Variable Attendance

This past weekend was a major example of the variable attendance rates at churches. On Christmas Eve we had only one service at our campus this year and one service at the church plant. We were filled to capacity at the church and even had reports of a few families that left because they could not find a place to sit (although we still had some room left in the balcony and up front). Our church plant reportedly had a good crowd with just over 100 people for their first ever worship service. If the church plant had not had a service we could not have fit everyone in at the church.

Then just two days later we have our normal three Sunday morning worship services with less than half of the number who came out for Christmas Eve. We could have put everyone into one service even if we doubled the total attendance. So why was there such a large variable in attendance? Several factors could have played a role:

• since it was the day after Christmas and families may have been traveling to visit with relatives out of the area;
• visiting relatives may have been leaving that morning, so families stayed home to see them off;
• weather reports were predicting 4-8" of snow throughout the day, and even though the snow had not started until after noon, families may have decided to sleep in just in case the snow started earlier; and
• some people may have skipped church to take advantage of the after Christmas sales going on in stores.

It is amazing how a few variables could affect the attendance by such a large number (400-500 people). I think that the sermon topic was very well timed, unfortunately the people who needed to hear it were most likely sleeping in or out shopping.