Churchgoing: a family habit

Christian Century, Dec 5, 2001

American adults who attended church as children are almost twice as likely to take their kids to worship services as adults who didn't go to church when they were young, a survey has found. Some 63 percent of adults who attended church when they were young now take their own kids to church, Barna Research Group reports.

In contrast, 33 percent of adults who did not attend church as youngsters take their children to church. "Attending a church appears to be more a function of one's personal experience when young than a sense of responsibility to one's own children," said George Barna, president of the California research firm. The survey also found that adults who regularly attended worship services as children are more likely than those who did not to be involved in church-related and other spiritual activities.

Seventy-one percent of adults surveyed attended church as children. Sixty-one percent of those who attended in their youth still are regular attendees. But 78 percent of those who did not attend church regularly as kids remain away from the pews now.

Researchers also learned that adults who attended church when they were children are twice as likely to read the Bible in a typical week as those who tended to stay away from churches as kids. They also are nearly 50 percent more likely to pray to God in a typical week. --RNS