. It was to lift up Jesus so that in turn, his people would be lifted up,too! :thumbsup:

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

I sometimes go and visit the churches I use to attend when they have a revival and the things that use to be the norm with me are like a sore thumb that get's your attention. The attendance board that some churches worry over each Sunday and if attendance or offerings are down it ruins their whole Sunday for some people. The testimony services and special singing that are nothing more than competition to see who is more Godley. The altar calls where the whole church prays out loud and you really can't concentrate to get your mind on praying. The altar call to the lost at the end of the service that the evangelist uses pear pressure or guilt trips as the means to get someone to come. Then when a person does come and the church comes around the old fashion altar as they call it to pray for them, and at the end of the prayer time which last no longer than five minutes seems like the sinner is programed or this is the Q for them to get up and confess jesus which they do. I'm glad the Lord brought me out of will worship into a church where the gospel is preached each Sunday without all the bells and whistles.

hmmmm....thats interesting Salzer.....I feel the same way. The difference is that I was raised Roman Catholic & today if I go in I see empty rituals & not deep prayer & worship. The one thing I did like was that the Catholic Priests of the day got off their keisters & did visitations. They actually payed house calls! When was the last time you had a visit from your Pastor? Then I also remember a Presbyterian Pastor who payed a night visit to a man that recently lost his wife to cancer.....a young guy with two young kids to raise, but he took to drinking & Pastor Little went to the guys house late at night to pay him a visit. He also met with him almost daily & had the towns people watch over the family......the man would always get dinners brought to the family....this went on for years & today this fellow is clean & sober, remarried, runs a successful business & his kids are grown & have their own place in society. He is also a Committed Christian (Presbyterian). :thumbsup:

 

[JamesL]

I think the original question and a few of the replies are off the rails a little.

A couple of years ago, I really began to reflect on church attendance. It was after I went out of town to work at my brother's church for a week, then stay another week for vacation.

What I noticed is that the people of his church don't "attend" church. They ARE the church. How can you attend yourself? The answer is - You can't.

The church needs to stop referring to church as "attendance" and start emphasizing the Body of Christ.

Many members, all with various functions. Bearing each others' burdens, becoming like brothers and sisters (because we are).

 

[Revmitchell]

I think the original question and a few of the replies are off the rails a little.

A couple of years ago, I really began to reflect on church attendance. It was after I went out of town to work at my brother's church for a week, then stay another week for vacation.

What I noticed is that the people of his church don't "attend" church. They ARE the church. How can you attend yourself? The answer is - You can't.

The church needs to stop referring to church as "attendance" and start emphasizing the Body of Christ.

Many members, all with various functions. Bearing each others' burdens, becoming like brothers and sisters (because we are).

This is silly. What is meant by attending church is coming to corporate worship and any functions of the corporate body.

 

[prophet]

I think the original question and a few of the replies are off the rails a little.

A couple of years ago, I really began to reflect on church attendance. It was after I went out of town to work at my brother's church for a week, then stay another week for vacation.

What I noticed is that the people of his church don't "attend" church. They ARE the church. How can you attend yourself? The answer is - You can't.

The church needs to stop referring to church as "attendance" and start emphasizing the Body of Christ.

Many members, all with various functions. Bearing each others' burdens, becoming like brothers and sisters (because we are).

I agree. This belief is the true belief.
The church is my family.

Yesterday, I had a church member over for Bible study at my house.
I also gave another church family some help with a problem in their house (remodeling) and their paperwork for submission to insurance.
The day before, a church family stopped by my house, and dropped off a few grocery items...milk, eggs, cheese...
Another member called me to praise the Lord about his employer moving up his start date 2 weeks. We had prayed together corporately for weeks concerning this.
Another family, who asked me to pray with them about finding a house, Sunday before last, were all excited when they got into their dream house...it really is nice! They had to call on a weekday to share this.

This is our life.
I'm not an officer in the church, I'm just an affiliated missionary.

I don't "attend church", I assemble with my family.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

There is a fallacy in the reasoning of the Barna Group survey and in much of the commentary surrounding it. Two years ago, Ross Douthat wrote in The New York Times that the Presbyterian USA and Episcopalian conventions that year didn't "“seem to be offering anything you can’t already get from a purely secular liberalism.” In other words, why bother going to such a church when you can get more at the Rotary Club or your favorite sports bar? The same week, Gallup released a new poll showing that Americans have decreasing faith in organized religion as an institution.

That doesn't accurately reflect what's going on in U.S. churches, though. The Big Unknown is the nondenominational and independent churches that are becoming focal points of worship in this nation. Hartford Institute for Religion Research found in 2010 that "over 35,000 independent or nondenominational churches representing more than 12,200,000 adherents. These churches are present in every state and in 2,663 out of the total of 3,033 counties in the country, or 88% of the total." That's an impressive number of church attendees in a significant segment of U.S. society.

And they don't report their numbers. Why? Because they aren't affiliated in any way shape or form with any national association, convention, or organization. And Barna in particular, but also Gallup, don't bother counting them, because there is no easy way to do so.

Americans are getting fed up with so-called "mainline Protestant churches." That doesn't include the Baptists denominations, folks, because whether you want to buy this or not, Baptists aren't Protestant. (If you want to argue, start yet another insipid thread on that subject.) The Baptist congregations in the SBC in particular, but also in some other variants of Baptist imperative churches, are holding steady, within a handful of percentage points of where they were 30 years ago, if not growing.

The "mainline Protestants" are the ones preaching a message you can get in the aforementioned Rotary Club or sports bar. They aren't preaching the gospel and while it is often said on this board that the American people "just want their ears tickled," there is a significant number of them that aren't there yet, who want to hear the gospel of Christ, who want to hear from the pulpit how to live that gospel out, and who want to bring that message to their family, friends, and neighbors.

The people interviewed in the Barna Group survey attend those "mainline" churches. Of course they don't attend more than once every four to six weeks. There's nothing to go to church for at those institutions! But there is at the Baptist churches, there is at the nondenominational churches, which surprisingly, according to Hartford Institute, are mostly led by Reformed, Evangelical Free, SBC or other conservative Baptist seminary pastors and staff.

So accept a false conclusion and wring hands and cry "O woe is us," because of the lies if you wish. Or we can choose to serve the Lord, help our brothers and sisters get through the difficult times, lead the unbeliever to Christ, and do God's work, knowing there are churches to support them with the truth scattered all over the place, and willing to do the hard work.

 

[Thousand Hills]

There is a fallacy in the reasoning of the Barna Group survey and in much of the commentary surrounding it. Two years ago, Ross Douthat wrote in The New York Times that the Presbyterian USA and Episcopalian conventions that year didn't "“seem to be offering anything you can’t already get from a purely secular liberalism.” In other words, why bother going to such a church when you can get more at the Rotary Club or your favorite sports bar? The same week, Gallup released a new poll showing that Americans have decreasing faith in organized religion as an institution.

That doesn't accurately reflect what's going on in U.S. churches, though. The Big Unknown is the nondenominational and independent churches that are becoming focal points of worship in this nation. Hartford Institute for Religion Research found in 2010 that "over 35,000 independent or nondenominational churches representing more than 12,200,000 adherents. These churches are present in every state and in 2,663 out of the total of 3,033 counties in the country, or 88% of the total." That's an impressive number of church attendees in a significant segment of U.S. society.

And they don't report their numbers. Why? Because they aren't affiliated in any way shape or form with any national association, convention, or organization. And Barna in particular, but also Gallup, don't bother counting them, because there is no easy way to do so.

Americans are getting fed up with so-called "mainline Protestant churches." That doesn't include the Baptists denominations, folks, because whether you want to buy this or not, Baptists aren't Protestant. (If you want to argue, start yet another insipid thread on that subject.) The Baptist congregations in the SBC in particular, but also in some other variants of Baptist imperative churches, are holding steady, within a handful of percentage points of where they were 30 years ago, if not growing.

The "mainline Protestants" are the ones preaching a message you can get in the aforementioned Rotary Club or sports bar. They aren't preaching the gospel and while it is often said on this board that the American people "just want their ears tickled," there is a significant number of them that aren't there yet, who want to hear the gospel of Christ, who want to hear from the pulpit how to live that gospel out, and who want to bring that message to their family, friends, and neighbors.

The people interviewed in the Barna Group survey attend those "mainline" churches. Of course they don't attend more than once every four to six weeks. There's nothing to go to church for at those institutions! But there is at the Baptist churches, there is at the nondenominational churches, which surprisingly, according to Hartford Institute, are mostly led by Reformed, Evangelical Free, SBC or other conservative Baptist seminary pastors and staff.

So accept a false conclusion and wring hands and cry "O woe is us," because of the lies if you wish. Or we can choose to serve the Lord, help our brothers and sisters get through the difficult times, lead the unbeliever to Christ, and do God's work, knowing there are churches to support them with the truth scattered all over the place, and willing to do the hard work.

Not sure where to start with your post. But here goes.

- I agree that "mainline denoms" are off course. Maybe a good thing that attendance is down there. They have left their first love, but, it should be a warning to the SBC and faithful Baptist churches as well. All I'm saying is lets be proactive rather than reactive. The OP was not to "bash" but what can we do better?

-I'm assuming the author of the article in the original post got his information from this https://www.barna.org/barna-update/...ided-on-the-importance-of-church#.U0gbjItOWM8 He probably had the full research and what is online at Barna is only a snippet, regardless I don't see where they only interviewed folks from mainline denoms as you insist, it says all Americans.

The Baptist congregations in the SBC in particular, but also in some other variants of Baptist imperative churches, are holding steady, within a handful of percentage points of where they were 30 years ago, if not growing.

We've discussed this before and you continue to insist that everything is okay, no worries. Please give me your take on this blog post which includes stats from Lifeway. You did not get a chance to comment on it when I posted it in a now closed thread. http://sbcvoices.com/the-bleak-future-of-the-sbc/

 

[Thousand Hills]

I think the original question and a few of the replies are off the rails a little.

A couple of years ago, I really began to reflect on church attendance. It was after I went out of town to work at my brother's church for a week, then stay another week for vacation.

What I noticed is that the people of his church don't "attend" church. They ARE the church. How can you attend yourself? The answer is - You can't.

The church needs to stop referring to church as "attendance" and start emphasizing the Body of Christ.

Many members, all with various functions. Bearing each others' burdens, becoming like brothers and sisters (because we are).

I tend to agree with what you are saying here. Is church a place we "go to" or a place we "go from"?

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

-I'm assuming the author of the article in the original post got his information from this https://www.barna.org/barna-update/...ided-on-the-importance-of-church#.U0gbjItOWM8 He probably had the full research and what is online at Barna is only a snippet, regardless I don't see where they only interviewed folks from mainline denoms as you insist, it says all Americans.

I know it does, but Barna is biased, being a big supporter of the house-church movement. He knows he can get bleak numbers by slanting his surveys with responses only from those so-called "mainline churches." That's exactly what he does, and his results claim to paint a bleak picture for established churches in general, when he hasn't actually included a big portion of established churches or church-goers in his statistics.

We've discussed this before and you continue to insist that everything is okay, no worries. Please give me your take on this blog post which includes stats from Lifeway. You did not get a chance to comment on it when I posted it in a now closed thread. http://sbcvoices.com/the-bleak-future-of-the-sbc/

I realize there are those within the SBC who view its slow growth as predicting a "dire future" for the denomination. That fact is, out of all the denominations in the country, it is the only one actually growing. Slowly, yes, but it is growing in membership, though over the last few years, average attendance is down somewhat. Still, it is the only denomination that is gaining in affiliated churches -- i.e., there are more SBC churches. A great deal of the declining attendance is found in the definition of what constitutes "regular attendance." Gallup gives a narrow range that requires "regular" to be defined as "weekly." While that's ideal, it isn't the nature of today's churchgoer and that nature doesn't represent the apathy many -- and I'm thinking you are included in this grouup -- seem to believe it is.

 

[Thousand Hills]

I know it does, but Barna is biased, being a big supporter of the house-church movement. He knows he can get bleak numbers by slanting his surveys with responses only from those so-called "mainline churches." That's exactly what he does, and his results claim to paint a bleak picture for established churches in general, when he hasn't actually included a big portion of established churches or church-goers in his statistics.

Okay, I remember this claim being made on another thread. If you want to stick to that assertion fine with me. I'll leave you with this Barna funny from the Sacred Sandwich http://sacredsandwich.com/archives/2309