Why Most Pastors Obsess Over the Wrong Thing

Aug 30

Conventional wisdom says focus on attendance to grow your church.

Here’s why that’s wrong.

WELCOME to this week’s newsletter, focusing on some recent data about religious attendance - and why most pastors will draw exactly the wrong conclusions from it!

The Data

Scholar and researcher Ryan Burge has just released an intriguing chart that shows survey results on religious attendance, broken down by state in the US and by nation in Europe.

Overall, the numbers shows that the average weekly attendance rate in the US is 25% and in Europe is 14%.

I don’t know for sure, but I think these numbers include not just Christians but all religions.
The stats themselves come from several big surveys.
Burge has a solid track record as a researcher and academic, and is someone I’ve followed for a while. This data is definitely worth looking at - but, of course, the key is to draw the right conclusions!

I would presume that these are self reported numbers - and to my eye they do seem to be high.

For instance, the list suggests that in California, where we live, 22% of people are going to a religious service every week. Anecdotally we’ve seen nothing like that level of engagement here in Los Angeles. Likewise, in Europe it lists Great Britain as having a 12% attendance rate. And again, from not just our experience but listening to friends and family over there, that seems way above what people are seeing on the ground.

One of the things to bear in mind is that with self-reported data there is a well known phenomenon called the halo effect. This is where people will over-report what they perceive as being socially advantageous behaviors. For instance, people who smoke are less likely to own up to doing so when they are surveyed about that. Likewise, many will overestimate their attendance at church services.

It might be better to think of this data as also including the slightly wider pool of people who float around the fringes of church life. It could be that if you added together regular attenders and fringe folks, you would arrive somewhere close to the numbers in the chart.

Also, bear in mind that the halo effect will appear in all nations and states, so this doesn’t preclude the making of comparisons between places:

Within the US, there is a vast difference in religious attendance between those who live in the Bible Belt and those who live in New England.
In Europe, you see some devout Catholic nations with high church going attendance, which are very different to the results from Scandinavian countries.
So where you live does make a huge difference in the openness of people to the church, as well as to organized spiritual experiences.

What Do We Do With This Data?

Here’s the honest reality: most church pastors and elders will completely misinterpret this research.

The vast majority of churches are still over-positioning themselves to reach the people who might show up as church attenders. Over 80% of energy, effort, staffing, and finances are centered on growing attendance at weekend services.

Don’t be one of those who looks at this data and concludes, “Let’s double-down on the Sunday-centric approach!”

That would be totally the wrong response.

Here’s why:

Even if 41% of Utah or 38% of Mississippi are committed to a local church, that still leaves 59% and 62% respectively who are not embedded in a local worshiping community. And for the rest of us, the unchurched percentage in our local area will be way higher.

This is the blue ocean of opportunity.

If we can equip our people to go - and if we’ll go first ourselves - there is a massive mission field of lost people just waiting for us.

But this will require us to stop making Sunday attendance the big metric that we constantly chase after and by which we evaluate ourselves.

Some Suggestions

We need to go where the lost are
For instance, living in California, at least 78% are spiritually unconnected, and they won’t be coming to a church service anytime soon! So the onus is on us as believers to go to them, rather than expect them to show up in a church building on a Sunday morning.
This is a huge cultural mindset shift for churches, believers, and pastors.
Your church is perfectly designed to get the results it is currently getting
If you want your church to carry on doing things as they currently are, but you expect it somehow to be more effective on mission, you are deluded!
You will not grow beyond the red ocean of those currently engaged in church attendance without being willing to change some of your current preferred ways of operating.
Many pastors and leadership teams obsess over Sunday attendance. It’s fine to know those numbers, but what you shouldn’t do is make that one of your primary measures of success and fruitfulness.
We need to focus on our sending capacity, not our seating capacity!
We need to follow Jesus’ strategy for mission
Where are the fields whitest unto harvest around you? Who are your People of Peace? In whom are you intentionally investing your limited time and energy for mission?
The essence is, look for those who are open to you, and see if they are open to Jesus in you. This is Jesus’ strategy that He gives us in Luke 10. You can read more about this in the post, 5 Steps to Spot Your Person of Peace.
Very very few Western Christians do mission the way Jesus tells us to do it - and thus very very few Christians are consistently engaged in intentional evangelism, let alone in leading someone to faith in Christ.
Ask for more of the Holy Spirit
We need a move of the Spirit in and amongst God's people, to give us a greater missionary impetus, passion, and empowering.
We also pray for a move of the Spirit amongst the lost.
The Spirit’s empowering presence is always going to be the starting place for mission. But for our part, we should be ready and willing to be openly spiritual people, especially by allowing the power of God to flow through us.

Reflect and Act.

Who are the lost people that you are praying for by name every day? There should be at least three people on that list!
How can you move towards your unchurched neighbors and colleagues in friendship in the next two weeks? Who will you text a find a time to hang out with share a meal with do something fun with?
Pray and ask Jesus to give you opportunities to pray with your lost friends, especially in ways that clearly require the Spirit of God to come. Examples of this would be prayer for healing, or for freedom from oppression.

Further Equipping

OPTION 1 - The Viral Gospel - free ebook

Download our free ebook The Viral Gospel, which gives you a full biblical and practical training on Person of Peace!

OPTION 2 - SOW: Season of Witness Course

The SOW: Season of Witness Course is a 7 session video-driven course, which develops 7 essential practices to help any follower of Jesus to become more effective on mission. It’s down-to-earth, biblical, and perfect for a group, community, or a whole church.

OPTION 3 - The Naturally Supernatural Missionary

These are two sessions from The Naturally Supernatural Course - Part D: Multiplication which train you in how to do Spirit empowered evangelism in everyday life.

Alex Absalom