Dear Wary Welcomers:

Because religion is my industry, Christianity is my product and Presbyterianism is my brand, I spend more time than most reading various trade publications written to assist me in marketing our church product. Various research groups, chief among them the Barna Group and the Pew Research Center, conduct regular polls to discern peoples’ preferences in church participation. Most of them conclude that regular church attendance arises out of a need to feel closer to God or to aid in the moral development of