Why Committed Church Members are Attending Less

The reasons and impact of emerging attendance trends --and what they might mean for Sunday School

The 2020-22 COVID pandemic upended a lot of things, including how and where many people work, and how, where, and how often people worship. Habits were broken, trends accelerated, new concerns are with us. And all of this was taking place in a church attendance landscape that was already under pressure and heading south.

As you can read above in several of this post's topics, we've been thinking forward about what all this means for Sunday School --and what we can do to adapt.

Clarity around the challenge is always helpful, and in that respect, I continue to find church consultant and pastor Carey Nieuwhof's wisdom very helpful. In May 2022, he published this follow-up titled, "10 Reasons Even Committed Christians Are Attending Church Less Often." I'm posting my highlights with some comment below. You can read his full article here.  You may also like his article on "Embracing Infrequent Attenders."

1. People have more options than ever before.
Options are not a bad thing. Lack of priorities is. Nieuwhof attributes these options to increased affluence. I would also attribute "more options" to everything being open on Sundays. Some of us oldsters can still remember when almost NOTHING was open on Sunday.

2. More focus on kids' activities
Nieuwhof attributes this to the growing number of sports activities, however, I believe its more likely the result of the decades-long campaign by good people and churches to "make kids and family a priority." Careful what you wish for, huh?

3. More Travel
One simply has to look at the rise of B&B, AirBnB, and the airline industry to see this truth. These schedules affect the time and energy of families, whether the kids are doing the travel or not.

4. More Blended and single-parent families
More kids are split between parents these days, and that means different priorities and transportation needs.

5. Online Options
I doubt this is a major effect on attendance, but it does speak to the "more options" issue. Today, your high school class has to compete with kids wanting to just browse the internet and watch tik tok.

6. The cultural disappearance of guilt
I personally think this is a MAJOR contributing factor, and see it in a two-fold way. (a) We've property taught that attendance does not equal salvation --and they've heard us. (b) Taking a Sunday off from church is so common that people don't feel embarrassed to be seen doing something else on Sunday morning. Nobody is afraid of the "devil" anymore.

7. The rise of self-directed spirituality
We've encouraged generations to seek God in their daily lives, and that has also translated into "don't need it from the church as much."  This "spiritual but not religious" statistic has been increasing for several decades. Maybe if the church became more of a training ground for seeking God outside its wall?

8. Failure to see direct benefit
To which I would add "and less tolerance for negative benefits of church life, like judgmentalism and church battles. When you aren't growing, why keep going?

9. Valuing attendance over engagement
I'll say it again, "when you aren't growing, why keep going?" As a society Americans have become less tolerant of what doesn't seem to be working, and more likely to change things to find something that does (whatever your needs are).

10. The inability (or unwillingness) of congregations to change in response to change.
The time to make changes is before things fall apart. This is especially true in smaller congregations where change is no longer an issue of vitality, but mortality (that's Neil saying that).

(11.) Losing Trust and Respect for Institutions
Not sure why Nieuwhof didn't include this one, but several research surveys point to the increasing distrust of "institutions and authorities" especially among younger Christians. They see the Church as hypocritical and judgemental. The coarse political and social media landscape hasn't helped. How would consistently emphasizing joy, humility, and diversity send the RIGHT message and change the tone in our congregations?

7 More Things Sunday School Can Do to Emerge Renewed

Here are a few suggestions related to Nieuwhof's findings.

1. Make your case "why" learning the Bible and being part of a Christian peer group with adult role models is a GOOD thing. Good parents prioritize "the good" for their kids. Don't take it for granted, and make sure your teaching is not LAME.  Lame doesn't get attendance anymore.

2. Give parents options. "Sunday School" needs to be a program of learning opportunities, not just a day of the week.

3. Beef up the learning and equipping aspects of your fellowship events. Let no gathering go untouched by prayer and sharing, even if is a "pull the weeds" day.

4. Plan more learning opportunities that parents and kids can do TOGETHER. They covet their "together time," so don't force them to give it up.

5. Make worship more kid-friendly. Heck, make it more adult-friendly too! Children don't drive themselves to church.  (...and don't rear-guard this by telling me "worship isn't about us." Almost everything we do in worship was originally designed to appeal to human beings --the seating, the singing, the smells and bells, the windows. So those things can be changed to go with the flow.)

6. Become a neighborhood-also church.  Many churches attract families from "the region" and ignore the people within walking distance of their church. This can be especially true for some churches who's identity doesn't match the socio-economics of where they are located. Yet... parents want safe neighborhoods. They want their kids to know other kids in the neighborhood, and they want safe nearby things their kids can go do. You have a godly role to play in the life of your church's neighborhood. Don't turn your back on it (as so many churches have done).

7. Spend more time on the MAJOR most important stories of the Bible and LESS on the more "minor" stories. I.E. Use the Rotation Model for Sunday School. Instead of changing the story every week such that more than half your kids never hear it, spend three to four weeks on every MAJOR story of the Bible. That's the Rotation way. Learn more!

Funny thing is... we've been saying these things for YEARS --long before the pandemic. So perhaps the problem is lack of enthusiasm or execution. Crisis is more than the mother of invention, it's often a much needed kick. I've been in churches that couldn't get out of their own way, or would only go half way, or burnt their leaders for trying. I've also been in congregations where the leadership "got it" and stopped listening to the naysayers and deck-chair arrangers. Those will be the churches that emerge renewed.

This 2-minute video introduces the Rotation Model to those unfamiliar with it.