If you visit church websites, receive church bulletins, or travel much, you will soon realize that church attendance on Sunday and Wednesday nights is in a free fall!
So what is the problem? Why is there such a drop-off in numbers? Typically, when this question is asked, we begin to blame the people who don’t attend for their spiritual immaturity, misplaced priorities, lack of commitment, etc. While the “non-attenders” make themselves easy marks, there is plenty of blame to go around. Seldom is the leadership blamed, but that might be part of the problem. Consider these seldom acknowledged reasons for poor attendance.
- Quality. If we are going to offer a mid-week Bible study following what, for many members was a long, hard day at work, we had better guarantee that what we are offering is worth their investment of time and energy. Ill prepared teachers, irrelevant studies that lack personal application, and a format that discourages questions and dialogue all contribute to a decline in attendance.
- Mid-week attendance should be more than a “test of faithfulness” (You know, Abraham had to offer up his son, and I have to sit through this class).
- Youth driven focus is out of focus. We have bought into the idea that if we provide for the children, their parents will come. However, I believe the reverse is maybe more true. If we provide for the parents, they’ll bring their children with them. We often give the best we have to offer to our children, and just “make do” in the adult classes. We must do better than this or the adults will “send” or “drop off” their children. In reality, neither the youth nor the adult classes should be neglected. We need to invest our best efforts in both the youth and adult classes.
- Abuse of Time. Homework and bedtime schedules compete with Mid-week evening Bible studies. That’s why it’s important to respect everyone’s time. Habitually going 15-30 minutes longer than scheduled will especially negatively impact families with young children. We cannot ask for an hour of a person’s time and habitually take an hour and a half. Starting and stopping on time is a matter of respect, and when it is violated, it is resented, and that resentment is expressed through lack of attendance.
- Relationship/Community. I have visited churches that “cleared out” and “locked up” in 10-15 minutes after church is over. Pity the preacher who stands in the path to the exit doors! That says relationships aren’t being built; burdens aren’t being communicated and shared; and love and concern is not being expressed for one another. That’s a recipe for a declining, dying church! On the other hand, a church that routinely has dozens of people talking an hour to two hours after services have ended, is healthy and is meeting the needs of people who need relationship and community.
- Ruts/Tradition. I’ll be the first to admit that I like my “ruts,” but I’ll also be the first to admit that times change and so must our traditions. We have at our disposal, methods of communication and teaching that were not available to prior generations. Don’t be wedded to your traditions. Can we truly say what Paul said, “I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22)? Or would the following be more truthful, “I have become some things to all men, so that I may by some means, save some?”
- Lack of Assessment & Accountability. When is the last time we assessed what we are doing and how well we are doing it? Are we merely maintaining what was handed down to us? Have we questioned whether certain methods work or not? Have we assessed what might work best for us, and not overly concern ourselves with what works at other congregations? We should always “inspect” what we “expect.” If we have expectations for Bible study, then we should inspect how it is being done and assess where we need to make improvements. Where there is no assessment and accountability, quality wains.
As I stated, the “non-attenders” are easy marks. They’re easy to blame. What’s more difficult to admit is that we, “attenders” may have some blame to share as well. If we, “attenders,” would address some of the items listed above, maybe this would go a long way in removing obstacles from the path of “non-attenders” and help them to grow to a place where their faith is stronger, their priorities are more God-centered, and their commitment is greater.
What do you think?
I get your points. They are valid. Although our Sunday evening attendance drops some from Sunday morning, we often have more on Wednesday than on Sunday nights.
Great news Steve. That’s true at Karns too. We have over 80% return rate at those services, and more on Wed. Than Sun. P.M.
I read this article with an open mind but have to question. If it that bad why does anyone go? I am teaching a
Sunday Morning Bible Class series starting this week on making the Church stronger by being strong ourselves. The first lesson is on attendance from some scripture that I hope will help us understand how attendance for any service, Bible Class, Worship or even an evening of singing feeds our souls. The approximately 4 hours a week we spend together should be looked on as an opportunity of serving God. I know there are times that attendance is not possible like illness, work or other interruptions, but knowing what you might be missing if you are not there should bring you back.
Those are certainly valid points in which each congregation needs to consider. But nevertheless I don’t think those points are the root problem as to why the attendance is down on Sunday and Wednesday evening in the majority of our congregations. Some congregations? Sure no doubt! But I’ve been to congregations that to my estimation “has it going on!” I mean they seem to really do well at hitting their marks on all those concerns mentioned. They have a great Teacher/Preacher, great involvement and unity in Bible classes, great social involvement with one another, great evangelism works for both Adults and children, etc. To my estimation they’re doing almost everything they can do! Except one thing…church discipline! I believe if our Elders would be more proactive in showing concern for our members that are deliberately missing services and sometimes just point blank call them out on it! I believe one of two things would then happen… 1)You weed out the lukewarm Christians 2)You encourage people to be faithful in their attendance. Obviously the 2nd one is the goal. But sadly you can’t usually reach the 2nd one until the 1st one is practiced. And I don’t mean to only blame Elders…this goes the same for all of us as members! If our brothers and sisters are unfaithful in attendance…all of us should be concerned and be willing to approach and correct them…That’s if we truly love them like we’re supposed to. Obviously if this happened we probably wouldn’t have many of these great big congregations that are high in quantity with regards to members. But at the end of the day…we need to ask ourselves what’s more important …quantity or quality?
Wow. I feel like you have visited our congregation incognito. Such an apt description in this article.
Spot on brother, I feel all too often I myself have blamed the non-attendees because it is easy to do. I led a Wed night devo last week that touched this topic and I directed my focus not just at the non but also at those who were sitting in front of me and I challenged them and asked if we were reaching out and praying for those to return to our numbers or do we just sit around and point fingers and place blame. I believe we should be reaching out with love and not shame, and just maybe the response will in turn be an increase in attendance and love for the Father. Great message sir!
Great article. I agree. I will share this on the church’s private FB page.
I believe churches would be WISE to look at every angle of what we do. I have presented an idea here to get rid of Sunday PM. Currently, we only meet for 36 Sunday nights. The elder who leads singing comes in at 5:59 or 6:01, he quickly picks out his songs and leads 1st and last no matter the song. The LS takes 1-2 minutes max and by 6:07 I am told to preach. By 6:30-35 we are out.
Some elders are scared of members are other churches that may judge them harshly.
Why would you want to “weed out” any Christian?? Luke warm or otherwise?? Would you rather them just not come at all? I’m glad Jesus didn’t just love the Christians that had it all together! I’m reading a book by Bob Goff right now called Everybody Always. Once we learn to love people as they are without an agenda, I think we will be surprised at what it does to our attendance.
Could mid-week and Sunday pm attendance (lack thereof) eventually lead to sin?
Yes. Not only can it expose priority issues, but it can also expose issues with reference to the authority of the bishops/elders. Of course, we’re not talking about “missing,” but “forsaking.” There are reasons to miss (e.g. illness), there are no reasons to forsake.
I’m not sure I understand where you’re coming from when you speak of “weeding out Christians,” but I do agree that when we learn to love as we should, it will be reflected in our attendance!
You are missing the point. We are suppose to attend services to worship GOD. It’s not about us! It’s about HIM!
My thought is non attendance is a symptom not the disease! It calls for a conversation or a visit to see how the brother or sister are doing. Years ago I thought I will visit the youth in my youth group to see what is going on. My was I surprised in fact came away with a clearer view that several came without any encouragement from parents and some parents were doing all they could to stop them from coming
Thanks for taking time to reply, Ken. I don’t believe I am missing the point. Of course, we assemble to worship God. No one denied that. But it’s not an “either or” proposition as you laid it out. Our assemblies are not only for worship, but for edification as well. We’re missing the point of our assemblies when we overlook “God” as well as “the brethren” (Hebrews 10:24).
There is a drumbeat here about classes, youth activities, etc. Since there is no Command, Example or Necessary Inference in the New Testament about either of these activities, maybe the low attendance has another cause here? Perhaps the reason is many are seeing these things go beyond the N.T., and so the church that claims to only go by the Bible is being hypocritical and so the thought is, if those hypocrites are going to heaven then so am I without them? Maybe scriptural authority needs to be taught to those who show up so they can then stop their unscriptural practices and thus teach those who do not show up and be an example? Of course, the elders and teachers and preachers maybe need to also learn about and stop their unscriptural practices?
Danny, while I too would have concerns about a congregation going beyond the authority of God’s word, having classes and/or youth activities is not an example of going beyond the authority of God’s word. I would also agree that we need to teach more on the necessity of authority.
I appreciate the frustration of being more invested in the family than some members. But I’m coming to think that phrases like “There’s a lot of blame to go around” are part of the problem. What if the real problem is that we are more concerned with doing things “the right way” than with doing things well? I’m not convinced that having 2 services on Sunday is an effective way of family-building. It often feels more like sabbath observance than a life-giving assembly. I think we’ve lost track of the purpose of church. If you need evidence, watch how much faster we offer to teach a bad song-leader than we offer to teach a bad pray-er.
“How do you even teach someone to pray?” I don’t know, but it seems like one of the main questions our group was meant to answer.
One thing that happens in my area is life groups. When life groups started about 20 years ago it was working. Today, I don’t believe life groups are successful. Life groups have started to form clicks in the church building too. Fewer people are interested in going to life groups now and with churches not offering Sunday evening or Wednesday night services in our area people have no where to go even if they wanted to.
Great article Brother! A lot of great points in the replies s well. This has given me a lot to think about as I try to figure out what to do with our mid-week service.