{"id":24958,"date":"2016-08-25T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=24958"},"modified":"2016-08-24T17:14:32","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T21:14:32","slug":"new-study-on-church-going-has-surprises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/new-study-on-church-going-has-surprises\/","title":{"rendered":"New study on church-going has surprises"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Pew Research has released a new study on church-going, including why people leave, how they choose a new congregation, and why people don\u2019t attend. \u00a0Read the study here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The reason lots of people have stopped going to church, it turns out, is not so much that they are rejecting religion in favor of scientific materialism. \u00a0Rather, the logistics of getting up on Sunday and organizing themselves and the family for a trip to church is just too difficult.<\/p>\n

The main reason people choose a new congregation is not disagreement with the pastor of the old one (a reason given only by 11%), but because they have moved. \u00a0The factor that is most influential in choosing a new congregation? \u00a0The pastor\u2019s sermons.<\/p>\n

\n

There are other surprises: \u00a0denominational loyalty is still an important factor; while many people attend church less, almost 25% of Americans\u00a0are attending church more.<\/p>\n

Take a look at the study<\/a> and then read an analysis of the findings by Emma Green in the Atlantic, excerpted and linked after the jump.<\/p>\n

From Emma Green, <\/span>How the Percentage of Americans Who Go to Church Every Week Is Changing \u2013 The Atlantic<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

Pew has a new survey out about the way people choose their congregations and attend services. While Americans on the whole are still going to church and other worship services less than they used to, many people are actually going more\u2014and those who are skipping out aren\u2019t necessarily doing it for reasons of belief.
\nThere were at least three fascinating tidbits tucked into the results of the survey. First, people who report going to worship services less frequently now than they used to overwhelmingly say the logistics of getting there are the biggest obstacle. Second, a significant number of people who said they\u2019re not part of any particular religion expressed mistrust of religious institutions, suggesting these organizations\u2019 reputations have something to do with why people are dropping out of public religious participation.<\/p>\n

Finally, and perhaps most interestingly, the country seems to be split in half in terms of how often people get to services. Roughly 51 percent of Americans say they go to church or another worship service somewhere between once a month and multiple times per week, while 49 percent said they go rarely or never. But within that 51 percent, more than half of people said they go more often than they used to\u2014in other words, about quarter of Americans have gotten more active in their religious communities in recent years, not less.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, fewer than half of the people who rarely or never go to church said this has been a new decline in the last few years; a greater portion of that group said they\u2019ve always stayed home on Sundays. All of this is a way of saying that, comparatively speaking, there\u2019s more activity happening on the devout side of the spectrum than the drop-out side; this study suggests that even in a time of religion\u2019s public decline, some people are experiencing religious revival.<\/p>\n

According to the survey, about one-fifth of Americans now go to religious services a few times a year, but say they used to go a lot more. Roughly half of this group stopped going as often because of what the researchers called \u201cpractical issues\u201d: They are too busy, have a crazy work schedule, or describe themselves as \u201ctoo lazy\u201d to go. Others said they just don\u2019t care about attending services as much as doing other things.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pew Research has released a new study on church-going, including why people leave, how they choose a new congregation, and why people don\u2019t attend. \u00a0Read the study here. The reason lots of people have stopped going to church, it turns out, is not so much that they are rejecting religion in favor of scientific materialism. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,42],"tags":[475,479],"class_list":["post-24958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-social-science","tag-church-2","tag-church-attendance"],"yoast_head":"\nNew study on church-going has surprises<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pew Research has released a new study on church-going, including why people leave, how they choose a new congregation, and why people don't attend. \u00a0Read\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/new-study-on-church-going-has-surprises\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New study on church-going has surprises\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pew Research has released a new study on church-going, including why people leave, how they choose a new congregation, and why people don't attend. \u00a0Read\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/new-study-on-church-going-has-surprises\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-25T10:00:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-08-24T21:14:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/new-study-on-church-going-has-surprises\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/new-study-on-church-going-has-surprises\/\",\"name\":\"New study on church-going has surprises\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-25T10:00:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-24T21:14:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Pew Research has released a new study on church-going, including why people leave, how they choose a new congregation, and why people don't attend. \u00a0Read\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/new-study-on-church-going-has-surprises\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/new-study-on-church-going-has-surprises\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/new-study-on-church-going-has-surprises\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New study on church-going has surprises\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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