(Ventura, CA) – Americans are increasingly designing their lifestyles in ways that meet their needs more efficiently. This is true even in the spiritual realm, as evidenced by the rapid growth of participation in house churches across the nation. Whereas most people continue to think of “going to church” as attending a service at one of the many church buildings located throughout their community, a new study from The Barna Group shows that millions of adults are trying out new forms of spiritual community and worship, with many abandoning the traditional forms altogether.

Large Numbers Attend

• Nine percent of adults attend a house church during a typical week
  • That is remarkable growth in the past decade, shooting up from just 1% to near double-digit involvement.
• One out of five adults attends a house church at least once a month.
   
• It's estimated that more than 70 million adults have at least experimented with house church participation.
      
• In a typical week, roughly 20 million adults attend a house church gathering. Over the course of a typical month, that number doubles to about 43 million adults.
       
• Millions of Americans are intermittently engaged in a house church, alternating back and forth between house church and conventional church. (For clarity, the survey distinguished between involvement in a house church and participation in a small group that is associated with a conventional church.)
      
• The Barna survey revealed that of those who attend a house church, 27% attend on a weekly basis, 30% attend one to three times per month, and 43% attend less than once a month.
       
• The study also discovered that church attendance patterns are being reshaped.
  • Among those who attend a church of some type, 74% attend only a conventional church while just 5% attend only a house church.
  • Another one-fifth (19%) attend both a house church and a conventional church.
  • (The other 2% attend a small group that was not considered to be a house church.)
                                              
• The people most likely to attend only a conventional church were women, people 60 or older, residents of the Midwest, and evangelicals.
• In contrast, the people most likely to attend a house church but not a conventional church were men, home-school families, residents of the West, and non-whites.

The Impact of the House Church

• “The house church now appears to have reached ‘critical mass’ in the United States,” commented Barna.
• “Analysts typically find that once a new tool or institution reaches 15% market penetration, and has evidenced a consistent or growing level of affirmation for at least six years, that entity shifts from fad to trend status. At that point, it becomes a permanent fixture in our society.
• Today, house churches are moving from the appraisal phase into the acceptance phase. We anticipate house church attendance during any given week to double in the coming decade, and a growing proportion of house church attenders to adopt the house church as their primary faith community. That continued growth and public awareness will firmly establish the house church as a significant means of faith experience and expression among Americans.”
• To read more about alternative forms of spiritual experience and expression, such as the house church, see George Barna’s book, Revolution.
   

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