Revista de investigación turística y hotelería

How to Improve Congregational Retention in the USA

Edmond N Lyonga

The churches today are more of a refugee camp or transit centers were congregants gather and wait for their next exit location. Churches are being opened and closed every day and no one has the concern or courage to ask why such a bad practice. This article is birth from the quest to improve congregational retention. The goal was to show that to successfully retain congregants, the issues of poor church attendance or attrition needed to be resolved. Attrition is a plague that has affected churches in America, and consequently led to the closing of many churches. The quest for congregational retention compelled me to put the credibility and integrity of the American Christians under surveillance while sampling opinions of stakeholders to draw inferences that could lead to a successful outcome. Information was gathered from survey questionnaires and interviews of some respectable church leaders to constructively and professionally inquire about the issues of attrition as an epidemic that had affected the American churches. I found out that attrition could be controlled through fellowshipping and participation in church activities to form a unified body of believers who would take, train, and educate the younger generations for future leadership challenges. Churches could succeed by developing improved processes for attracting, developing, retaining, and utilizing people with required skills and aptitude that could meet the needs of the community as builders. The findings may be useful in building a MEGA church or a successful business with superb customer service.