Church Attendance Falls to 11-Year Low

Despite the fact that 82% of Americans say they are Christians, church attendance has hit an 11-year low after an unbroken five-year slide, a new survey by a leading religious research group has found.

The findings, announced this week, contradict a widespread impression among many evangelical and Pentecostal Christians that the nation is on the verge of a national revival. They have pointed to the growth of Promise Keepers, a Christian men’s movement; a worldwide prayer movement; and efforts at racial reconciliation as evidence of the impending renewal.

But George Barna, who heads Barna Research Group Ltd. of Glendale, said new polling completed in January belies that assumption.

Fewer than four out of 10 Americans, 37%, said they had attended church within the last week, Barna reported. Their responses marked the fifth consecutive year that attendance has declined. In 1991, 49% said they had attended church within the last week.

Over the last several years, Barna has been particularly skeptical of claims of church growth, even though as an evangelical Christian he has said that he heartily hopes for it.

But as recently as last week, when he spoke to a seminar in Nashville, Barna warned that in view of social trends the United States faces one of two scenarios in the next five to 10 years: moral anarchy or spiritual revival, according to the Associated Baptist Press.

“If I were a betting person, I would bet on the fact that we are going to see massive moral anarchy take over our country,” the Baptist news service reported.

Barna said that although some churches have seen growth, overall there has been no increase in the number of people becoming Christians. He said that 70% to 80% of new church members have transferred from another congregation.

In his latest poll released this week, Barna said church attendance dropped most significantly among baby boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964. Among this group, his survey found that only three in 10 boomers, 31%, had attended church in the last week. By comparison, the boomer attendance numbers averaged 42% between 1992 and 1995, and were 50% in 1990.

Attendance by so-called baby busters--ages 18 to 30--remained about the same, with one out of three, or 34%, attending church in the last week.

Barna said the one stabilizing force remained: churchgoers age 50 or older. But even their attendance has declined to 46% this year from 52% in 1991.

Attendance of senior citizens, age 69 or older, dropped to 48% this year, compared to 69% in 1991.

“Because boomers and busters together represent nearly two-thirds of the adult population, they still appear to be well-represented in the pews, even though only a third of them are showing up on a typical Sunday morning,” Barna said. “Their sheer numbers may mask the harsh reality: the Christian church experience leaves most of them cold.”

Barna’s findings are based on a nationwide telephone survey of 1,004 adults, ages 18 and older. The margin of error, he said, is plus or minus 3 percentage points, with a 95% confidence level.

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Church Attendance Down

Despite a widely held impression among some Christians that the country is on the verge of a religious revival, a new poll by Barna Research Group Ltd. of Glendale has found that weekly church attendance has hit an 11-year low. Baby boomers, ages 30 to 49, lead all other age groups in skipping church. Here are some samples from the survey:

In the last seven days, did you ...?

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‘91 ’92 ’93 ’94 ’95 ’96 Attend a church service 49% 47% 45% 42% 42% 37% Attend a Sunday school 23% 22% n/a 21% 17% 17% Attend a small group 24% 25% 16% 12% 18% 17% Volunteer to help a church 27% 24% 24% 25% 22% 21%

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Church attendance by generation

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Age group ’91 ’92 ’93 ’94 ’95 ’96 18 to 30 35% 36% 38% 33% 30% 34% 31 to 49 50% 40% 43% 41% 43% 31% 50 to 68 52% 60% 50% 50% 44% 46% 69 and over 69% 54% 52% 44% 54% 48%

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