Isn’t it great that our church holds together so tightly?

Review of Religions with High Rates of Attendance and Belief (June 1, 2023)

What makes a successful church?  Surely high rates of attendance and belief would be right up there.  So let’s examine some data on this matter.

A Statistics Canada study of religiosity in Canada reported in 20211 provides statistics related to attendance and belief by claimed affiliation.  Below listed are every religious affiliation that scored over 50% on regular attendance (group activity at least once per month).

Anabaptists (75%)

Baptists (54%)

Jehovah Witnesses (86%)

Latter Day Saints (80%)

Pentecostal (72%)

Below is a list of those affiliations with 85% or more of their adherents saying their religious or spiritual beliefs are somewhat or very important.

Anabaptists (93%)

Baptists (86%)

Jehovah Witnesses (98%)

Latter Day Saints (96%)

Methodists and Wesleyan (87%)

Pentecostal (94%)

Just to be clear, this analysis included all religions reported, including non-Christian ones such as Buddhist, Hindu, Indigenous, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh.

Now comes the dichotomy.  The adherents of these churches embrace their religion tightly, but not many people care to join them.  Of all Canadians, only 3.7% claim an affiliation with a religion noted above.  Meanwhile, 59.5% noted another Christian affiliation.  Crudely, you might say other religions are 16 times more attractive to those affiliated with a Christian church.  Yet, each of these 'conservative' churches listed have been active in Canada for a long time and have made sustained efforts to increase their fold.  In fact, these churches could be described as more evangelical than average, thus being more adherent to the Great Commission.  Yet, not much reaping is going on.

I expect if you were to survey people not of these specific religions to give some adjectives for such churches, words such as conservative, evangelical, strict, and demanding may be provided.  Whether or not such attributes are good or bad, or even accurate, the majority of Christians in Canada aren’t buying what they’re selling.

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1. Statistics Canada, Religiosity in Canada and its evolution from 1985 to 2019, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2021001/article/00010-eng.htm