Pew Potato Statistics
What is the one statistic that churches traditionally strive to improve.
You might think it is membership. It’s not. Everyone knows that less than a third of any church’s membership roster is actually involved with the church in a manner that counts toward viability. A church with 1200 members is likely to engage less than 300 at weekly worship.
The single statistic that drives congregations is worship attendance.
This number represents a number of things. Church attendance is the old-fashioned “social proof.”
- It measures the relationship with church leadership. People don’t attend worship when they dislike leadership.
- It measures purpose. Worshiping God in communion with other Christians is a prime reason for holding a worship service.
- Most important: Church attendance is a snapshot of your offering plate. Look across your sanctuary. Do you see a large number of children and youth? Probably not. They are not valued in worship because they can contribute little to the offering plate. Do you see large diversity in ethnicity or color? Probably not. They may have little expendable income. As one pastor points out. It takes ten of ‘them’ to equal the giving of the people who do attend worship. This brings us to the typical Sunday morning population—seniors and soon-to-be seniors. They are low maintenance members and they represent stability to the offering plate and potential endowments.
A great deal of worship revolves around keeping prime givers happy. When prime givers are happy, church leadership is happy.
When this becomes the focus of church life, we are neglecting the mission of the Church and the development of church leaders who will sustain the church twenty years from now.
There is one more church statistic that is so important we often ask for physical proof. Church attendees are asked to sign cards to prove they joined others at the Eucharist Table.
Once a year attendance at communion is required for voting eligibility. Why do we record more than that? Habit. In the old days church secretaries even wrote to the home churches of visitors to validate this useless statistic!
Old habits die hard. We like to see people in the pews because it validates our traditions.
Worship attendance is easier to measure than mission, vision, passion, potential, creativity, and sweat.
Should worship attendance be the prime statistic in the church? If it is, the Church is in big trouble.