Why do people attend a church for the first time?

 Sam Rainer recently shared on his Facebook page research done by Church Answers to determine what would be a reason someone would begin to attend church regularly. It mostly goes along with previous studies done over the past few years.

    To grow spiritually                    32%

    Someone invited me                  22%

    God told me to go                      20%

    Spouse wants me to go              17%

    Other                                          16%

    Life crisis                                    16%

    Family connection                      15%

    To meet new friends                    13%

    Preaching quality                        10%

    Good music I like                        10%

    Programming for children            7%

Notice that the bottom three are often the things churches think will draw in new people. What their study found was that these things may cause transfer growth from other churches, but are not the primary attractions for unchurched people.

Another question asked in the research was why people attended the church they currently attend, and the number one response was because someone invited them (41%). Other studies consistently find that the ones most effective in inviting others to attend church is not the pastor, but friends and family of the one being invited.

When I served as a Resource Minister I often heard complaints that the church wasn't growing, and the pastor was usually the one blamed. I heard it so often that I finally began to push back and ask the one complaining how many people he or she had brought into the church. The answer I usually received was...none. As I pointed out to one person, their pastor had been at the church for two years; they had been members there for three decades and yet not one person attended that church because they had invited them. Our meeting ended rather quickly at that point!

Church growth is the responsibility of every member. I am not familiar with a single study that does not find that a large proportion of people would attend a church if someone they knew and trusted invited them. We can, and should, do everything we can to make the church attractive to first-time guests, but if we expect them to show up we have to invite them. There's nothing wrong with having a first-rate youth and children's ministry. There's nothing wrong with having a worship service that will allow people to experience God. Certainly, our preaching should be theologically sound and relevant to the needs of people, always pointing them to Jesus Christ. But, if we are not inviting people to our churches, none of these things will matter.

Who will you invite to your next service?