Gallup released results from a poll that sought to understand why people go to worship.
The poll was conducted among respondents who attended worship at least monthly at a church, synagogue, or mosque. The overwhelming majority were Christians (in line with the general population) which also allowed Gallup to differentiate between Roman Catholics and Protestants.
Among the choices given were:
- A good choir, praise band, cantors or other spiritual music
- Lots of community outreach and volunteer opportunities
- Spiritual programs geared toward children and teenagers
- Sermons or talks that teach you more about scripture
- Sermons or lectures that help you connect religion to your own life
- Dynamic religious leaders who are interesting and inspiring
- Social activities that allow you to get to know people in your community
The poll asked those who grew up attending worship at least monthly but who reported that they no longer attended why they chose to not be part of a worshipping community.
Their choices included;
- You don’t feel welcome when you do attend
- You aren’t very religious
- You prefer to worship on your own
- You don’t like organized religion
- You don’t like being asked for money when you attend
- You haven’t found a church or other place of worship that you like
- You don’t have the time
- You aren’t sure what religion is right for you
- Poor health or other problems prevent you from going
What was the top reason people gave for why they attended worship? Music? volunteer opportunities? Nope. The top response was Sermons. “Sermons or talks that teach you more about scripture” and “Sermons or lectures that help you connect religion to your own life” were nearly tied at 76% and 75% respectively.
All answers in order of preference were
| MAJOR FACTOR % | MINOR FACTOR % |
NOT A FACTOR % |
|
| Sermons or talks that teach you more about scripture | 76 | 16 | 8 |
| Sermons or lectures that help you connect religion to your own life | 75 | 16 | 8 |
| Spiritual programs geared toward children and teenagers | 64 | 21 | 15 |
| Lots of community outreach and volunteer opportunities | 59 | 27 | 13 |
| Dynamic religious leaders who are interesting and inspiring | 54 | 28 | 17 |
| Social activities that allow you to get to know people in your community | 49 | 36 | 14 |
| A good choir, praise band, cantors or other spiritual music | 38 | 36 | 25 |
But why don’t people go to worship? Why have people lapsed? Losing faith wasn’t any option, though not being very religious is probably a good proxy and that was the most important reason for a third of respondents, but a general unease or dislike of organized communities were the biggest reasons for the largest number of respondents, though neither was true for half or more of respondents. Not feeling welcomed was at the bottom of the church.
The results for these were:
| MAJOR FACTOR % | MINOR FACTOR % |
NOT A FACTOR % |
|
| You prefer to worship on your own | 44 | 21 | 34 |
| You don’t like organized religion | 36 | 25 | 37 |
| You aren’t very religious | 33 | 32 | 33 |
| You haven’t found a church or other place of worship that you like | 22 | 24 | 53 |
| You don’t have the time | 19 | 28 | 52 |
| You aren’t sure what religion is right for you | 17 | 23 | 59 |
| You don’t like being asked for money when you attend | 16 | 29 | 55 |
| Poor health or other problems prevent you from going | 10 | 19 | 71 |
| You don’t feel welcome when you do attend | 9 | 25 | 65 |
The differences between Roman Catholics and Protestants turned out similarly, with the overall ranking for each differing little from the combined “Christian” results. Quality sermons and youth formation were still the top three. The one area of real difference was how important each rated the role of music. Though in each case, it was still the least important factor for attending worship, for Protestants, 44% rated it as major factor, whereas for Roman Catholics, only 22% did so.
So what are the lessons we in the Episcopal Church might draw? Gallup’s own conclusion was that “to expand their ranks, reigniting the interest of lapsed members should be a priority. Converting those who say they aren’t very religious or who don’t like organized religion may be futile. But churches and others may find some success with the message that worshipping in communion with others has benefits that can’t be achieved worshipping alone — addressing the No. 1 reason non-attendees give for not attending.”
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“As you come to Him….you also…..are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ”
it someone truly comes to the Lord, he or she is acted upon….i.e. “being built” into something bigger than the individual. it’s a God thing…..a Grace thing…a Holy Spirit thing.
Interesting, but when someone says “I prefer to worship on my own” and I ask them how, they don’t actually. The prefer to sleep in perhaps, maybe, fire up a prayer to two on Sunday morning….if that. Sorry, but I call BS on this answer in most cases. They don’t worship except maybe worship themselves.
I’d be interested to see the ‘Protestant’ results broken down a bit further. Your average Episcopalian and your average Baptist vary greatly from one another.
Great. My vocation is now completely validated.
Most of the answers have something to do with “What’s in it for me?” Pretty far from the Gospel. Not much about the Kingdom of God or Loving others as Jesus loves us. There’s part of what’s wrong with American Christianity.
Going to church on a regular basis is about making a commitment to a community and forces us to look at our place in God’s Kingdom. Regular attendance in church can be broken into the individual roles we play in worship; i.e. liturgy and our place in the community during the time we spend outside of the liturgy. I jokingly tell people there are three great sacraments in the Episcopal church, Baptism, Communion and Coffee Hour. I think the commitment we make to each other to be part of a community that worships is very different from being a part of worship that is sometimes a community. I believe if we are going to help build the church, we must start with building the community which means we have to help build relationships between with each other so that we can all work on developing much richer relationships with God.
Sibling Michael, I’m not so sure about that. As we worship God, each of us feels touched by some things more than others. Seems to me both “sermons that teach more about the Scriptures” and “sermons that relate faith to life” aren’t far from the Gospel. Besides, we don’t have all the possibilities in this post, but only those most significant. They may well have had an opportunity to pick, “Loving others as Jesus loves us.”
I am more struck by how low on the list of reasons for not attending is “You don’t feel welcomed when you do attend.” We worry about being inhospitable; but that may well not be where we’re missing engagement. Note how many of the reasons not, as it were, still imply some sense of belief from the respondent. Worship alone, or not the right church, or not sure where you fit – all these still speak to some sense of personal faith.
I was thinking the same thing! I go to church to worship God. Why was that not an option?