Warren Bird, Research Director for Leadership Network and co-author of 24 books on various aspects of church health and innovation, recently explored just how many Americans are actually unchurched. He concludes that more than 1 in 3 adults are unchurched (have not attended church in the last year), which is a number of people that would be the size of the tenth largest country in the world.
So What?
Bird communicates several data points visually using an infograhic, including:
- The percentage of people who say they “never” attend church has risen steadily over the last 30 years as people shift from infrequent attendance to nonattendance.
- 25% of the population actually attends worship on a weekly basis
- 60% of the population attended at least one service of worship in the past year
Take a few minutes to consider these questions:
- Do you expect the percentage of Americans who are unchuched will continue to rise for the foreseeable future? Why or why not?
- Over the last few decades, what changes in your congregation’s mission and ministry were intentional shifts to be responsive to the increasing percentage of those living nearby who are unchurched?
- What are the top entry points into your congregation for the unchurched (based on actual experiences)?