Weekly churchgoers are statistically more likely to embrace biblical views than those who don’t regularly attend church services, according to just-released data.
Lifeway Research surveyed 3,001 Protestant churchgoers in the U.S. from Jan. 6-15, 2025, asking respondents — both frequent and infrequent service attenders — whether they agreed with a series of statements that either aligned with or contradicted Christian teachings.
Infrequent churchgoers were defined as those who attend services once or twice a month, while frequent churchgoers were defined as those who attend services on a weekly basis.
Of those surveyed, 61% of frequent churchgoers said they strongly disagreed with the claim “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God,” compared to just 37% of infrequent attenders. And 85% of frequent churchgoers said the “biblical accounts of the physical (bodily) resurrection of Jesus are completely accurate” and the “event actually occurred,” while only 64% of infrequent attenders said the same.
“This relationship between lack of attendance and theological positions should sound an alarm among church leaders and dedicated Christians,” Daniel Price, a Lifeway statistician, said in a statement. “Increasing attendance alone will not guarantee an improvement in the acceptance of theological positions.”
Eighty-four percent of frequent churchgoers agreed “God created marriage as a union between one man and one woman.” Only 68% of infrequent attendees felt the same way.
Relatedly, 68% of frequent churchgoers strongly agreed with the sentiment that sex outside of “traditional marriage” is sinful. Forty-two percent of infrequent churchgoers said the same.
Seventy-one percent of frequent church attenders strongly disagreed that “people should be able to choose their gender regardless of their biological sex,” while 51% of infrequent churchgoers disagreed.
McConnell said, “Worship services typically include proclamation of the Word of God and uniting in songs and readings drawn from the Word of God. So one way to encourage attendance is explaining the Bible’s importance and encouraging its prioritization.”
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