‘Unchurched’ worshipping more, ‘churched’ less?

USA Today: 'Unchurched' worshipping more, 'churched' less?

A new survey shows that "unchurched" Americans may be worshipping more, and "churched" Americans worshipping less, than many people might think.

Numerous surveys track trends among "unchurched" Americans, but what does "unchurched" really mean? Does it mean never attending religious services, not attending regularly, or to simply be unaffiliated with a particular congregation?

Phoenix, Ariz.-based Ellison Research said the most common definitions "often don't tell a complete story about how Americans attend religious worship services."

The Ellison survey, released July 14, showed that 40% of the "unchurched" do not entirely stay away from worship services, and 37% of "churched" Americans do not make it to religious services every week, even though they consider themselves regular attenders.

"There's often an assumption that people either do attend worship services or they don't," said Ellison President Ron Sellers. "But what we find in this study is that one out of every five Americans is attending worship services at least occasionally during the year, even though they are not regularly involved." …