Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) is one commonly used indicator of the strength of a worshiping community. There are problems with this as it does not take into account the ministry of the people to their community. It also misses the importance of mid-week liturgies or that more families are attending less frequently while considering the family "all in" as members of a congregation. Nonetheless, ASA is useful. But getting Sunday attendance to more than 100 must be more difficult in a county of 25,000 people than in a county of 100,000 people, right? 

To add some perspective, since 2011, I have taken the ASA of every congregation in the Diocese and divide it by the population within a five-mile radius of the church. Why a five-mile radius when plenty of people drive further to church? Honestly, because I had access to that statistic for every congregation and it seemed a useful measure. Church with 3,000 within a 5-mile radius, seldom have much larger populations just beyond that boundary and if they do, it is less likely for someone to leave a populated area to head to a less populous place for church. We tend to go farther in directions we are accustomed to traveling, and less far when it is not on one of our usual routes.

So how do we do?
It turns out, that on average, .35% of the population within a five-mile radius is reflected in the ASA of the church. If a Diocese of Georgia congregation in an area with 10,000 people on Sunday is average, the church will have 35 people in church on Sunday. That average reflects a range from 2% to .02%. The church with the highest attendance to population ratio is Christ Church, Frederica (pictured above). With 315 in ASA with 16,028 living within five miles,roughly 1 in 50 people are in church on Sunday. Though as I have noted in a previous report, to be fair the congregations of St. Andrew's (pictured below) and St. Cyprian's in Darien may have two buildings and two vestries, but they share a priest in southeast convocation dean, the Very Rev. Ted Clarkson, and they share the same sparse population. Their combined Sunday attendance of 122 in a town of 5,000 means they top the chart together at 2.5%. I have created a chart with all of the above average congregations noted along with some aggregate data for cities: 2013 ASA data in Context

What does this mean?
First, please hear me clearly that this statistic was created to help set useful targets for growth based on experience, not to judge the effectiveness of existing ministry. Nor is this meant to suggest limits to the work of the Holy Spirit, but to give more useful comparisons. Churches low on the scale may be quite successful in other ways. For example, the next to lowest church on the scale happens to be Christ Church, Augusta which has one of the highest ratios of people touched by the ministry of the church each week compared to ASA (see this video for the Christ Church, Augusta story shown together with ministry at the churches in Darien). So take the data as it is intended. Look at your attendance compared to the population. Consider what this means for your church as you set reasonable goals with a strategy for reaching those goals.

Another approach
Or, you could always toss all the data aside and preach the Gospel and reach out in love to your community. Connect in meaningful ways to those around your church. Offer the life-changing love of God as found in Jesus Christ. Invite folks in to your church and into relationship with God and then integrate those who come into the life of the church, discipling them in the faith. That is always appropriate no matter what the data says. 

The Rev. Frank Logue, Canon to the Ordinary