![]() People who have a car are often not in church because they have a car. Similarly, while the affluent might not be in church because of access to reliable transportation, single parents (who, not always, but often, struggle more financially) might not be in church because they lack access to reliable transportation. So how does this translate into attendance patterns?Ĭhurch leaders need to remember that when custody is shared in a family situation, ‘perfect’ attendance for a kid or teen might be 26 Sundays a year. Blended and single parent familiesįortunately, more and more blended families and single parent families are finding a home in church. When people are out of town, they tend to not be in church. More and more families of various ages travel for leisure, even if it’s just out of town to go camping or to a friend’s place for the weekend or a weekend at the lake. More travelĭespite environmental concerns, travel is on the rise, and most people are taking far more than the old standard of one vacation a year. A growing number of kids play sports and a growing number of parents choose sports over church. And affluent parents are choosing sports over church. And a growing number of kids are playing on teams that require travel. Higher focus on kids’ activitiesĪ growing number of kids are playing sports. It’s perhaps fuelling some of the reasons outlined below. And, arguably, that affluence may be one of the factors moving them further away from a committed engagement to the mission of the local church. I’m simply showing that this seems to be what’s happening.Īnd again…people with money have options. Please…I’m not arguing things should be this way. Naturally, this leaves a huge theological void about ministry to and with the poor, but it helps explain what’s actually happening in the suburbs and increasingly with the re-urbanization of many cities as the affluent move back downtown. There are simply more affluent people than there were decades ago, which may in part explain why so many “average’ people indulge their obsessions with granite countertops, designer homes, and decent cars, even without being mega-wealthy. Both US and Canadian personal disposable incomes are at all-time highs. ![]() The middle class is shrinking, but as this New York Times report shows, it’s shrinking (in part) because more of the middle class is becoming upper class. If your church is at all engaging the middle class, the upper-middle class, or a suburban demographic, an interesting trend is developing. So…why are even committed attenders attending less often? There are at least 10 reasons. The first key to addressing what’s happening is to understand what’s happening. ![]() But attendance a sign of something deeper that every church leader is going to have to wrestle with over the next few years. Of course, church attendance is never the goal. It probably marks a seismic shift in how the church will do ministry in the future. It impacts almost every church regardless of size, denomination or even location. This trend isn’t going away…in fact (as the podcasts will show) it’s accelerating, John Mark Comer on Secular Salvation and Post Christian America ( Episode 316 of my Leadership Podcast)ĥ Ways to Embrace Infrequent Church Attendersġ0 Predictions About the Future Church And Shifting Attendance Patternsħ Ways to Grow Church Attendance By Increasing Engagement This topic comes up a lot, and some other resources that can help you do a deeper dive include: This isn’t a post about why people have left the church (that’s a different subject.) This is the first in a series of posts about church attenders who love God, appreciate the local church and are even involved in the local church, but who simply attend less often. But the conversation persists and, to many leaders, feels much more urgent. I first wrote about this in a post called 7 Ways to Respond as People Attend Church Less Often. Sure, the trend has been happening for years (gone are the days when people attended 50 out of 52 Sundays), but the issue has reached a tipping point in the church over the last decade. The issue? Even committed church attenders are attending church less often. And no one’s quite sure how to respond to it. It comes up in a surprising number of conversations a lot.
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