Why Are Old Church Members Not Coming Again

Information technology comes upwards in a surprising number of conversations a lot. And no ane's quite sure how to reply to it.

The issue? Even committed church attenders are attention 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 indicate in the church over the terminal decade.

I showtime wrote about this in a post called seven Ways to Respond as People Attend Church building Less Ofttimes. But the conversation persists and, to many leaders, feels much more urgent.

This isn't a postal service about why people have left the church (that'south a different subject.) This is the first in a serial of posts about church attenders who honey God, capeesh the local church and are even involved in the local church, but who simply attend less frequently.

This topic comes upward a lot, and another resources that can help you practise a deeper dive include:

John Mark Comer on Secular Salvation and Post Christian America (Episode 316 of my Leadership Podcast)

v Ways to Embrace Infrequent Church Attenders

10 Predictions Well-nigh the Future Church And Shifting Attendance Patterns

7 Ways to Grow Church Attendance By Increasing Appointment

And then why all this attention?

This trend isn't going away…in fact (as the podcasts volition show) information technology'due south accelerating,

It impacts well-nigh every church regardless of size, denomination or even location.

It probably marks a seismic shift in how the church will practise ministry in the future.

Of course, church buildingattendance isnever the goal. But omnipresence a sign of something deeper that every church leader is going to have to wrestle with over the next few years.

The first key to addressing what'due south happening is to sympathize what'southward happening.

And so…why are fifty-fifty committed attenders attending less oft? In that location are at least x reasons.

1. Greater abundance

Money gives people options.

If your church is at all engaging the middle class, the upper-middle grade, or a suburban demographic, an interesting trend is developing. The middle class is shrinking, but as this New York Times report shows,  it's shrinking (in part) because more than of the middle class is becoming upper form. Both US and Canadian personal disposable incomes are at all-time highs.

There are only more affluent people than there were decades agone, 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.

Naturally, this leaves a huge theological void about ministry to and with the poor, but it helps explain what'southward actually happening in the suburbs and increasingly with the re-urbanization of many cities as the affluent move dorsum downtown. Please…I'm not arguing thingsshouldexist this way. I'k simply showing that this seems to exist what's happening.

And again…people with coin accept options. Technology options. Travel options. Options for their kids. 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. It'due south perchance fuelling some of the reasons outlined below.

2. College focus on kids' activities

A growing number of kids are playing sports. And a growing number of kids are playing on teams that require travel.

Many of those sports happen on weekends. And flush parents are choosing sports over church.

It'south equally unproblematic as that.

A growing number of kids play sports and a growing number of parents choose sports over church building. Click To Tweet

3. More travel

Despite ecology concerns, travel is on the rise, and well-nigh people are taking far more than than the old standard of one vacation a year.

More and more families of various ages travel for leisure, even if it's simply out of town to go camping ground or to a friend's identify for the weekend or a weekend at the lake.

When people are out of town, they tend to non be in church.

four. Composite and single parent families

Fortunately, more than and more blended families and unmarried parent families are finding a abode in church.

And so how does this translate into attendance patterns?

Church 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.

Similarly, while the flush might non exist in church building considering of access to reliable transportation, single parents (who, not always, just often, struggle more financially) might not be in church because they lack access to reliable transportation.

Then here'due south the foreign twist. People who have a car are often not in church because they have a auto. People who want to be in church building are often non in church because they don't take a car or considering it's non their 'weekend' for church.

Sadly, people who want to become to church simply can't.

Past the fashion, I lead a church that about requires a vehicle to go there. I beloved how we oftentimes see people with reliable transportation helping out those who don't take a vehicle. That'southward at least a fractional remedy to this trouble.

In a shared custody family unit, perfect attendance for a child or teen might be 26 Sundays a year. Click To Tweet

5. Online Options

With the rise of online church, social media, so ubiquitous tech, there take never been more opportunities for people to access church building without existence there.

There are pros and cons to online church building and at that place's no incertitude that churches with a strong online presence have seen it bear upon physical omnipresence.

Simply whether or non your church has online options doesn't make the issue go away. Anyone who attends your church building has complimentary access to whatsoever online ministry building of any church.

Online church is here to stay, whether you lot participate or not.

Online church is here to stay whether you lot participate or not. Click To Tweet

6. The cultural disappearance of guilt

When I grew up, I felt guilty about non being in church on a Sunday.

The number of people who feel guilty virtually not being in church on Sunday shrinks daily.

I regularly meet people all the fourth dimension who oasis't been in months but LOVE our church.

If you're relying on guilt equally a motivator, you need a new strategy. (Well, honestly, you've ever needed a new strategy…)

If you're relying on guilt as a motivator to get people to church building, you demand a new strategy. Click To Tweet

7. Cocky-directed spirituality

People are looking less to churches and leaders to help them grow spiritually, and more to other options.

We alive in an era in which no parent makes a visit to a doctor's role without having beginning googled the symptoms of a child's disease and a recommended form of treatment. Just ask whatever family md. It drives them basics. (Google, doctors will tell you, is not a complete replacement for medical school.)

Similarly, when was the final time you bought a car without completely researching information technology online?

In an age where we have access to everything, more than and more people are cocky-directing their spirituality…for better or for worse.

Similarly, another characteristic of the post-modernistic heed is a declining trust of and reliance on institutions.

The church in many people'south minds is seen every bit an establishment.

I don't actually believe that'south what a church is. I recall it's a movement…not an institution. But many churches behave like an institution, and the postal service-modernistic mind instinctively moves away from information technology as a result.

8. Failure to see a direct do good

People always make time for the things they value about.  If they're non making time for church, that tells you something.

Fifty-fifty amongst people who say their love the church and who say they honey yourchurch, if declining attendance is an issue, chances are information technology'due south considering they don't see a direct do good. They don't meet the value in being there calendar week after calendar week.

That could be because there isn't much value (gut bank check). Or it could be considering at that place is value that they simply don't see.

Either style, failure to see a direct benefit always results in declining engagement.

So what are you doing or not doing that leaves people feeling similar there's non that much value?

People make time for what they value most. If people don't brand fourth dimension for church...take notation. Click To Tweet

9. Valuing omnipresence over date

When someone merelyattendschurch, the likelihood of showing upward regularly or even engaging their faith decreases over time.

At our church, I find our most engaged people—people who serve, give, invite and who are in a community group—are our virtually frequent attenders.

More and more than as a leader, I value engagement over attendance.

Ironically, if yous value attendance over engagement, you will see declining omnipresence.

Ironically, if you value attendance over engagement, you will meet declining attendance. Click To Tweet

10. A massive civilisation shift

All of these trends witness to something deeper. Our culture is shifting. Seismically.

Church leaders who neglect to recognize this will not be able to change rapidly enough to respond to the shifts that are happening.

If you want more on how the culture is shifting, I outlined 15 Characteristics of Unchurched People Today hither and outlined 12 Cultural Trends Church Leaders Can't Ignore (But Might) in this postal service.

Change is unkind to the unprepared, so set.

Change is unkind to the unprepared. And so prepare. Click To Tweet

Have a Look At The Future

If y'all want more on the future, here are 2 resources that tin can assistance y'all go deeper.

Louie Giglio on Why People Nevertheless Attend Alive Events (Leadership Podcast, Episode 314)

five Reasons Charismatic Churches are Growing and Attractional Churches Are Past Peak

grubbsprowenties.blogspot.com

Source: https://careynieuwhof.com/10-reasons-even-committed-church-attenders-attending-less-often/