PCA does keep worship records;
attendance not 100 percent
By Frank J. Smith, Ph.D., D.D., To The Layman Online , May 20, 2009
The recent article comparing stats for the Presbyterian Church of America with those of the Presbyterian Church (USA) reports that average morning worship attendance figures for the PCA are not available. This is not true.
Towards the back of the PCA Yearbook, there is a section entitled “Statistical Report for all Presbyteries.” One of the categories gives the average morning worship attendance, including a line that adds up the numbers from all of the presbyteries.
The figure for the entire PCA given in the 2004 Yearbook for the year 2003 obviously is in error: the Director of the PCA Historical Center, Wayne Sparkman, calculates the correct number should be somewhere between 235,064 and 235,149. For the next four years, the figures are as follows:
2005 Yearbook – 228,575
2006 Yearbook – 235,413
2007 Yearbook – 235,845
2008 Yearbook – 240,592
Comparing these figures with communicant membership, we see that they’re not far off. For example, in 2003, there were 259,534 communicants (that includes 256,224 communicant members of churches plus 3,310 ministers), which is comparable to the roughly 235,000 average attendance; and in 2007, there were 275,036 communicants (271,495 communicant members plus 3,541 ministers) in comparison to 240,592 in attendance. Perhaps that is why the claim was made that attendance is close to 100 percent of membership. However, that claim seems a bit inflated when one considers that those in attendance would include non-communicants (as well as visitors).
Comparing the average attendance to the total membership yields a ratio more like three to four rather than one to one. For example, in 2003, the percentage of average attendees (approximately 235,100) to total membership (320,400) was 73.38 percent; and in 2007, the percentage of average attendees (240,592) to total membership (345,582) was 69.62 percent. That’s not quite as good as a hundred percent, but still considerably better than the percentage for the PCUSA –another indicator of the difference between a vibrant church and one which is dead, dying and decaying.
Sparkman tells me that he will soon be adding a new column on the statistical summary available on the PCA Historical Center’s Web site which will give the average attendance through the years. Those interested may peruse the statistics at
http://www.pcahistory.org/main/pcastats.html.
Dr. Smith is editor, Presbyterian International News Service, and stated supply in the North Atlanta Reformed Presbyterian Church, www.atlanta-rpc.org.