It’s Sunday morning, and when Bill McCullin steps behind the lectern at First Baptist Church in Vidalia, the congregation he looks out over will be different than it was two years ago.

It’s bigger.

“We have experienced the best two years in the history of this church in the last two years,” McCullin said. “We have experienced tremendous growth.”

And that is bucking national trends.

A 10-year study published in late 2011 by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, says that church attendance in America is down 17 percent, and the faithful who remain are aging. Pastors in the Miss-Lou, however, say that, even accounting for population loss due to a hard economic decade, attendance at their churches is holding steady — or growing.

The problem

McCullin, the senior pastor at FBC-Vidalia, said one thing is certain — American churches are hemorrhaging young people.

“In the Southern Baptist Convention, we are losing our kids that have graduated from high school and gone off to college. They’re the largest segment that won’t come back,” he said.

Students get to college, and for the first time in their lives they don’t have parents hovering over them, telling them to get up on Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights to make their way to worship. What was once a regular part of their lives becomes an afterthought, and is then forgotten.

“Those four years are very crucial, and getting them back is a challenge,” McCullin said.

When young people do come back, McCullin said credit “can only go to God.”

Why the anomaly?

And that’s why McCullin doesn’t hesitate to say that God has blessed his church with growth, not only with established families, but also with young people who have children and haven’t necessarily had a history of church attendance.

The reason, he said, is that in a culture where image is everything, “Young adults are looking for a place that is real.”

Community Chapel Church of God Senior Pastor Bo Swilley agrees.

“I think people are looking for something real, and when you have a world that is so fast- paced and superficial, to find something genuine — people are really craving that,” Swilley said. “A lot of people don’t have stability in their homes. They are looking for stability, and when they see that in your faith, it sticks.

“When people get hard times, they are looking for a place to be taken care of and be loved.”

Swilley said that the Miss-Lou is an area where cultural Christianity is a reality, and people who grew up in church will often continue to attend it, even if they stop for a time. For people who do not have that personal history, and even for those who do, the current times are helping them realize something more about faith communities.

“They are coming to realize that there is something more to church than membership, that there are relationships, and those relationships are beneficial to each other,” he said.

That people would be attracted to the community of support makes sense to the Rev. David O’Connor, pastor of St. Mary Basilica.

“I would view that as one of the convincing reasons why people are to have a church membership, because in times of grief and times of sadness, church membership is a great base for support,” O’Connor said. “Not only as a community, but individuals within the community reach out to people they know and offer great help. That would be a strong argument for why someone would go on to a church in a first place.”

Likewise, in times of ambiguity, faith communities can help provide people with a personal compass, O’Connor said.

“The (Catholic) Church — and I would say most Christian churches — provides a great body of teaching that would enable people to discern and make good, moral judgments for their own lives and for their families,” he said.

Bringing in the sheaves

But what are local churches doing that has kept their parishioners coming back, and is bringing in new people?

For one, McCullin said, they’re just being honest about who they are.

“(Young people) are attracted to a church that is real — they want to not only hear things that are real, they want to see it played out,” he said. “That starts with the leadership.

“We don’t stand behind the pulpit and promote that we have everything together. Young people don’t want to be led by somebody who is a fake — they want someone living out their faith.”

A church with a consistent faith, one that gives feet to the Gospel, is going to be attractive to believers and non-believers alike, Swilley said.

“The church as it should be takes care of people,” he said. “I believe if a church is really living the Bible, those churches will grow.”

Jefferson Street United Methodist Church Pastor Ed Temple said in the past year, his church has made a point to emphasize hospitality.

“We did a study that emphasized the practices of congregations that are growing, and one of the main things was hospitality,” Temple said.

That means incorporating a moment or two into their worship service to just greet those around them, even those all the way across the church.

And taking that idea, hospitality, outside of the walls of the worship service only helps to preserve and grow churches.

“People tend to attract other people,” Temple said. “As we take in new members, they tend to tell their friends.”

McCullin said he doesn’t know why FBC-Vidalia — or other area churches — has been able to buck the trend of dwindling church attendance, but the church’s mission is clear.

“The vast majority of what we do in this church is not for ourselves — it is for our community,” he said. “I don’t think it is the government’s responsibility to meet the needs of our society, I think it is the church’s responsibility.

“If you meet those needs, your church is going to experience growth.”