A new study from the Barna Group explores the profile of Americans who actively participate in faith. The study examined various expressions of “group” faith, such as: church attendance, small groups, adult Sunday school programs, church volunteering, and house churches. (Definitions of each type of activity, including how the researchers distinguished between small groups and home / house churches, can be found below in the research notes.)
The Barna study uncovered nine insights:
1. Women drive most faith participation, with the exception of home churches or house churches. A majority of weekly churchgoers are women (53%). Small groups that meet for prayer or Bible study (60%) and Sunday school programs for adults (59%) are also more likely to be attended by women. Similarly, a majority of church volunteers (57%) are females. Home churches are the only type of participatory religious involvement in which most attenders are men (56%).
2. Religious activities are typically missing single adults, especially those who have never been married. Just less than half of Americans are unmarried; however, the Barna study found that two-thirds of those who attend church, go to small groups, and participate in Sunday school are married; and 69% of church volunteers are married. Furthermore, single adults who have never experienced matrimony – that is, they are currently divorced, separated or widowed – represent fewer than one-fifth of the adults involved, with worship attendance and volunteerism the least likely to attract these never-attached adults. House churches fared better in this regard, reflecting a 50-50 split of married and unmarried participants.
3. Older adults also dominate faith involvement. Conventional wisdom suggests that older adults are more likely to participate spiritually, and the Barna research confirmed such thinking. Two-thirds of small group attenders as well as house church participants and three-fifths of church volunteers and Sunday school goers were ages 45 older. The most age-balanced activity was church attendance, with 56% of the spiritually active population being age 45 or older and 44% being ages 18 to 44. (Nationally, 52% of the population is 45-plus.) One of the challenges for churches that rely on small group strategies is that they are the “oldest” form of participatory faith expression (median age of 56) and they are least likely to include parents of young children.
4.
Regionally, Americans’ faith involvement falls along stereotypical lines. Residents of the South make up half of the nation’s small group attenders as well as a majority of its Sunday school attenders. Still, Southerners were among the least common house church participants. Those hailing from the Northeast were unlikely to be active in terms of small groups, Sunday school or volunteerism, while those in the West were among the largest share of house church participants. Sunday school was also comparatively uncommon in the West. Midwestern residents were about “average” on each of the five activities.
5. Catholics are not particularly active beyond worship attendance, while evangelicals participate in many different forms of “group faith.” While Catholics make up one-quarter of all the nation’s worshippers each week, they are only one-tenth of small group attenders, Sunday School participants, and church volunteers. An even smaller proportion of house church attenders (6%) are Catholic. Protestants associated with an evangelical denomination are the largest share of involved believers, including activity in small groups, volunteering, and Sunday school. Interestingly, those associated with a mainline denomination represented an above-average percentage of church volunteers and house church participants.
6. Attenders of larger churches involve themselves in the broadest spectrum of faith activities. Americans who typically attend a church of at least 500 adults were among the most likely to also attend small groups, and house churches, and to volunteer. Those attending a medium-sized congregation (101 to 499 adults) were among the most likely to attend small groups and Sunday school classes. No notable patterns emerged among smaller churches.
7. African-Americans represent a significant share of those involved in participatory faith. True to their community-oriented religious heritage and experience, blacks help to power the group religious expressions of the nation. While blacks are 13% of the nation’s adult population, the segment accounts for one-quarter of America’s small group participants (27%) and three-tenths (30%) of its house church attenders. They also comprise a healthy slice of Sunday school attenders and church volunteers. Whites were comparatively less engaged in small groups and house churches, while Hispanics tend to abstain from small group involvement.
8. Personal Bible reading is most common among small group attenders. In comparing a personal spiritual activity with participatory involvement, the study showed that two-thirds of church attenders (67%) said they had read the Bible outside of church in the last week – whether their church was a conventional or house church. Small group attenders were more likely to read the Bible personally (84%). Bible reading levels among church volunteers (77%) and Sunday school attenders (77%) were sandwiched between the other forms of group engagement.
9. &nbs
p; Many religiously active Americans lean toward conservative political views, though there is more diversity than expected – especially among house church attenders. Churchgoers, small group attenders, and church volunteers are likely to be either politically conservative or moderate. House church attenders are unique in that one-quarter of such participants describe themselves as political liberals and nearly half are registered Democrats – uncharacteristically high levels compared with other faith activities, perhaps connected with the above-average proportion of black adults who report house church attendance. Further demonstrating their non-conventional and independent inclinations, one-quarter of house church attenders said they are not registered to vote, twice the national average.
posted June 28, 2010 at 2:44 pm
I have no conclusions to draw, but it’s interesting.
posted June 28, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Thanks for posting this helpful summary. And I wonder how some of the measurements of personal piety, such as Bible reading, have dipped over time?
posted June 28, 2010 at 6:04 pm
#5 Catholics are not particularly active beyond worship attendance, while evangelicals participate in many different forms of “group faith.”
I have been thinking a bit lately about why there is an attraction to a more liturgical, or perhaps Catholic, faith. I guess I’m speaking personally but I sense from the blog world that I’m not alone in this attraction.
Anyway #5 peaked my interest because I’m thinking for those of us who have deconstructed our evangelical church upbringing to the point of realizing that the church is a sending agent and not a place to stay then perhaps the Catholic tradition has a lot to teach us.
From personal experience churches that have created an environment of group faith become very codependent, clique, and separate from reality. There are so many church activities to partake in that we never get to the business of going.
Whereas, from my limited perspective, it would seem as if many of the traditions in the Catholic Church could be helpful in directing us more to God. Which in turn should lead us to loving others more and more.
Perhaps this is a bit off subject but there you have it…
posted June 28, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Interesting how the pioneering spirit of the West even expresses itself in the realm of house churches.
posted June 29, 2010 at 10:34 am
I am interested in the second point, namely because I pastor a church that is made up primarily of young singles in their twenties. The point mentioned above is very much a reality for us, which is something we are trying to address. In a way, though, it gives me hope.
posted June 20, 2011 at 3:22 pm
It is interesting how many misquotes you have in this ‘article’. Re-read the definition of “single adults who have never experienced matrimony” in section 2 for starters. Your misquote – “that is, they are currently divorced, separated or widowed”. This kind of sloppy plagiarism [that is will not show up in searches for plagiarized items] shows me that you in this only for the ad revenues and are not to be trusted.