What is everyone up to these days?

Levels of Engagement with Religious Versus Other Organizations (June 1, 2023)

A common belief these days is that we are living in an age of ever-increasing demands on our time.  Work, family life and volunteer demands seem to be always at our heels.  This is theorized by some as a factor driving up individual stress levels and generally being detrimental to society.

This is a complaint heard at church when it comes to getting people to be more regular at Sunday services and being involved in church administration and ministry activities.  Churches sometimes use this as a rationalization as to why they just need to accept that congregants are not always going to have time to participate in church activities.  

Interestingly, the 43% of religious people who cite this concern (lack of time) is around the same rate reported by religiously-ambiguous and non-religious people.1  But are there any numbers that can help clarify this issue?  

A Statistics Canada 2013 General Social Survey on Social Identity examined social engagement by Canadians over the period 2003 to 20132.  There is a lot of data available from this survey, but of relevance to this subject are statistics on people’s involvement in a group, organization or association of any type.  They show that the percentage of people who said they were involved with a group went from 61% in 2003 to 65% in 2013.  This says to me that people are finding the time to get more engaged in events other than work.  

But does this apply to all age groups?  Surprisingly, yes.  In a stratification of seven age groups, all but one showed increased involvement of either three or four percentage points.  The outlier was folks who were 75 years old or older.  Their engagement increased seven percentage points. 

To better understand these numbers, Statistics Canada looked at the kinds of groups people are getting involved with.  They organized the groups into eleven categories.  Religious-affiliated groups came in fifth, with 14% of survey respondents having said they were involved with such an organization.  The four groups that had greater involvement were sports & rec at 31%; union and professional at 28%; culture, education and hobby at 20%; and school and neighbourhood at 17%.  (All 2013 figures).  

There is a little more information to be drawn from these numbers.  Of the five highest groups, only religious-affiliated people show a decline from 2003 when it was at 17%, versus 14% in 2013.  

So, when a church is considering why it is difficult to maintain Sunday attendance and involvement in church groups, they should know that the claims of being too busy are more nuanced than they seem on the surface.  Yes, they may be getting busier, but this is partly because they are increasing their involvement with non-religious groups.

Let’s look at one more statistic.  Considering the same eleven categories of organizations, religious-affiliated came second with respect to the frequency of involvement.  52% of people involved with religious groups indicated they had weekly activity.  (Sports & rec. scored 54%).  This suggests that involvement with religious organizations is more costly to people in terms of their time.

This could be a driver towards low and declining involvement, and should be another consideration when churches recruit for volunteer positions and invite people to services and ministry groups.  The more churches ask of people’s time, the less people will be willing or able to provide it.  Further, churches need to make such experiences as rewarding as those offered by the other above-noted contenders for their volunteer time.  

____________________

1. Bibby, Reginald W, Resilient Gods: being pro-religious, low religious or no religious in Canada,

     UBC Press, 2017, page 96

2. Statistics Canada, Civic engagement and political participation in Canada,

    https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-652-x/89-652-x2015006-eng.htm