Were You There Last Sunday?

Generally when I go for my regular dental checkup the hygienist will ask if I floss my teeth. I reply that "they are flossed regularly." Sometimes the technician is impressed, until I explain myself. They are flossed every time I come to the dentist's office--that is regularly. According to a study quoted by Rebecca Barnes and Lindly Lowry, only about half of those who say they attend church are actually there on Sunday morning. The report's author, Olson's "findings reveal that the actual rate of church attendance from head counts is less than half of the 40% the pollsters report. Numbers from actual counts of people in Orthodox Christian churches (Catholic, mainline and evangelical) show that in 2004, 17.7% of the population attended a Christian church on any given weekend." (You can find some other interesting data on Olson's website, (http://www.theamericanchurch.org/free-state-of-the-church-2008-download.html) There are churches that are growing--they tend to be younger congregations--and we need to learn from them, but since this is a very short article, let me offer a simple solution (knowing it is inadequate, but confident it will provide a start). It would appear that when Mr.Barna or Gallup calls a significant number of professing church goers give an answer similar to my flossing report. It is called the Halo-effect. We want to look good, so when asked a question about something that could make us look good or bad, we tend to find a way to justify giving a reply that flatters us. It may help us look good, but it does no good. People who say they attend church but don't show up: Provide no encouragement to other Christians by that behavior. Empty seats aren't very stimulating. (Hebrews 10:24-25) Likely are not helping the church with the worldwide work to which the Lord has called us. (Matthew 28:19-20) Are probably growing colder--meaning they are not only contributing to the churches increasing irrelevance, but are helping to accelerate the process. It has been popular for a long time now to make fun of the old Sunday School pin. Do you remember them? You got a succession of more impressive looking badges for "perfect attendance for a certain period of time. After a while you started adding bars for numbers of years of faithfully showing up. I can remember some old-timers who looked like they were wearing military decorations. They could trip on them! How quaint, how pre-postmodern, how prone to hypocrisy and other vices that 21st Century types despise. But you know when I think back to Mr. Lietzow, Ed Ostrowski, Kaye Marseau, and Mr. & Mrs. Baber--perfect attenders all--I see folk who had a profound impact on my life. A large part of that impression simply came from the fact that they showed up--They were there. It's STTA.