Beyond "Unchurched": Barna Suggests New Attendance Categories

Researcher George Barna has further defined people who attend church and who do not, saying calculating the so-called "unchurched" has grown more complicated. He's decided to look at how people participate in faith communities by breaking them down into five categories:

1. "Unattached": people who haven’t attended a conventional church or something like a house church in the past year: 23 percent of U.S. adults.

2. "Intermittents," or "under-churched": people who have participated in a conventional or unconventional church in the past year but not in the past month: 15 percent of U.S. adults.

3. "Homebodies": people who have attended a house church meeting, but not a conventional church in the past month: 3 percent of U.S. adults

4. "Blenders": people who have attended both a house church and a conventional church in the past month: 3 percent of U.S. adults

5. "Conventionals": people who attend a congregational-style local church: 56 percent