God-Connections in Church Are Rare, Study Says

A study released Monday found that about one-third of American adults who have attended church have never experienced “a real and personal connection” with God while in a church service, and those who have experienced the connection say it is rare.

The research was conducted by the Barna Group, a Ventura, Calif.-based research organization, and sought to examine what Americans experience in Christian churches.

Of the 1,022 adults surveyed, 66 percent said they had experienced a personal connection with God during a church service. Only 35 percent of those surveyed said they connect with God on a monthly basis, while 44 percent of people who attend church services weekly said they feel His presence every week.

The Barna Group report identifies this connection with God as “perhaps the most important outcome facilitated by churches,” yet one-third of people said they had never connected with God in a congregational setting.

Whitman Toland, founding pastor of C3 Church Greensboro in North Carolina, says if churches want to see individuals better connect with God they should be less concerned with presenting a “performance” and more concerned with worshipping Him.

"We've become so influenced by our culture that we have polished performances but no presence of God. And we start evaluating success by how well we perform and the number of people in our meetings, and ... that standard is actually from a worldly measurement of success,” Toland told The Christian Post on Monday. To read more, click here.