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// First-time visitor return rate
15–20%

The most-wanted number in the church world. Four of five first-timers never come back — and the gap between the best and worst churches is almost entirely follow-up.

Updated June 2026

How it compares

Church-world average15–20%
Top-quartile churches30–40%
With a personal 48-hour follow-up~2× baseline

By church size

Under 200
22%
Relational advantage
200–500
19%
500–2,000
17%
2,000+
15%
Hardest to feel known

What the above-average churches share

  1. 01A personal contact within 48 hours — a text or call, not a mass email
  2. 02One clear next step, not five competing ones
  3. 03Low-friction info capture, usually a text-to-connect number on screen

Churches without a large follow-up team often lean on tools like preachly.io to make sure every first-time guest gets a timely, personal next step.

Sources

Related benchmarks

Church Attendance Benchmarks85–95% →Sermon Stream & Online Attendance1 : 4 →