The numbers aren't encouraging. Church attendance is down in rich, industrialized countries. In the United States, for example, recent surveys put attendance at about 40 percent. And some experts argue that attendance may be as low as 20 percent."How many people go regularly to weekly religious services?" religioustolerance.org. In less developed countries, however, church attendance is very strong, particularly among denominations that have a "top down" hierarchy and that present absolute truths.
"Church is about growing deeper in our faith and in our community to one another. When that happens, that true community provides an environment that is naturally attractive."—Mike Dangelo
Experts offer well-researched reasons for this disparity (see book review, p. 36), but to let numbers alone do the talking about Church is to ignore a nearly 2,000-year-old institution's proven ability to reinvent itself.
