We’ve seen so many statistics and opinions on why church attendance has been steadily declining for the past 20 years, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of blog writers opening up communication between themselves and their readers to get a more personal idea about why people might be distancing themselves.
A recent article by Bruce Nolan called “Gallup Reports New Low In Religious Confidence” (on ChurchExecutive.com) gives a little more insight into how many people are losing confidence in America’s churches. The numbers have been declining since the 1970’s, and although no specific churches or religions were mentioned in the latest Gallup poll, it looks like the amount of Americans with “a great deal” of confidence in churches (in general) is only at 44%.
In the article, Nolan says, “Americans are still generally a very religious people, although increasingly on their own terms.”
According to the Pew Center for the People and the Press, one in five Americans now checks “None” when asked about their religious affiliation. More information about this can be found in another Church Executive article entitled “Survey Finds Record 19 Percent of Religiously Unaffiliated Americans”.
So now we ask, what do you think the problem is? In your opinion, what are some things churches can do to try to turn this around?