Americans Have Higher Church Attendance Standards Than Pastors
Most Americans may not regularly attend church themselves, but they have a higher threshold for calling someone a regular churchgoer than pastors.
According to a recent Lifeway Research study of U.S. adults, 53% say someone should be considered a regular churchgoer or regular church attender only if they attend church services at least weekly, including 10% who say they must attend more than once a week.
A previous Lifeway Research study of Americans who attend Protestant or non-denominational church services at least once a month found they share a similar perspective as the average American. Most churchgoers (59%) say someone must attend at least weekly to be considered a regular church attender, including 14% who say more than once a week.
Pastors, however, have a different outlook. A 2022 Lifeway Research study of pastors found they had a much more lenient standard. Around one in six pastors (16%) believe only those who attend at least weekly should qualify as a regular churchgoer.
“Pastors’ perspective is following the behavior they see, and they are seeing churchgoers attend less often,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “But when Americans hear ‘regular churchgoer,’ they picture someone attending every week or very close to it.”
Churchgoer qualifications
Not all U.S. adults believe someone can only qualify as a regular churchgoer if they attend every week; some are a little more lax. One in five believe the standard is less than weekly but at least monthly, including 6% who say three times a month, 8% twice a month and 6% once a month.
Around one in seven Americans say it’s 10 times a year or less, including 2% who say six to 10 times a year, 2% who say four or five times, 4% who say two or three and 5% who say the threshold for a regular churchgoer is at least once a year. Another 14% say they aren’t sure.
Catholics (48%) and Protestants (44%) are more likely than the religiously unaffiliated (37%) to say the threshold for regular church attendance is weekly, but the unaffiliated are the most likely to say it is more than once a week (15%).
Contrary to their personal practices, those who rarely or never attend religious services are the most likely to say the standard is weekly (45%) and those who attend more than once a week are the most likely to place the threshold at one to three times a year (33%).
Older Americans are more likely to have a higher standard for regular church attendance. Those aged 50-64 (54%) and 65 and older (50%) are more likely than those 18-34 (37%) or 35-49-year-olds (33%) to see weekly churchgoing as the standard.
Meanwhile, the younger someone is, the more likely they are to classify those who attend less often as regular churchgoers. Those who are 65 and older (3%) and 50–64-year-olds (8%) are less likely than those who are 35-49 (18%) or 18-34 (25%) to say regular churchgoers include those who attend between one and 10 times a year.
“Those who grew up in a generation with fewer people attending church are more likely to apply the regular churchgoer label to those attending less than once a month,” said McConnell. “Once a month may fit people’s definition of ‘regular’ for going to a ballgame or eating at a specific restaurant but would fall short of expectations for working out regularly. Young adults appear to have a range of views about what type of activity church attendance is. Is it a healthy necessity or an occasional delight for those who attend?”
While 53% of U.S. adults believe a regular churchgoer attends church at least weekly, 60% believe that attendance should include a church service, not just any church activity.
Among Americans, 33% say the basis for considering someone a regular churchgoer is how often they attend church services in person, and another 27% say it’s based on how often they attend services either in person or online.
Around one in four (27%) believe regular church attendance can include any church activity, including 12% who say it’s based on how often someone attends in person and 15% who say how often a person attends any church activity either in person or online. Another 13% say they’re not sure.
Self-identified Protestants are less likely than those who are religiously unaffiliated to say the basis for churchgoing is how often a person attends church services in person (30% vs. 38%). On the other hand, those with evangelical beliefs are more likely than those without such beliefs to make that the standard (38% vs. 32%). Additionally, those who attend church services at least once a week are the most likely (52%).
The more formal education a person has, the less likely they often are to restrict regular churchgoing to in-person church services. Those who are high school graduates or less (39%) are more likely than those with some college (31%) or with a bachelor’s degree (26%) to say regular churchgoing is based specifically on how often they attend church services in person.
Even though pastors are more lenient on how often a person must attend to be considered a regular churchgoer, they are stricter than Americans on the type of church activities a person must attend, according to the previous study. More than a third (37%) believe it can only include in-person church services.
“Presence at church services is one way to represent one’s faith. Pastors lean more toward being present in person, but almost as many Americans consider someone a regular churchgoer if they are attending church online,” said McConnell.
Americans’ views of the pews
In general, Americans have positive views of church attendance, but they believe fewer of their fellow citizens are actually showing up to church.
When given a list of eight words to describe church attendance in America today, U.S. adults are most likely to choose positive descriptors. More than a third (38%) say the practice is acceptable. Around 3 in 10 describe church attendance as admirable (31%) or common (28%). Almost 1 in 5 see it as popular (18%) or expected (18%).
Not everyone sees church attendance as laudatory. Around 1 in 10 Americans describe it as outdated (11%) or unusual (10%). One in 20 (5%) see attending church today as useless. Another 9% say none of these words describe church attendance, and 13% aren’t sure.
“While few Americans view church negatively, less than 1 in 5 see any cultural nudge from popularity or expectation to attend,” said McConnell.
Young adults, those 18-34, are among the most likely to choose positive or benign descriptors for church attendance, such as admirable (34%), common (32%), popular (29%) and expected (29%) but also among the most likely to refer to it as unusual (14%) and useless (8%).
Despite their own generally positive perspectives on church attendance, most believe the practice is trending negative in the U.S. Half believe the church in America is either declining (42%) or dying (9%).
Far fewer describe the U.S. church as stable (18%), growing (10%) or thriving (6%), while 4% say none of those sentiments describes the modern trends and 10% aren’t sure.
A 2025 Lifeway Research study found half of U.S. Protestant churches (52%) say they’ve grown at least 4% in the past two years, 33% are plateaued and 15% are declining by at least 4%. Additionally, few pastors (4%) believe their church will be one that dies in the next 10 years, according to another 2025 Lifeway Research study.
“The widespread nature of recent growth in churches appears to be largely the slow return of people who had attended before,” said McConnell. “It is yet to be seen whether growth will continue now that new people need to be convinced to attend or if the pessimists will prove correct.”
Those who rarely or never attend a religious service are the most likely to say the church is declining in America (48%). But those who attend more than once a week are the most likely to believe the church in America is dying (28%).
For more information, view the complete report.
Aaron Earls is the senior writer at Lifeway Research.