If you ask them...they will come!

I want to share with you some encouraging news that comes from a recent survey of 469 “formerly churched adults”—those who in the past regularly attended church but no longer do so. This survey was conducted last summer by LifeWay Research. According to the survey, 59% of formerly churched adults left their church because of “changes in life situation”. The top life-changing situations that were submitted included, “simply got too busy to attend church”, “family/home responsibilities prevented church attendance”, “moved too far from church”, “work situation”, and “divorce/separation”. That’s why they left!

Now here’s the good news! More than 2/3 of formerly churched adults are open to the idea of attending church regularly again! 4% of these adults are actually looking for a church to attend right now and the majority of the others are open to returning to church! Now keep in mind that the survey indicated that these people on average have not attended church regularly in 14 years.

Now here’s the really good news! What would motivate the “formerly churched” to return? The top reasons why people would want to return are, “in order to get closer to God”, “in order to be around those with similar values”, and “in order to make friends”.

Now get this, when asked what would inspire them to regularly attend church, the following answers were given: (more than one answer could be given by each respondent).

• 58% said that they would attend if they felt like it was time to return.
• 41% said that they would attend if a friend or acquaintance invited them.
• 35% said that they would attend if they knew there were people like them at church.
• 31% said that they would attend if they felt that God were calling them to visit a church.
• 25% said that they would attend if their children asked them to go with them to church.
• 25% said that they would attend if an adult family member invited them to go to church with them.
  

Easter is an awesome opportunity for us to reach out to the "formerly churched" and the "unchurched". Make sure that you don't celebrate Easter this year alone!