The people most likely to visit your church are people who have been in a church before. But what about people who never attend church, never visit a ministry event and don’t even know what a house church is?

According to The Barna Group, new categories for who is going to church and who isn’t are in order. The Group also suggests new definitions for "going to church." You can read all about that here.

The Unattached
I want to talk about the one group in particular that seems the least reached—Barna calls them the Unattached. Unlike the other four groups who manage to wander into some sort of Christian gathering sometimes, the Unattached never do. Some of them  admit to taking in religious media, slightly more than half say they pray and a small minority read the Bible. But they don’t interact with any faith community. This segment, according to Barna represents one out of every four adults, or 23 percent of the U.S. population. Of that segment, one-third have NEVER attended a church at any time in their life.

So how can a church reach out to nearly one-fourth of Americans for whom church is not even on the radar screen?

Barna provides more statistics about this group that may at least help churches understand this demographic better. Compared to regular churchgoers, the Unattached are:

• More likely to feel stressed out.
• Less likely to be concerned about the nation's moral condition. 
• Much less likely to believe that they are making a positive difference in the world.
• Less optimistic about the future.
• Far less likely to believe that the Bible is totally accurate in its principles.
• Substantially more likely to believe that Satan and the Holy Spirit are symbolic figures, but are not real.
• More likely to believe that Jesus Christ sinned while on earth.
• Much more likely to believe that major faiths' literature teaches the same principles, even though they use different stories.
• Less likely to believe that a person can be under demonic influence.
• More likely to describe their sociopolitical views as "mostly liberal" than "mostly conservative."

It’s not hard to see the widening chasm between these Unattached people and churchgoers of all varieties. It is hard to see how the Unattached could ever feel at ease in most churches.

"Attempting to get them involved in the life of a church is a real challenge," Barna says.

Is your church up for it?