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September 19, 2013 By Ray Deck III   |   9 Comments

Why People Return to Church

The US Congregational Life Survey shed some light on why people visit a new church, and why they return after their initial visit. Four questions from the survey stood out:

How people find out about a church

  • 49%: Someone invited them
  • 23%: They passed by the church
  • 9%: They’re looking for a specific denomination
  • 6%: They saw advertising

Why people make a return visit

  • 55%: Friendliness of people
  • 34%: Sermon quality
  • 30%: Overall worship experience

How churches follow up after the first visit

  • 24%: No follow-up
  • 20%: Letter or postcard from the pastor
  • 18%: Call from a church member
  • 13%: Call from the pastor

How churches attract new people (growing vs. established churches)

  • 72% vs. 43%: Call visitors
  • 85% vs. 72%: Use email
  • 50% vs. 31%: Visit visitors
  • 70% vs. 71%: Church website

 Observations

  • Denominations aren’t the most significant factor. Only 9% of visitors heard about a church because of its denomination, compared to 49% who became aware because of a specific invitation.
  • Personal invitations are more important than flashy advertising. 49% knew of a church vs. 6% knowing based on advertising—that’s a huge margin.
  • Children’s programming didn’t rank high for return visits. General friendliness gets credit for 55% of return visits.
  • Nearly a quarter of visitors never receive any kind of follow-up.Visitors should feel welcomed and valued when attending a new church, and following up is an easy way to acknowledge that.
  • Phone calls are effective. 72% of growing churches call visitors, but only 43% of established churches do.
  • The website makes no statistical impact on church growth.

What surprises you here? How does this data suggest you should operate differently? Tell us in comments.

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Filed Under: Church Technology, Communications, Presentation Software, Website Builder Tagged With: church growth, church visitors, church website, proclaim blog

Comments

  1. Philip Taylor says

    September 28, 2013 at 1:34 pm

    Very Interesting numbers. Church is about relations both horizontal and vertical

    Reply
  2. Flora C Greene says

    September 28, 2013 at 7:35 pm

    Been preaching this for years,

    Reply
  3. Keith CookSr says

    October 15, 2013 at 3:21 am

    These statistics also reflect what we have found in our On The Go Ministries – Keith Cook Team surveying and working with churches all over the USA. Great presentation!

    Reply
  4. David Speas says

    January 8, 2014 at 4:57 am

    Great article for my preacher buddies!

    Reply
  5. David Speas says

    January 8, 2014 at 4:57 am

    Great article for my preacher buddies!

    Reply
  6. Daniel Speas says

    January 8, 2014 at 5:16 am

    Ronnie Palmer, Brian Hughes interesting stuff.

    Reply
  7. Pat Tiller says

    November 18, 2016 at 10:13 am

    What is the % of people who will return to church when comparing the pastor doing the follow-up visit and a layperson doing the follow-up visit?

    Reply
    • Ryan Nelson says

      November 18, 2016 at 4:16 pm

      Great question Pat. It looks like the survey data Ray used for this post is no longer available. When you remove the follow up methods listed in this post, that leaves 25% of churches that used a follow up method not listed here (which I assume includes follow up visits from a pastor and follow up visits from a member). Everything I’ve seen seems to indicate follow up visits are primarily used today in more rural communities, or in churches with a higher percentage of elderly people. As for the percentage of people who come back because of the follow up visit, there’s no way to tell from this survey data (“friendliness of people” could likely include this sort of follow up).

      However, it’s also worth considering, how many people choose not to come back because they felt the follow up visit was inappropriate? When people give someone their contact information, it’s with the expectation that you will call, mail, or email them something, not that someone is going to show up on their doorstep for an unexpected visit. This is a great post that shows how many people react to these unsolicited visits: http://thomrainer.com/2016/01/seven-ways-not-to-follow-up-with-church-guests/

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. How to Close the Feedback Loop and Improve Your Message says:
    April 16, 2019 at 1:21 pm

    […] of pastors spend between ten and eighteen hours studying for their message on a weekly basis. Thirty-four percent of new guests return to a church as a direct result of a message they heard. In his post on why people […]

    Reply

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