“Did you really go to church this week? Behind the poll data”
From a Christian Century article from May 6th, 1998 by Kirk Hadaway and Penny Long Marler, p. 475
Regular church attendance is increasingly difficult, even for those committed to it. Sunday morning is no longer “sacred” time: job responsibilities, sports leagues, family outings, housework and many other things get in the way of traveling to a church building for worship at a scheduled time. And if you happen to miss church next weekend, will anyone know if you slept in, comforted a sick child, left town on business, or decided to have brunch at the Hyatt? Church attendance is increasingly a private matter, and it is correspondingly easier for each of us to maintain an idealized image of oursevles as regular attenders when in fact we may only manage to attend church two or three times a month at the most.
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When I was still in the Roman Church we had a joke: The bulletin is your receipt for attending Sunday mass and you would have to present them at the pearly gates for admittance.
Cullin R. Schooley
When I was growing up, we really did go to church every Sunday, no questions asked. Even if we were away from home, like at my aunt's, we went to her church, which was Congregationalist (although I was surprised, as a child, to find our Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer being used!). Every church we attended when we were away from our home church of All Saints Episcopal, Millington, NJ, we were given a card that certified that we had indeed attended, for instance, Bethel Congregational Church. That way we kids were still in the running for our annual "perfect attendance" pin from Sunday School. I wonder if any churches today still give out those attendance certification cards.