Between Easter and Christmas, Mother’s Day may be the most likely day people will attend church, according to a recent study by LifeWay Research.
In a national poll of 1,000 Protestant pastors, LifeWay Research asked what the three highest attendance Sundays were throughout the year. Mother’s Day (59 percent) ranked third behind the standard religious powerhouse holidays of Easter (93 percent) and Christmas (84 percent).
Scott McConnell, director of LifeWay Research, said, “Clearly, mothers want to be present for the affirmation that is typically offered in most churches, but families also are present knowing their attendance will honor their mothers. Many families make church attendance on Mother’s Day nearly obligatory.”
The study asked: “At your church, which day typically has the highest attendance for worship services?” In addition to Easter, Christmas, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, three other days were listed: Homecoming or anniversary of the church (16 percent), a special day to invite friends (14 percent), Fourth of July (4 percent), and 26 percent indicated another day. There was significant variation in responses when filtered by geographic regions and by educational level:
• Churches with less than 50 in attendance are least likely to select Easter (41 percent) and most likely to select Mother’s Day (9 percent).
• Protestant pastors with a graduate degree are less likely to select Mother’s day (3 percent to 8 percent) than pastors with at most a bachelor’s degree.
• Protestant pastors of churches in the South are most likely to select Homecoming (9 percent). No other region has more than 1 percent of pastors making this selection.
• Churches with attendance up to 49 people (8 percent) and between 50 and 99 people (7 percent) are more likely to select Homecoming.
“Holidays and special days, regardless of which ones, offer an opportunity for churches to host guests who might not otherwise attend church,” McConnell said. (Click to read the full LifeWay.com article.)