Posted on 07/31/2025 6:53:08 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Randy knows the strategic spots to get the best views of the sanctuary to count heads. He’s been doing it for years, and I rely on his numbers to know how many people attended our weekend worship services. Barb sends me the complete attendance report on Monday afternoons, which includes more details about children, students, and groups.
Why do I care? Why does my church count everyone each week?
For decades, worship attendance has been the default metric for measuring church success. While some may argue it’s outdated or superficial, the truth is more complex. Let’s start with the sobering reality: Between 70% and 80% of churches in North America are either plateaued or declining. One of the key reasons? Less than 1% of churches maintain an ongoing emphasis on evangelism. Without a clear commitment to reaching new people, growth naturally slows or stalls. So, while attendance isn’t the only measure of health, it remains one of the most revealing.
Where did the worship attendance metric come from?
The focus on worship attendance didn’t appear out of nowhere. It grew out of three overlapping waves in church history:
Wave 1: The Sunday school movement (1800s)
Counting became commonplace with Sunday schools. This era emphasized education and attendance tracking. Churches like Illinois Street Church—later Moody Church—under D.L. Moody led the way in gathering and counting large groups. In England, Charles Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle also drew thousands.
Sunday school wasn’t just for kids; it was a vital connection point for entire communities. Some churches kept this Sunday school focus up to the turn of the millennium. For example, Guinell Freeman, known as “Miss Sunday School” at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, built and grew the Sunday school program to more than 13,000 people by the late 1990s.
Wave 2: The preaching-centered era (early-to-mid 1900s)
In this wave, preaching became the draw. J. Frank Norris and George W. Truett led massive congregations in Texas. Revivalists like Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple McPherson drew crowds through charismatic preaching. Harry Fosdick and Martin Lloyd-Jones were well-known among many different groups. Sunday school remained important, and people like Henrietta Mears continued to implement popular programs. But the pulpit became the central platform for growth. During this era, a major shift began to take place. The front door, or entry point, to the church changed from the Sunday school classroom to the sanctuary.
Wave 3: The church growth movement (1950s–2000s)
With the rise of the Baby Boomers came large churches designed to attract seekers. Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral, Bill Hybels’ Willow Creek, and Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church redefined the church growth model. Strong preaching, engaging programs, and strategic marketing built massive congregations. The church growth movement led to the development of satellite campuses, video venues, and modern expressions of worship designed to attract as many people as possible.
Despite the success stories, many attendance numbers during this era were estimates. For example, until the 1990s, Southern Baptist churches were asked to report only one Sunday’s attendance — for the whole year. And yes, most chose Easter. While more accurate weekly tracking became the norm later, exaggeration wasn’t uncommon. You could argue the hyper-focus on the metric of worship attendance still leads to inflated figures.
Wave 4: The neighborhood church era (post-pandemic)
What’s next? The preference is rising for smaller neighborhood churches closer to home. Before the pandemic, only 10% of churchgoers were willing to drive more than 30 minutes to church. These drive times are likely shorter now. The reach of regional churches is beginning to pull back. People are considering smaller neighborhood churches in their communities.
The competition for attendance growth is beginning to diminish. Average weekly worship attendance is still the metric of success and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future. Churches should grow, but the pressure to be bigger and better than everyone else is fading.
The double-edged sword of worship attendance
Focusing on attendance isn’t inherently good or bad. It depends on how it’s used.
Healthy Uses:
Unhealthy Uses:
So, how do we hold on to what’s good while avoiding the pitfalls? By focusing not just on growing numbers, but on healthy growth.
Practical steps toward healthy church growth
One way to maintain a healthy focus on attendance figures is to distinguish between lead metrics and lag metrics.
Lead metrics are the controllable actions that drive outcomes — the effort you make. Lag metrics, on the other hand, are the results that appear after the fact, such as attendance, giving, or conversions.
Lead metrics help you focus on what you can do now to move toward your goals. Lag metrics tell you what happened because of your effort. A mistake church leaders can make is celebrating the lag metric (worship attendance) instead of the lead metric (inviting people). Church culture changes when members focus more on lead metrics instead of lag metrics.
Work with the willing.
You don’t need the whole church on board to begin moving forward. Start with a few motivated families. They can change the direction of an entire congregation.
Redefine what success looks like.
The days of rapid transfer growth are fading. Instead of focusing only on how many people show up, pay attention to how many are invited. How many phone calls are made to absent members? Who’s being evangelized, followed up with, or prayed for?
Establish consistent rhythms.
Weekly programming matters. A church with 100 people every Sunday is stronger than one with 500 people once a month. Consistency beats sporadic crowds every time, especially for discipleship and pastoral care.
Engage your community demographically.
Don’t guess who lives nearby — know. Use tools like the Know Your Community Report or the Good News Neighbors Toolkit. Deliver gifts to new residents. Make hospitality your signature trait.
Run a regular check-up.
Evaluate your church’s health honestly. Where are you strong? Where are you stuck? Where do you need to realign or rebuild? Metrics can be helpful here, but only if they lead to actionable outcomes. The Church Health Scorecard is an excellent starting point for identifying which metrics to utilize.
The metric of success
Worship attendance still has value. It remains one of the clearest indicators of momentum in a church. But healthy churches don’t chase attendance. They cultivate community, deepen discipleship, and embrace evangelism. In a world where attention spans are short and cultural Christianity is fading, being physically present for worship matters more than ever.
So yes, attendance still matters. But even more than that, presence matters. Your church can grow when you focus on people, not just numbers. And that growth can begin with one invitation, one conversation, and one Sunday at a time.
Originally published at Church Answers.
Sam Rainer is president of Church Answers and pastor at West Bradenton Baptist Church in Florida.
Good article. Thanks for posting.
I note that it has a lot of history and common sense, but zero Biblical reference. So here’s a little:
“Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25
At one time I belonged to an incredible club. It met at 6:30 am on Saturdays. If you missed you were contacted, but you seldom missed, you wanted to be there. There was a waiting list to join this club.
No, it wasn’t a church.
It was the last all men’s Toastmasters Club in America.
It’s about quality; not quantity.
I’ve heard of some interrelated metrics that many churches use.
1. Membership
2. Attendance
3. Percentage of members in Attendance
4. Donations
5. Growth or decline in each of these areas.
And I’m sure part of all of these areas involve how many people they are bringing to Christ.
I’m sure many churches maintain spreadsheets with all of this data.
Women screw up everything.
On fb is a group called the Dull Men’s club. Men post funny wry puzzling things.
Women started posting in it too..
AND they started their own Dull Woman’s Club.
If Islam ever gets a foothold in the US it will be around the issues that women bring to society
I’m sure there was great camaraderie in that club.
Without quantity quality dies off and moves away.
I knew I guy who used to do church consulting. He said that location became a factor if it was more than a 20 minute trip.
Attendance is a better metric than giving since the old 80/20 rule for giving is now probably closer to 90/10.
Correct.
I know this article is not aimed at Catholics, but we count for a number of reasons. As I am an usher, I sometimes help with the counting.
1. The Diocese requires it. It helps them determine resource allotment, and health of parishes.
2. We have several Masses on Sunday, and it is good to know the relative turnout of each one for things like Altar Boy scheduling, chairs to put out for expected overflow, etc.
3. When I was running the after Mass “Coffee and Donuts”, I could get a better bead on how many donuts to order, and to know how popular the event is relative to Mass turnout.
4. We are a traditional Latin Mass Catholic Parish, and showing steadily growing numbers makes our position within the Diocese stronger, and these same numbers can be used by those who advocate for the traditional Latin Mass availability nationwide.
5. We are in the middle of an intense Capital Fund to build a church large enough (and beautiful enough) to meet our parishes needs. The head count helps make the degree of need clear to those who are considering contributing.
Sometimes one needs to forget numbers. At a revival, how many went to the front doesn’t really tell you much. Prison ministry, how many gave their hearts to Jesus doesn’t tell you much.
Ask people why they are there? What they read in the Bible this past week? What they heard in the sermon?
This used to be called mgt by walking around. MBWA. You don’t need numbers or surveys.
Necks and nickels.
I know plenty of people who don’t go to church any longer....but they have not lost their faith.
(“Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25)
And the Day IS approaching
🛐🛐🛐🙏🙏🙏✝️✝️✝️
Switch from doughnuts to Costco cookies & bars.
Bookmark.
Why would we do that?! Personally, I won’t get a Costco “membership” because I don’t care for the idea of paying for the privilege to shop somewhere.
Fresh baked doughnuts in a dozen different varieties are reasonably priced and satisfies most tastes.
Our coffee is bought directly from a pro-life/Catholic traditional roaster. Great stuff.
“Our coffee is bought directly from a pro-life/Catholic traditional roaster. Great stuff.”
Could you share a link please?
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