| dc.description.abstract | Regular Church attendance is often an indicator of Christians’ commitment and faith in God.
Right from the New Testament, the Church has been symbolic, an assembly of followers of
Christ who congregate regularly with an aim of worshipping God together in faith. It follows
then that the Low Church attendance and absenteeism undermines Christian faith and the ability
of the Church to meet ministry goals. The study sought to investigate the contribution of home
based factors, the socio economic factors, and Church based factors that contribute to Low
Church attendance and absenteeism. A study was guided by secularization theory under
postmodernism philosophy which advocates that as science and technology continue to shape the
world social changes in power and class structure tend to persist in similar forms as well
(Heywood 2012).The data for the study was mainly quantitative. Simple random and purposive
sampling was used to collect the data .The target population comprised of 28,015 men, women
and youth members in MCK Nyambene Synod. A descriptive research design was employed for
this study with a sample of 379 respondents who were selected through random sampling. Data
was collected using two questionnaires, one for the youth and the other for adult members. Prior
to the main study, a pilot study with a sample of 38 respondents was conducted in Miathene
Synod. Analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (Version 25) in
which the researcher performed descriptive statistical analyses to determine and rank specific
factors that affected Church attendance in line with the study’s objectives. Two variables were
considered that is Low Church attendance and absenteeism. It was established that Home based
factors and Church based factors were significantly associated with Church low attendance and
absenteeism. In respect to home based factors, poor family background, lack of monies to
channel during fundraisers, unfriendly relationship between youth and parents, and lack of
parental guidance greatly contributed to church absenteeism.Thus, parents should endeavour to
inculcate a warm and cordial relationship with their children to increase the prevalence of their
children’s Church attendance.In regard to Church based factors, lengthy sermons, non involvement of youth in Church activities and lack of uniformity in treatment of members led to
church absenteeism. Hence, ministers of the word should strive to ensure that their sermons are
precise and straight forward. Socio economic factors were not significantly associated with Low
Church attendance and absenteeism. School/work engagements were not a major hindrance to
Church attendance and absenteeism however the Church leadership should organize team
building activities for the respective Church groups to ensure harmonious relationship and avoid
stigma and criticism that is ignited from difference family economic status.In addition, Church
leadership should devise creative ways of engaging the youth since inactive youth engagement is
associated with Church absenteeism. Since the study focused on Churches under the Methodist
Church in Kenya, it is suggested that the study be extended to other Churches to assess whether
different findings may be reached regarding factors contributing to Low Church attendance and
absenteeism | en_US |
