Most pastors, staff, and active church members have a good idea when attendance will drop on a given Sunday. Churches develop a discernible pattern that is repeated each year.
We asked over 400 people, mostly church leaders, to identify their lowest attended Sundays on a recurring basis. Though our study was not scientific (comments and likes on two social media channels plus our Church Answers community,) the large number of responses developed into a clear pattern.
To be clear, every church is different, and every community is different. Different contexts give different responses. For example:
- A congregation with a lower median age will likely have a lower Mother’s Day attendance than a church with older congregants. The younger church members travel to their mother’s home.
- Hunting and fishing season can adversely affect church attendance. Deer season was mentioned most frequently.
- Travel and Sunday sports can be a killer to church attendance. Sunday sports for kids and youth have become the newest god to worship.
- Geographic location is important. For example, a church in a warm destination may have an influx of “snowbirds” in the winter, and then a decline when they leave.
- The weather of the day is an important factor too. If it’s raining, attendance will be down. If it’s sunny and warm, attendance will be down. In the South, if a snow flurry is forecast for Sunday, the grocery stores are packed on Saturday, and the churches are nearly empty as the people contend with 1/16th inch of snow on the ground.
Still, most churches have a pattern of low attendance that is consistent. Here are the top ten responses we received, ranked by frequency of response.
- Father’s Day.
- The Sunday after Thanksgiving day.
- Memorial Day weekend Sunday.
- Labor Day weekend Sunday.
- The Sundays before and after Christmas.
- The Sunday nearest the Fourth of July.
- The Sunday nearest to New Year’s Day.
- Time changes: spring forward.
- Spring and fall break Sundays.
- Summer Sundays, particularly in July.
Do these low attendance days align with your church’s low attendance days? What is the lowest-attended day in your church? Let me hear from you.
