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Interesting question... some co-workers and I got talking about their church's attendance. Seems there is a growing trend of people only showing up for church and skipping Sunday school. So, lets do a poll:

1- Number on the roll (members)
2- Sunday School attendance (if applicable)
3- Church Service attendance

I don't have that data, but personally, if I were to skip one, I would go for the Sunday School time over the other (what ever it actually is now-a-days).

I don't have numbers for the individual parish. I do know that SS gets quite a few parents in the adult classes because they have children attending SS. It presents a ripe moment for teaching the faith. Sometimes we, the old codgers, will go and then it becomes an opportunity for a Titus 2 teaching moment.

steve-in-kville wrote:Interesting question... some co-workers and I got talking about their church's attendance. Seems there is a growing trend of people only showing up for church and skipping Sunday school. So, lets do a poll:

1- Number on the roll (members)
2- Sunday School attendance (if applicable)
3- Church Service attendance

Here is a real-life example from last Sunday at a COB congregation:

1- 500
2- 342
3- 390

There is very, very little of this happening in the intermediate conservative churches that I know of.

Sunday School is where I first fell in love with the Bible.

I have often taught Sunday School - right now I am leading a class on prayer where we just pray the whole time. Nothing academic, just prayer.

RZehr wrote:There is very, very little of this happening in the intermediate conservative churches that I know of.

What's happening? People skipping Sunday school? I would tend to agree with you if that's what you meant.

And don't get me started on churches that have Saturday evening services... that's for another day!

In a typical CMC church there is a lot more (sometimes double) attendance in the service vs. Sunday school. It's easy to see since it's right in the bulletin.

In a Church of God in Christ, Mennonite congregation, virtually everyone goes to Sunday school, but if you are running late and miss it, it is not terribly disgraceful to attend the main church service only. Usually 1 or 2 young couples or families a Sunday are in this boat (and sometimes me, that's how I notice).

The bit about 500 members and 390 in attendance is the part that seems disturbing to me. Since we are a small congregation, depending on what reunions are held elsewhere, we may on the rare occasion have almost half the members missing but they will usually be in church some other place.

steve-in-kville wrote:Here is a real-life example from last Sunday at a COB congregation:

1- 500
2- 342
3- 390

I haven't checked in a while, but I think these percentages are similar to what my church experiences. Part of the cause of the discrepancy is the amount of "dead wood" (on the membership roll yet haven't regularly attended in years) we've had. A few years back it seemed they did some clearing-out, though.