Are You Fibbing On Your Attendance Numbers?
- Posted on May 20, 2007
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The Southern Baptist Convention, with some 16.2 million members on the books, claims to be the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. But the Rev. Thomas Ascol believes the active membership is really a fraction of that.
Ascol, pastor of the 230-member Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla., points to a church report showing that only 6 million Southern Baptists attend church on an average Sunday.
“The reality is, the FBI couldn’t find half of those (members) if they had to,” said Ascol, who asserts his own congregation attendance swells to at least 350 every Sunday.
Next month, Ascol plans to bring a resolution to the denomination’s annual meeting in San Antonio, calling for “integrity in the way we regard our membership rolls in our churches and also in the way we report statistics.”
For religious organizations, membership figures are a lot like a position on the annual list of best colleges. A rise is trumpeted as a sign of vitality, strength and clout. And a drop probably means somebody somewhere checked the wrong box on some unimportant survey.
Vast differences in theology and accounting practices make it nearly impossible to really know how many members a church body has, whether active or occasional worshippers. That, in turn, makes side-by-side comparisons nearly impossible.
“Church membership is not as straightforward as it seems,” said the Rev. Eileen Lindner, associate general secretary of the National Council of Churches. “It’s not like, who’s a member of Costco?”
Lindner, a Presbyterian, produces the NCC’s annual Yearbook of Canadian and American Churches, which is widely seen as an authoritative source for church membership statistics. But even she knows there are limits.
“A person who attends the Church of God in Christ on Wednesday evening and an (African Methodist Episcopal) service on Sunday morning will likely be included in both counts,” the 2007 Yearbook cautions.
Here’s a quick look at some of the factors that go into collecting church membership statistics, and why they can be so problematic:
Click here to read the entire article from Beliefnet...
FOR DISCUSSION: Have you ever been guilty of inflating your attendance stats?
Come on... you know the pressure's there. You're filling out your annual report (whether it be for your own records or to turn in to some denominational hierarchy). What attendance average do you report? Do you ever fudge the numbers? Make them look a little better for others who might see them (or just to make yourself feel a little better?) Well... if you do, turns out your not alone... (not that that's a good thing...)
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Tommy Mitchell on Sun, May 20, 2007
The Southern Baptist Convention “Annual Church Profile” (ACP) is used by all our churches to report data. There are three glaring flaws in the report. First, a baptism is any baptism - whether it is a first time baptism - or a rebaptism. Second, it only reports those who join by church letter, not those who depart by church letter (sorry for the Baptist lingo - join our churches or join other churches). Third, the ACP does not report the number who died for statistical purposes. So, your church can report 30 baptisms (and half or more may be rebaptisms, and several more may “biological growth,” and 40 by letter and you will be considered a VERY healthy church. Yet you may have 5 - 15 people die in one year, have 25 or 30 join other churches, and really only baptize a handful of people from the “unchurched world,” putting your squarely on the death march!!! The numbers reported do not match reality.
dpastordan on Mon, May 21, 2007
When I arrived at my present call [an SBC church], the church had 171 “on the books” and only 35 persons showing up for worship. It took three years for me to convince the church to make real changes. I was tired of hearing, “Pastor, I saw Mrs. Soandso.” I would reply, “Who is she?” And I would get, “YOU should know. She’s a member!” [Who has not been in church for ten years!] When I went through the membership roll and sent out letters and visited those I could, I found that about 45 were deceased - and the church “graciously” took them of the roll. Most had moved and left no forwarding address [and never asked to transfer their membership]. I discovered a few had joined other local churches - by baptism or by statement - but did not want to request a transfer.
Because our church covenant requires members to find a new church when they relocate, we changed our by-laws to require them to ask for a letter of transfer within 90 or they are taken off the membership roll. Just last week I had a church from another state call about our address so they can ask for a transfer. I informed the lady that since the person left over five years ago, we had no record.
I also have two frequent worshipers who want to keep their membership in other churches because they want to be buried in their church’s cemetary.
I used two arguments to convince the elders in the need to change: 1) We were liars - because we were lying about our membership; 2) The missing “members” were not putting money into the offering plate.
Now I know the condition of my flock. I know their names, where they live, and feel confident of the numbers we report on the ACP.
Rick White on Mon, May 21, 2007
HA! This isn’t really funny…but stil can’t help but laugh a little. Had a convo with an influential guy the other day that had done some teaching/consulting for some of the biggies…and that at least one of the biggies actually decreased recently…whereas they were reported in outreach mag to have been one of the fastest growing. I wonder how many more fudge theire numbers? I can’t take self-reporting too seriously anymore, it seems…
Leonard on Mon, May 21, 2007
We had 200 at church and 300 got saved. Actually I just have somoene else count and tell me so I don’t have to deal with numbers
Rachel on Tue, May 29, 2007
I have witnessed this first hand, as the movement that I am currently apart of has felt pressured to exaggerate the numbers of membership have gone to extremes. For example, one church leader has indicated that he has numerous members, when in fact he actually has 5, and is not even presently in a church building. This is just one blatant example among many that aggrevates me. My only question is, when will it end?
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