Increase in church attendance after Sept. 11 short lived
As terrorists attacked America on Sept. 11, 2001, Fayette County churches opened their doors for people to gather in prayer.
“We opened the church all day and that night we had a service,” said the Rev. Jason Lamar, who was youth pastor at Faith Assembly of God in 2001 and recently returned as senior pastor. “We were taking a lot of calls and there was an increase in attendance. We noticed not just here — but across the county and across the country.”
The Rev. Don Smith, pastor of World Christian Outreach Ministries in Connellsville and president of the Connellsville Area Ministerial Association, was preparing for a funeral when he learned of the attacks.
“It was an overwhelming experience,” said Smith, who noted an increase of about a third in church attendance the next Sunday.
People across the country were flocking to church that week.
“They sought the church as a place for comfort because everything familiar was shaken,” said Lamar.
“They were fearful,” said Smith. “They didn’t know what was taking place.”
But it didn’t last.
“I don’t know if we even saw a full year of increased attendance. By next summer, it was back to the way it was,” said Lamar. “Unfortunately the ripple affect was short lived.”
“Little by little, it began to fade,” said Smith, “until it was back to normal.”
The same thing was happening across the country. The Gallup Poll reported that 47 percent of people surveyed after the attacks said they had gone to church or snyagogue within the last seven days but by December that number was down to 41 percent.
Meanwhile, the Rev. Don Kephart, who became pastor of Asbury United Methodist Church in Uniontown, saw no strong increase in attendance at Kantner United Methodist Church in Somerset County where he was pastor in 2001.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Kephart was working in his office, about three miles from the Flight 93 crash site when he began reading Internet reports about the attacks. At one point, he went outside and saw Flight 93 flying overhead.
“It was upside down and low. You could tell something was wrong,” Kephart said.
The church organized a candlelight vigil that night but attendance at weekly services remained about the same with approximately 150 to 200 faithful coming to church every Sunday.
As life regained some sense of normalcy, church attendance everywhere returned to pre-attack levels.
But churches continue to be sources of comfort and strength for their communities, and as the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks approaches, many are planning to commemorate the event with services of remembrance.
“Our prayer for America,” said Lamar, “is that we not face tragedy to bring us to a walk with God but a sense of reality that this is what we really need.”