The Student Room Group

Are most Churches empty?

I've heard that a lot of Churches are empty on Sundays.
I guess it all depends what church you visit, on what day.
I don't think so. I've gone to church all my life and every church i've been to/visited has always had quite a lot of people in the congregation.
There are some churches around that are emptyish obviously. Eg like if a bad vicar has driven all the people away to other churches, or it's in a really rural area, or it's really old fashioned and mainly full of old people and the church goers arent being replaced when the older people die etc.

The statistics on church attendence arent very accurate btw, as it's only churches who belong to denominations like church of england etc that are required to send annual details about their congregations (like how many people attend or are church members etc), and it's those kind of churches that are declining the most due to the old fashioned way of doing things (not all of them are old fashioned though, as for example the church i go to is church of england but the evening service is full of students and people in their 20s, and the church is run by people in their 20s and 30s and is nothing like the fancy boring church of england churches that are around). Free churches/non-denominational ones are the ones that seem to be increasing and gaining a lot more people in recent years, yet they dont have to send in the statistics about themselves, so arent represented in the official statistics. Which could lead to this myth that churches are empty on sundays.

So i'd say the majority of churches seem to have quite a lot of people in them, and not just on sundays. As many churces now run things like cafes and children's groups during the week, so there's usually people attending for all kinds of reasons.
Reply 3
Original post by Karan00
I've heard that a lot of Churches are empty on Sundays.




In Christianity the 'church' isn't the building, it's the people.

The people make up the body of Christ, not literally but figuratively. Say I'm the arm and someone else is the leg, individually the pieces can't function but put together they operate as a whole, if you get my meaning.

Church buildings that are full to overflowing are those who preach the good news of the bible. There are many of those around the country.

If you visit churches like

HTB (Holy Trinity Brompton) - 10 Sunday services across 4 different sitesto fit everybody in.

Hillsong (The Dominion Theatre)

KXC (King Cross church) + many more.....

These churches are packed out because their message is relevant.:smile:


In my experience the spiritually dead churches are usually fairly empty. Churches like these are a place for the (normally elderly) community to gather and play bridge or amateur dramatics, that type of thing. These people usually have good hearts but are not Christ like or necessary follow the bible, they have their own type of faith and are more interested in community, which isn't a bad thing for this world but not when you need to live with an eternal prospective as well otherwise you're not sharing the good news .
(edited 6 years ago)
Reply 4
On one side of road in Birmingham is a large church. On the other side is a medium sized mosque. I did a head count on a Sunday and there was something like ten times the number of people who attended the zuhr (after midday) prayer at the mosque than attended the morning church service. Even worse is that most people at the church were old and black women. I then concluded that the mosque must be packed out on Friday afternoons and in 10 years time the church will be dead.
Reply 5
Original post by Arran90
..... Even worse is that most people at the church were old and black women.......



:frown: excuse me, what planet are you on?
Churches are empty because everyone is ****ing catching up that christianity is false and that more and more people are becoming Agnostic.

As what many have said it depends on the area. Churches right now that are popping which gets 2000 people a day are churches like the crazy Hillsong (which i secretly like) or the downright cultish Spacnation. I think your talking about traditional churches being empty (e.g church of england, baptist), they will continue to decline because young people like me are not ****ing interested in make believe.

However people are ditching christianity for either agnosticism/atheism or Islam. Hopefully church attendance should continue to decline during the 2020s
Reply 7
Original post by Racoon
:frown: excuse me, what planet are you on?


It's true. There were very few white people despite it being a C of E church. There were also very few young black people which could be indicative that blacks are now abandoning that style of church as well.
Original post by Quiet Benin
Churches are empty because everyone is ****ing catching up that christianity is false and that more and more people are becoming Agnostic.

As what many have said it depends on the area. Churches right now that are popping which gets 2000 people a day are churches like the crazy Hillsong (which i secretly like) or the downright cultish Spacnation. I think your talking about traditional churches being empty (e.g church of england, baptist), they will continue to decline because young people like me are not ****ing interested in make believe.

However people are ditching christianity for either agnosticism/atheism or Islam. Hopefully church attendance should continue to decline during the 2020s


***Seems someone got out of bed the wrong side*** Or they're on the juice and just discovered their gym memberships run out.
Original post by Drummond
***Seems someone got out of bed the wrong side*** Or they're on the juice and just discovered their gym memberships run out.


I'm on the whiskey everyday bro :smile:

My Dream is for religion to end forever. Cant a guy dream?
Reply 10
Knocking them down and selling them off like nobody's business up here.
Original post by AmySomers
I don't think so. I've gone to church all my life and every church i've been to/visited has always had quite a lot of people in the congregation.
There are some churches around that are emptyish obviously. Eg like if a bad vicar has driven all the people away to other churches, or it's in a really rural area, or it's really old fashioned and mainly full of old people and the church goers arent being replaced when the older people die etc.

The statistics on church attendence arent very accurate btw, as it's only churches who belong to denominations like church of england etc that are required to send annual details about their congregations (like how many people attend or are church members etc), and it's those kind of churches that are declining the most due to the old fashioned way of doing things (not all of them are old fashioned though, as for example the church i go to is church of england but the evening service is full of students and people in their 20s, and the church is run by people in their 20s and 30s and is nothing like the fancy boring church of england churches that are around). Free churches/non-denominational ones are the ones that seem to be increasing and gaining a lot more people in recent years, yet they dont have to send in the statistics about themselves, so arent represented in the official statistics. Which could lead to this myth that churches are empty on sundays.

So i'd say the majority of churches seem to have quite a lot of people in them, and not just on sundays. As many churces now run things like cafes and children's groups during the week, so there's usually people attending for all kinds of reasons.


I agree with you. Most churches I have ever seen are full on Sundays, but my grandmom goes to this church with only one family with children,and all the rest are really old people and it is not even half full.

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