However, larger churches were less likely to respond than smaller ones. The membership and inactivity questions were used to screen responses to the remainder of the questionnaire. The first group of items dealt with involvement in the church and was applied only to continuing, active members. The second group dealt with the nature of leaving the membership and with sources of inactivity or withdrawal. However, whenever pastors provide information, for example on earlier involvement of members who have since become inactive, it has been included in the analysis.
Some attrition takes place very quickly in the membership career.
Of these about half were still Nazarenes, having transferred to another Nazarene church. Most individuals who join the Church of the Nazarene are apparently older than the teen years or early twenties which might have been expected. While no data is available for assessing the role of these relationships in the decision to join the church, previous research suggests that their existence should improve the likelihood of the retention of these members. This is intended to be the first in an annual series of reports on the new Nazarene who joined the Church of the Nazarene during the 1989 assembly year. 152 14.6 Data have not been available to examine this, or other assumptions.