I hope you'll take the time to read this article. The responses are interesting. Here are the observations David Kinnaman makes on the research:
Observations
The Barna researcher who directed the project, David Kinnaman, pointed out that "most Americans continue to view the Easter holiday as a religious celebration, but many of them are not clear as to the underlying reason for the occasion. Perhaps most concerning, from the standpoint of church leaders, is that those who celebrate Easter because of the resurrection of Christ are not particularly likely to invite non-churched friends to worship, suggesting that their personal beliefs about Jesus have not yet translated into a sense of urgency for having spiritual conversations with their acquaintances."
Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, also pointed out that there may be a substantial gap between people's openness to inviting a non-church person to attend a church service on Easter and the likelihood of them actually doing so. "Realistically, if all of the people who said they would bring unchurched people with them on Easter were to follow through, America’s churches couldn't handle the overflow. The statistics project to something like 40 million church regulars who claim they are likely to bring someone as their guest. If each of those people brought just one adult as their guest, that'd be the equivalent of adding 115 new people per Christian congregation. That would more than double the size of the average church! That is clearly an over-estimate.
"But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that so many people are at least open to the idea of offering such invitations to their friends and family. One of the challenges to pastors and other church leaders is to find out what’s actually preventing them from following through on that willingness."
What observations would you make from the study? What are the implications as a Church planter? As a church member or leader, how does this translate in to actions for a healthy church?
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