Attendance for this past season

Our attendance was strong again this season. With 80 seats inside and over 200 attending at the height of the season in February, we are scattered around the Chapel yard in our folding chairs as well as seating in traditional pews inside of our now five-foot higher Chapel building. Almost 4,700 people came at worship times (24 Sundays at 11:00 am plus 800 on Christmas Eve and 700 on Easter Sunday). That’s a 20% increase over last year. Average for Sunday attendance was up to133 from 111 the previous year – all of which mirrors the islands’ economic patterns. We are still a community on the rebound with some upside ahead of us next season. It’s important to measure our Chapel’s impact on the Internet worshipping folks too, since we have created another “congregation” online. Out of necessity in 2020’s pandemic our online congregation is an accomplishment to be admired for a small, historical church on a tropical barrier island.

Thousands of people have tuned in to our services on our web site through our livestream of Sunday services on Facebook Live. Our pastor, Doug Dortch, provided weekly “reflections” last off-season. Rev. Jim Miller will begin in late summer with his own short video messages. We have currently over 3, 500 “followers” on Facebook…many more than could be predicted by our small island footprint. And considerably more than most other religious groups locally. Remember, we are the number one church on Captiva Island!