Interesting article from the Agape Press today about church attendance. Not sure I agree with some of the more subjective conclusions, but interesting nonetheless:

A new study concludes the number of Americans attending church every Sunday is a whole lot less than what has been reported. One of the researchers suggests that the success of mega-churches across the country could be one reason for the misperception about how many Americans actually spend Sunday morning in a worship service.

Christianity Today notes that for years, Gallup pollsters have reported that 40 percent of Americans — roughly 118 million people — attend a church every Sunday. But a new study done by an Episcopal Church researcher, Kirk Hadaway, and Penny Marler of Samford University concludes the actual number is much less than that.
They did a “count-based” estimate of church attendance — in other words, actual attendance figures — and concluded that only about 20 percent of Americans go to a church on Sunday.

That lower figure, says Hadaway, may come as a surprise to many. But he believes part of the problem may be that people see or hear about the big crowds attending the mega-churches and get the impression that church attendance overall is increasing.

JG