Church attendance might not be a priority for most Americans, but their standard is high when considering someone a regular churchgoer. Their benchmark is higher than pastors, according to a recent Lifeway Research survey.
More than half of U.S. adults (53%) polled say a regular churchgoer is defined by weekly attendance. This includes 10% who say a person should attend church more than once each week. Among Protestant churchgoers, 59% of respondents agree.
On the other hand, when compared to a survey of American Protestant pastors, less than one in five surveyed (16%) shared this sentiment. Their standard for church attendance is more charitable.
“Pastors’ perspective is following the behavior they see, and they are seeing churchgoers attend less often,” Scott McConnell, the executive director of Lifeway Research, said. “But when Americans hear ‘regular churchgoer,’ they picture someone attending every week or very close to it.”
Conversely, one in five Americans (20%) polled say they consider someone a regular churchgoer if they attend 1-3 times a month. While 14% of respondents agree that attending 1-10 times a year qualifies a person as a regular church attendee. More than one-third of those surveyed (33%) define it by in-person attendance, while 27% of Americans believe people can attend in person or online.
The survey also found that while a large swath of respondents describe church as “acceptable” (38%), one in ten say church is “outdated” (11%) or “unusual” (10%). A small minority describe the religious meeting as “useless” (5%).
“While few Americans view church negatively, less than 1 in 5 see any cultural nudge from popularity or expectation to attend,” McConnell said.
To read the full report, click here.
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Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.
