Questionnaire results from 762 attenders of five Baptist congregations suggest that the number and quality of friendships available within a congregation heavily influence attenders' church selection decisions. Ironically, the churches with the highest numbers of church friends per attender are either stable or declining. Newcomers find such churches cliquish because high-tenure members have as many friends as they want or can manage. The ability of church friendship networks to incorporate newcomers appears to decline as average tenure and number of church friends increase. In contrast, attenders of the two growing churches have lower attendance tenure, fewer church friends, and greater desire for additional church friends. They are thus more inclined to incorporate newcomers, which further facilitates their growth.
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