BALTIMORE, MD - This could be great news for attractional church leaders: researchers may have isolated one of the primary factors in getting potential converts to make a decision for Christ, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Worship Psychology by graduate students at Johns Hopkins University.

The study reportedly found "a strong correlation" between church services in which worship leaders flawlessly executed smooth, seamless transitions between songs and authentic conversions to Christ that produced fruit and genuine repentance.

"In almost every case, churches that pulled off almost undetectable transitions between songs saw a strong uptick in the movement of the Holy Spirit among the unconverted," head researcher Dr. Grant Willis told reporters. "Meanwhile, church services exhibiting a high volume of awkward silences and shuffling of music sheets between worship tunes saw little to no sorrow leading to repentance."

According to Willis, the acute increase in conversions remained even after removing other variables like style of worship, song selection, expert guitar picking during pastoral prayers, and quality of foyer coffee.

"That was a pretty smooth move from the key of G to D - the worship leader even changed from 6/8 to 4/4 time there, I'm almost sure of it," one research subject was recorded whispering to her husband during a particularly smooth transition."I think there might be something to this Jesus thing after all." The subject was shortly thereafter converted to Christ, according to the results of the study.

A future study at Johns Hopkins will reportedly explore the connection between pastoral tattoos and reaching today's youth.