Church Trends, 2000
The broad picture of interdenominational attendance, giving, member involvement and more

By RaeAnn Slaybaugh

Perhaps readers know better than anyone about the competition a Sunday service faces, from football to sunshine or even just the promise of a few more hours of sleep. In addition, around the nation, more people are foregoing church services in favor of practicing their spirituality at home.

According to a recent Detroit News article, one indicator that "home-grown religion" is catching on is the huge amount of money Americans spent on religious reading materials last year. In 1999, sales topped $2 billion and that total is expected to reach $2.3 billion this year, up some 50% in the last decade. One of the most noticeable barometers of this trend is the stellar selling power of the religious series Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, a set of thrillers based on the rapture. The sixth title in the series was recently released, and the series' popularity now rivals titles by John Grisham.

The good news is that whatever the outlet, religion remains a strong part of our culture. According to recent research, nine out of 10 Americans say they believe in God, and increasingly more believe in an afterlife (82% in 1996 vs. 76% in 1973).

And religion has proven itself--via social sciences--a rewarding practice in a number of tangible ways as well. Take, for example, the benefits cited by The Heritage Foundation, a research and educational institute, in its study, Why Religion Matters. According to the foundation, there is ample evidence that:

• The strength of the family unit is intertwined with the practice of religion. Churchgoers are more likely to be married, less likely to be divorced or single and more likely to manifest high levels of satisfaction in marriage.
• The regular practice of religion helps poor persons move out of poverty.
• Religious belief and practice contribute substantially to the formation of personal moral criteria and sound judgment.
• Regular religious practice generally inoculates individuals against a host of social problems, including suicide, drug abuse, out-of-wedlock births, crime and divorce.
• The regular practice of religion also encourages such beneficial effects on mental health as less depression, more self-esteem and greater family and marital happiness.
• Regular practice of religion is good for personal physical health, increasing longevity, improving one's chances of recovery from illness and lessening the incidence of many killer diseases.

Given all of this, it is obvious that religion remains an integral and rewarding part of life for the majority of Americans. And while this is true, not all are finding spiritual enlightenment inside the walls of their respective churches. Now more than ever, Americans are exploring alternate methods of practicing spirituality.

Pastors still understand best why attending church is important. "Grace without cost is cheap," says the Rev. Darryl Moore, pastor of St. Luke African Methodist Episcopalian Church in Highland Park, MI.

The Rev. Bruce Rigdon, pastor of Grosse Pointe Memorial Church in Detroit agrees, saying, "Christianity is more than reading the Bible and following what it says. It's a way of life, not a bunch of individuals." And attending church regularly translates much more tangibly, too, since it has been found in some studies to be the most important predictor of marital stability and happiness.

Even with compelling arguments like these, however, it may not be so easy to convince some Americans that they can gain just as much by taking their child to church than sitting them down in front of the radio for Adventures in Odyssey.

One Clinton Township, MI woman explained to The Detroit News her rationale for exposing her children to spirituality in the home as opposed to an organized religious environment. "The less you force them to do it, the more likely they are to be interested," she says. "It works for me."

Religious leaders have plenty to say in response to such statements.

"If you consider the time of your average movie, about two hours, God doesn't ask much more of you," the Rev. Moore counters. "How can we really say we have a love of the Lord if we cannot come out and spend a few hours? I don't think we should cheapen religion."

The landscape of worship is changing in more ways than this one. Whereas in one sense, it's branching into new terrain, in another, the existing landscape is simply shifting and reforming.

Church loyalty: a "modern casualty"

According Barna Research Group in Ventura, CA, it's more important than ever to learn how to attract new members and keep the existing ones because Americans hesitate less to switch churches today.

"A century ago the church that most Americans attended was virtually arranged for them at birth," says researcher George Barna, president of the company. "Church shopping was an unknown practice. You changed churches when you moved, when the church went through a split or when you entered into a 'mixed marriage.'" Today, however, church loyalty is something Barna calls a "modern casualty," and his research supports this contention. Currently, one out of seven adults changes his/her church each year, and another one out of six attends a handful on a rotating basis.

Thus, it becomes important to identify just what keeps members and seekers attending on a regular basis. So Barna then set out to determine exactly what fosters church loyalty. In the end, he identified the six most important factors for not only maintaining "brand loyalty" but attracting new members.

Topping the list were:

#1--The theological beliefs and doctrine
#2--How much the people seem to care about each other
#3--Quality of sermons
#4--Friendliness to visitors
#5--Involvement in serving the poor and disadvantaged
#6--The quality of programs and classes for children
#7--How much the person liked the pastor
#8--The denominational affiliation of the church
#9--Quality of the adult Sunday school classes
#10--The convenience of weekend service times

Aside from these 10 factors, a multitude of others were cited, each one's importance varying according to the worshipper demographic. For example, Baby Busters (ages 18 to 32) were not particularly interested in the quality of the music in worship services and adult Sunday school. Baby Boomers (ages 33 to 51) were less concerned with the extent to which the church helps the disadvantaged, convenience of service times, quality of music, comfort of the sanctuary and ease of parking. Meanwhile, Builders (ages 50-70) emerged as the group most concerned with theology and doctrine, type of music used in services and the importance of having good friends at the church.

Barna also found that education levels of respondents affected the importance they ascribe to education provided by the church. College graduates were found to be less concerned with the quality of children's education whereas those who hadn't attended college were very concerned. Non-college graduates were also concerned with the type and quality of worship music, adult Sunday school and various convenience factors from parking to service times to comfort of the worship space. College graduates, in contrast, were less concerned about each of these items as well as how much people seem to care for each other. Sermon quality also ranked low on this group's priorities.

Marital status affected prioritization as well. Single adults were found to attach more importance to music type, the amount of music used and ease of parking. This group was also less concerned about theological beliefs and doctrine and how much people cared about each other than their married counterparts.

But these results are not the bottom line, Barna explains. "[T]he big story is that people are people. They want substance from their church; they want to make a difference in the world through it; and they need to feel connected to God and to other God-loving people as a result of their church experience," he says. "If those factors are in place, people will put up with a lot just so they can have these primary spiritual needs met. If a church does not satisfy these particular needs, people will feel spiritually unfulfilled and restless and probably search elsewhere for a church home."

Attendance

Of the 1,000 people surveyed by Barna, four out of every 10 said they attend a church service on a typical Sunday. Though this figure is down from last year, it remains relatively unchanged since 1994. The least likely group to attend services is the Baby Busters (18 to 34) at 28%, compared with 51% of adults 55 or older. And while the attendance among men remains unchanged, female attendance has declined in recent years.

Overall, however, women are still more likely to attend church regularly than men.

Politically, conservatives were almost twice as likely as liberals (53% vs. 28%) to attend service every week. And regionally, the "Bible belt" areas of the South and Midwest still attract higher attendance than in the Northeast and West. Attendance averages proved higher among black churches--at 100 per service--than among white congregations (85), and suburban churches were the largest of all at 120 people per service. The smallest attendance was found in rural churches, with urban churches falling somewhere in between at 100.

Bible reading

Survey results showed 40% of adults now read the Bible in a typical week, signifying that Bible reading is making a comeback from its drop-off from the mid- to late-nineties. Barna attributes much of this growth to greater commitment among blacks, low-income individuals and men. Even so, women were still substantially more likely to read the Bible during the week, especially in the South where Bible reading is much more common than in any other region.

Giving

Additional research indicated that four out of every five adults donated some money to non-profit organizations last year, and 84% made at least one donation during the year. In another study, the group determined that 54% of all adults gave money to a church in a typical month. The least likely givers were Baby Busters at 36%; the most likely were adults 35 and older (61%).

When these results were observed in greater detail, the most likely givers were determined to be Builders (ages 54-72 of whom 93% gave); those from households of over $60,000 in income (also 93%); evangelicals (See Denominational Breakdown); and political conservatives (91%). The least likely: Baby Busters (21%), Hispanics (24%), people with household incomes under $30,000 (25%); political moderates (20%); individuals not registered to vote (24%); and adults who were not born again Christians.

The median amount of money given to non-profits and churches by the typical adult last year was $300, a 14% decrease from 1998 levels at $350 median per person.

This same study also determined that size of church and level of giving were proportional. Churches attracting limited numbers of worshippers received the least money per person. For example, churches with less than 100 adults reaped an average mean donation per person of $488 over the course of the year while churches of 100 to 200 adults attracted $794--63% more than small churches. People attending churches of 201 to 999 adults gave the most generously, contributing a mean of $1,561 in 1999. In churches of 1,000 or more members, however, giving dropped off a bit at $1,462.

Overall, the 62 churches that submitted financial statements to the Yearbook of Canadian & American Churches, 2000 (68th edition) indicates an upward trend in giving. The Yearbook, long established as an American church barometer, found that total congregational contributions and total benevolences in American churches have increased. In 1998 (the most recent data available) total congregational giving exceeded $22.2 billion, up from $21.2 billion the year before. And total benevolences in 1998 were in excess of $4 billion, up from $3.9 billion in 1997.

"If the 62 churches reporting are suggestive of the whole of the religious community, such faith groups remain an important feature of the American economy and of American philanthropy, with receipts of more than $26 billion," the YBAC states.

One surprising Barna find in the grand financial scheme: In general, the more money a person made the less likely he/she was to tithe. The results are as follows:

Volunteering

Barna's research shows that overall, the number of people volunteering at the church has declined slightly since the early Nineties. Whereas one out of four adults used to give their time and effort, this number now hovers around 21%. Generationally, the opposite ends of the spectrum indicate opposite frequency of volunteerism. Baby Busters were the least likely to volunteer (11%) while Seniors were more likely to volunteer than any other generation (33%). In the middle ground, 28% of Builders and 25% of Boomers gave their time to the church.

Expert outlook

Despite some less-than-welcome changes in the religious landscape, Barna offers encouragement to church leaders. It is important to realize that there are some signs of continued interest and growth, he emphasizes.

"The level of importance assigned by people to their religious faith is very high--two-thirds say their faith is very important to them," he says. "More than four out of five people pray during the week. Bible reading is on the increase. Half of all adults claim to have devotional or quiet time at least once during a typical week. And church attendance has remained stable while the frequency of watching television, exercising, reading for pleasure and spending time with family have all declined in recent years.

"Spirituality remains important to people, but we're still in a shake-up period where people are trying to discover how to fit it into their increasingly fragmented, busy and changing lives," Barna explains. "Few people are seeking to remove God from their life. They're just not sure when and how often they will pencil Him into their schedule."

Denominational Breakdown

While not intended to be comprehensive, comparing trends in the Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical and Baptist faiths proves useful when studying the congregational involvement in each. All information is based on 1999 studies.

Protestant

• Six out of 10 adults who attend a Protestant church are born-again Christians.¹
• 53% of Protestant adults say they read the Bible during the week.¹
• 53% of those attending megachurches (churches that have more than 1,000 adults attending their weekly services) attend a Protestant church.¹
• 28% of Protestants volunteered at the church in the past week.¹
• 47% of Protestants attended church in the past week.¹
• Protestant adults gave away an average of $1,325 to all non-profits, $1,084 to churches (82% of the overall gift).²
• Protestant median adult attendance at church services in 1999 was 90 people.³
• When asked to identify important factors in a potential church, Protestants named how much the congregants care about each other, friendliness toward visitors, quality of sermons and quality of adult Christian education.⁴

Catholic

• About one out of every four U.S. adults attends a Catholic church.⁵
• One out of four Catholics are born-again Christians.¹
• About one out of every eight (13%) born-again adults is Catholic.¹
• 38% of Catholic adults say they read the Bible during the week.¹
• 47% of those who attend megachurches are Catholic.¹
• 22% of the adult population are Catholics.¹
• 15% of Catholics said they volunteer at the church during a typical week.¹
• 49% of Catholics attended church in the last week.¹
• Catholic adults gave away an average of $846 to all non-profits, $584 to churches (69% of the overall gift).²
• 25% of Catholics earn $25,000 or less annually.⁵
• 36% earn over $50,000 each year⁵
• 40% earn between $25,000 and $50,000 a year.⁵
• 32% of Catholics have some college education but did not graduate.⁵
• 32% have graduated from college.⁵
• 35% have a high school degree or less.⁵
• When asked to identify their ideal church, Catholics were concerned with the length of the sermons, convenience of service times and denominational affiliation of the church (i.e., whether it is Catholic or not).⁴

Evangelical

• 8% of the adult population is made up by Evangelicals.¹
• Evangelicals have the highest rates of attendance (80%) when compared with Catholic and Protestant churches.¹
• 80% of evangelicals attended church in the last week.¹
• 92% of evangelicals have read the Bible in the past seven days.¹
• 81% said they have shared their faith in Christ in the last year.¹
• Sunday school attendance hovers around 60% in a normal week.¹
• 94% of Evangelicals have donated money to their church in the last month.¹
• In a typical week, 48% of members say they volunteer their time at the church.¹
• 92% of Evangelical adults say they read the Bible during the week.¹
• Protestants are more likely than are Catholics to be evangelical Christians--14% of Protestants are categorized as evangelicals compared to less than 1% of Catholics.⁵
• 7% of registered Democrats and 8% of registered Independents are evangelical Christians compared to 15% of registered Republicans.⁵
• Evangelicals are more than five times less likely than are adults nationwide to report that their "career comes first" (4% to 21%, respectively).⁵
• 92% define themselves as "deeply spiritual."⁵

Baptist

• Average Baptist attendance in Baptist services is 100.³
• The average weekly donation per adult attender at Baptist churches was $28.85, substantially higher than the national norm of $23.50.³
• When asked to identify the most important factors in choosing a church, Baptists cited how much the people care about each other; how friendly the church is to visitors; involvement in helping the disadvantaged; quality of sermons; quality of adult Sunday school; and quality of children's programs.⁴