Congregations that recognize and train volunteers, Roozen said, are more than twice as likely to rate themselves as spiritually vital.

The study, described as “a public profile of the organizational backbone of religion in America — congregations — at the beginning of a new millennium,” will be replicated in 2010.

Large congregations are more likely than small churches to emphasize evangelism and recruitment of new members but significantly less likely to contact members who stop attending, according to a recent study.
A little more than half of surveyed congregations said they definitely would contact an active member who stopped attending to find out why, and another quarter said they probably would.

Among churches larger than 500 members, however, just 37 percent reported a practice of contacting members who stop attending.

Hartford Seminary’s David Roozen, author of the Faith Communities Today 2008 survey, said the finding “suggests a potentially simple way such congregations could enhance their growth prospects.”

The study, conducted by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, an interfaith coalition of denominations and faith groups formed 10 years ago, found that churches that strongly view themselves to be “spiritually vital and alive” are more intentional in their attentiveness to new attendees than less spiritually vital congregations.

Just as there are obstacles to attracting new members, Roozen said, there can be obstacles that make it difficult for people to participate regularly in their chosen congregation. Time — typically because of school- or sports-related activities or work schedules — rated significantly higher than location factors like driving distance, parking and fear of crime, the study found.

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