Shrinking Attendance Means Stronger Church?

I'm sitting here at Me and Ollie's in the Exeter and no one is coming over to talk to me. Finally, I have a chance to write a blog post with some information I've been holding onto for a couple of months (my, how time flies!).

Here's the question: How religious are we, really, in the United States?

According to the 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey published by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 71% of Americans believe in God but only 39% attend religious services once per week (for a state-by-state breakdown go to "How Religious is Your State?").

According to an article in the Spring 2011 edition of the Public Opinion Quarterly (as reported on March 6 by the Boston Globe), it's possible that this "lukewarm" percentage for attendance is actually inflated. POQ reports that "studies of how people use their time have found that the attendance rate is lower by 10 to 20 percentage points."

I'm not a math genius and perhaps it's not this simple, but I'm assuming this means that, in fact, only 19% to 29% of Americans attend religious services weekly. In New Hampshire and Vermont, we're talking about 3% to 13% if we adjust the numbers down from the Pew Forum survey.

And let's remember that this includes all religions, not only people who claim to be Christian and go to an institutional church.

Before anyone starts to panic, perhaps we should remember that this is measuring weekly attendance. I think it is safe to say that a lot of people who go to church these days don't attend weekly because of a variety of other commitments in life and the fact that so many other events and activities now happen on Sunday. So, one can easily conclude that while the number of weekly attenders is low, that does not necessarily reflect how many people actually participate actively in a faith community.

I want to offer two possible pieces of good news here.

First, since there is no societal expectation that one be religious today, the people who come to church actually want to be there. From my experience, they are more committed to Jesus and to the church because they are personally motivated to participate. That makes us smaller but stronger.

Second, changes in religious practice are forcing those of us who lead the church to rethink who we are and why we are here. We can't simply follow the old models and expect that it will continue to work. I hear more and more people saying it's time for those of us in the mainline denominations to wake up, to focus on Jesus, and to reach out in new ways that embody the love of Jesus in the world. The more we are talking about this, the better prepared we will be to live faithfully today and in the future.

Whatever the numbers may say, I am hopeful. I know that the falling numbers mean that many congregations are and will struggle. Some of them will even die.

But if we can open ourselves to the movement of the Spirit and redefine our communities, the church can once again flourish as Christ's body in the world. Perhaps we will not be as dominant in society as we once were. But we may just become more faithful and authentic, more focused on our mission, and more effective witnesses of the active love of God in the world.