Proof The Bible Is True

A recent study conducted by the Barna Group has divulged where the 100 biggest U.S. cities fall when it comes to going to church … and avoiding it.

“Every week, nearly half of Americans attend church,” Barna researchers discovered. “Nationwide, just over two in five Americans (42 percent) are ‘very active’ churchgoers — meaning they attend church weekly. That’s a substantial number — yet it’s only four percentage points higher than the number of Americans who haven’t attended church in the past six months (38 percent) — people Barna Group defines as ‘churchless.’”

Many cities, however, divert from the norm significantly.

“However, church attendance varies widely from city to city and region to region,” the nationwide study found. “Many cities outpace the overall U.S. population when it comes to weekly church attendance; an impressive two-thirds of America’s largest metro areas have a better-than-average proportion of weekly churchgoers. This is particularly true in the South and the aptly named ‘Bible Belt.’”

Extremes on both sides of the equation should not come as too much of a surprise to most.

“In Chattanooga, Tennessee, for example — the American city with the highest percentage of active churchgoers — nearly two-thirds of adults report attending church on a weekly basis (63 percent).” Barna revealed. “Contrast that to the San Francisco metro area, which tops the list of America’s most churchless cities: Six in 10 Bay Area residents have not attended a service, other than for a holiday or special occasion, in the past six months (61 percent).”

Taking it from the top … and the bottom

Here are how America’s top 10 churched cities stack up by percentage of active (weekly) church members:

Read More  And the most churched, unchurched cities in U.S. are ….