As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“Citing numerous studies and analyses, VanderWeele argues that the evidence suggests weekly religious service attendance is associated with ‘lower mortality risk, lower depression, less suicide, better cardiovascular disease survival, better health behaviors, and greater marital stability, happiness, and purpose in life.’” - Lifeway
“Devin Pope didn’t think so either. Instead of relying on the answers people traditionally give to pollsters, Pope decided to use cellphone data to confirm who was really going. If a new study is accurate, people have been lying about going to church. A lot.” - Daily Citizen
“my concern is that there exists a celebration culture of transfer growth that is not healthy. I will elaborate, but first, we need to define the ‘good’ growth, conversion growth.” - Church Answers
“Mississippi (32%), Alabama (36%) and Louisiana (37%) have the lowest share of adults who say they never or seldom attend services.” - Axios
“Three in 10 U.S. adults attend religious services regularly, led by Mormons at 67%” - Gallup
“I pastor a transient church. Seemingly every week, I hear that yet another member plans to move. Many members are here for one-to-three years.” - 9 Marks
“are these new evangelicals or not evangelicals?… one would be hard pressed to identify which section of David Bebbington’s Evangelicalism Quadrilateral (conversionism, biblicism, activism, crucicentrism) has room for the Proud Non-Churchgoers.” - WORLD
“In 2008, 62% of never attenders were Democrats and 20% were Republicans…. in 2016, it dropped to only 31 points (56% vs 25%)…. in 2022 the gap was just 29 points (53% vs 24%)…. The Democrats are losing their advantage with never attenders.” - Ryan Burge
“Maybe there are regions where attendance may be actually climbing. That’s what I did in the map below using data from 2008 and 2022.” - Ryan Burge
By Brian Richard
For pastors, the last decade has presented a perfect storm of cultural upheaval, societal trends, and accelerated change. Pastors constantly face difficult and pressing questions about how to “do church” in the twenty-first century. Since the internet has fundamentally changed almost every aspect of our lives, many ask, “Why shouldn’t the church change too?”
Discussion