Falling Attendance
Falling attendance was on the minds of many pastors I spoke with this summer. In more than fifty conversations over a two-month period, I was able to hear about concerns such as isolation, leadership development, and business skills, but another common topic was the lack of people coming to church. Below you will be able to read what so many of them were saying about this challenge.
Frequency
One reason that church attendance is lower than in previous decades is that the people who do attend church are not coming as often. Regular church can be anywhere from once a month to once every six weeks. Committed attendance isn’t weekly attendance.
People go every other week and consider themselves fully committed, but it's hard to get any movement with partial church attendance.
Fewer people every week means that pastors are not as bold in requesting participation from the congregation.
The drop in attendance shook our confidence. We are more careful about what we say, and not in a good way.
This may cause a pastor to consider their highest attendance priority.
Faithfulness is valued higher than effectiveness. Not every church wants to change to be more effective.
Covid
The pandemic of 2020 continues to have lingering effects.
Our attendance has gone from 800 to 400 weekly since COVID.
Some people may have been looking for a reason to go to church less or not at all.
Covid became an easy exit ramp from the church.
Some people have used Covid as a reason to leave the church.
The word ‘apathy’ describes many people who previously were regular church attendees.
There is an interesting apathy after Covid, even though it's mostly over.
Post-COVID, there is an apathy about church. They either watch online or leave altogether. They are asking why they should reengage.
Online Church
The pandemic resulted in many churches moving to a stronger online presence to serve people from a distance, but there are still many empty seats after restrictions have been lifted.
There is an influx of "at home" people online. This leads to empty churches, and the online watchers see no one in the pews.
An empty church will weigh heavily on the mind and heart of a pastor.
When people don't see other people and feel like everyone is leaving the church, they see the pastors as failures. It feels like my failure.
Other Activities
Some pastors feel that low attendance is the result of all the other activities that are now being scheduled during Sunday mornings or events that consume an entire weekend.
People aren't committed to the church. They are committed to youth sports and travel teams.
People are always busy. There are too many activities, and they are often on the road on Sunday mornings.
Younger Generation
Many pastors have noticed that the population of people in church is older than years ago.
All churches are getting older and more gray. They have less energy and are less engaged.
Churches are dealing with aging populations. How do we serve an older congregation and reach out to younger people?
The programs and services of the church might be great, but the aging population creates a grim forecast for the future.
We can be a healthy organization and be dying as a church in our community.
If congregations are aging, there is a need for more young people.
No one is talking about the elephant in the room - the kids are missing. There is a whole generation of people not in church.
Outreach
The answer to low attendance is outreach, but knowing how to do outreach can be a struggle for pastors.
Most pastors don't know how to help people on the outside of the church. We don't bring people along. We've lost the ability of invitation without expectation.
We can't make disciples from behind a podium. There are ten thousand pedagogues in our denomination and no fathers.
There could be other forces keeping attendance low.
The boards and elders steer the people so that we have inward-turned congregations.
Just talking about the need for outreach can be a step in the right direction.
I have an older congregation, but we are constantly asking ourselves who is interacting and having relationships with young families. This helps our outreach.
We need a clear plan of what to do if someone new walks through our doors.
Some pastors may have fear about having a larger congregation.
I like to connect with lots of new people, but that means more pastoral care. There's a threshold What happens when we're too big?
The growth of our church is a mark against us. Others say they have theological superiority, but they put in a fraction of the effort into outreach.
Attendance could be the wrong indicator to track.
Engagement has to be a higher priority than attendance. Some pastors are reenergized by trying new ways. Others don't yet have the luxury of retirement.
Intentional discipleship could be a way to build on strong engagement.
Discipleship is the key. If we disciple people in the church, they will evangelize effectively.
Closing Thoughts
You do not have to look far to find evidence to support falling church attendance in the United States, but that is no reason to lose hope. We do not have the power to control all the things that happen to us, but we do have the power to choose how we respond. Each local situation is different, and the Holy Spirit is active and at work in each of them. Our hope does not rest in full churches or a dominant Christian culture; our hope is in Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. To learn more about how you, as an individual, can have more confidence and clarity in your ministry despite lower church attendance in America, please Contact Us.
