A new study by the California-based Barna Group says churches shouldn’t rely on parenthood as a catalyst that will bring people back to church. In a survey of 670 American parents, 50 per cent said having children did not influence their connection to a church, with four per cent saying it actually decreased involvement.
“Many religious workers assume that parenthood motivates people to return to their spiritual traditions and to church attendance,” said Barna president David Kinnaman in the study’s summary. “Sometimes faith leaders go so far as to simply wait for parenthood to occur, when they figure the ‘real work’ of ministry can begin.”
Children do act as a catalyst for parents. Yet, this is not the most common experience, notes the study. “While parenthood can reset people’s priorities, having children is not an automatic faith-starter for most adults. Family background and their personal faith history impact their behaviour.”
It isn’t surprising then that unchurched parents (60 per cent) reported they were less likely than churched parents to change their church-going habits after having children. However, even 41 per cent of churched parents said having children did not change their level of church engagement. Attenders of large churches were more likely to increase their level of church involvement, perhaps suggesting that larger churches are more attentive to the needs of families.
Dr. Reginald Bibby would agree with this last point. As a well known researcher of, among other things, congregational behaviour, and a professor of sociology at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Bibby said a ministry that not only speaks to parents, but also offers a meaningful, competent church school for their children is what will make parents come back to (and stay in) church on a regular basis.
“Few people have maintained that mere parenthood leads to religious involvement,” Bibby told the Record in an email. “The two keys appear to be religious history and the quality of ministry available both to the parents and their children.”
Bibby said if a couple has been involved with a particular church group, they presumably will expose their children to their church — hence the Barna finding that churched parents are more likely than the unchurched to head back to church after having kids. However, and perhaps more importantly, if the church responds to young families by having a conscious and good ministry to children, as well as their parents, then there is “every reason to believe that such ‘good ministry’ will result in ongoing attendance.
“In short, if the parents can have a positive worship experience and the children can have a positive preschool or church school experience, everyone is happy and will find it worth their while to show up on a fairly regular basis.”
Furthermore, said Bibby, having children when both parents are employed outside the home appears to contribute to a decline in church attendance.
“The primary reason is hardly a shocker: the couple is already feeling a time squeeze and doesn’t need the added aggravation of bringing kids to a church where they have to struggle to keep them under control, in lieu of the church having a good ministry in place for the children.
“My research documents what most of us know well: that young couples are highly pragmatic about how they spend their time. If they are going to give services time on a regular basis, environments have to be created that make it possible for them — and their children — to have an experience that adds to their lives.”
Bibby also noted that in charting participation patterns in the post-1960s through the end of the century, he found that with mainline Protestants, a major factor in attendance attrition was the acceleration of dual career parents. In many cases, mainline Protestant groups — notably United, Anglican, and Presbyterian churches — did not respond well to the reality of the new pressures couples were experiencing.
“The result? People did not stop attending regularly because they were mad at the churches; they simply gave them the time they found they warranted under the circumstances, namely occasional attendance.
“The key is meaningful ministry for children and parents alike. If only one of the two is in place, that’s not enough. If neither is in place, obviously parents have better things to do with their time.”
