church attendance

I read the article “Alabama Baptists, others consider why only half of US adults say attending church is important” in the April 3 edition of The Alabama Baptist with interest.

The reasons for low or infrequent attendance are myriad, but one thing is for sure. People who don’t go to church think that whatever else they’re doing with that time is more important. Whether it’s sleeping, reading the newspaper, watching TV or whatever. That tells you how important church attendance is to them.

One other hard fact flies in the face of what Barna reports as well. 

A couple years ago, The Alabama Baptist published figures on church attendance and membership in Alabama by county. The figures showed that attendance at Southern Baptist Convention churches in the six largest population centers in Alabama represents only 33.28 percent of membership. So to state the 49 percent of the general population thinks church attendance is important tells me that’s what those folks said, but that’s not what those folks really believe. 

Expressing a preference for a religion doesn’t mean a thing, and such surveys as this one are meaningless in trying to address the problems.

Robert G. Cleveland
Pelham, Ala.