Getting young adults back to church: A marketing approach

Michelle C Van Der Merwe,Arien Strasheim,Anské F Grobler,Lizré Orton

doi:10.4102/hts.v69i2.1326

Michelle C Van Der Merwe, Arien Strasheim + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v69i2.1326

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Abstract

Worldwide, church membership is decreasing. A decline in the number of young adults that attend church services is also evident. The purpose of the research was to determine whether the application of a well-established body of knowledge of marketing theories and principles could be used by churches to encourage young adults to return to the church. The application of services marketing to the church as a non-profit organisation is discussed by focussing on non-physical and physical atmospheric cues in the church’s servicescape that could enhance church attendance. A quantitative approach was used by testing the opinions of 200 church service attendees of different denominations. The findings indicated that certain elements in the servicescape of a church may be useful in attracting young adults. It was found that music is a strong determinant of whether young adults attend church services, followed by layout and design of the church and then by the signs and symbols used in the church. Females reported significantly higher levels of positive perceptions concerning the layout and design. Although the research showed that some marketing elements, such as a positive servicescape, could improve church attendance, other personal elements such as forming personal relationships with fellow Christians and God need to be further explored.

Highlights

Church membership and attendance is decreasing worldwide: ‘The currently [sic] crisis of the church in the Western world is that people are becoming less involved with the church as [an] institution’ (Dreyer 2004:920)
The fact that only a small number of young adults return to the church is of great concern as they are the life-blood of the church – without them, the church cannot grow
The items were subjected to principal component analysis (PCA) in order to determine the dimensionality of the servicescape and to find a smaller number of useful dimensions to report on

Summary

Introduction

Church membership and attendance is decreasing worldwide: ‘The currently [sic] crisis of the church in the Western world is that people are becoming less involved with the church as [an] institution’ (Dreyer 2004:920). Younger members of society have enormous work pressure and, with it, abundant choice for leisure, relaxation and social activities, which could be distracting them from attending church. Another possible reason for decreased church attendance by young adults is their postmodernist view, implying that they are more informed about products and services, among other things, because of the greater accessibility of information (Dreyer 2004:922; Proctor & Kitchen 2002:145). Adolescents and young adults leave the church altogether, but a small number do return in their late twenties and early thirties (Dreyer 2004:921−922). As Dreyer (2004:936) has suggested, the continual growth of the church is imperative if religious communities are to continue into the future

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