This week’s Barna Minute looks at the emotions U.S. adults say they experience when sitting inside a church building.
Recent Barna data from Making Space for Inspiration outlines the varied emotions U.S. adults say they experience while attending church. While the top five emotions that people feel while inside a church building are positive—peaceful (47%), connected to God (42%), safe (40%), welcomed (39%), comforted (37%)—not all U.S. adults feel this way. For a handful of Americans, in fact, more negative emotions rise to the surface, including feeling anxious and judged (10% each) or bored and vulnerable (8% each). Others say they feel overwhelmed (7%), unwelcome (6%), lonely (5%), excluded (5%), guilty (4%), unsafe (4%) or angry (3%).