Sitting in church awaiting the still common Sunday service, I cannot help notice the dwindling numbers and lacking newcomers, and ponder possible reasons why.
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I fear that religion has become almost a taboo topic nowadays; it is rarely the topic of conversation. It was once the thing that everyone did: going to church on a Sunday was a ritual for most.
Today, the numbers dwindle in churches and discussion is entered into with a weary uncertainty I notice sometimes. I can see belief around me when I look for it on a day-to-day basis, but I fear that the practice of our belief isn’t finding the right footing in the modern world.
I watch the crowd at church, and I notice their make up of age, race, gender, and numbers. I have moved 3,000 miles in the past 12 months and see the same crowd around me. The only key difference in people’s make up is age. Most of the audience is elderly, and I cannot help but wonder what it will be like in the next 30 years as this last large group moves through into their heaven.
I wonder if the older traditional ways of the church prevent it from finding a place in the world of seven-day trading and 24-hour shopping. With such a change to our lifestyles, how does the continued standard Sunday service fit in?
I wonder about the words spoken. Sermons have mostly been modernized, and the discussion is now moving to an everyday language in a lot of the churches, which is relatable, understandable, and engaging, but the hymns and the pre-sermon talk are still very much unchanged, and as a result, I fear that they leave the majority of people today unable to relate to them.
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Of all things, evolution, especially our evolving attitude in life, has significantly developed over the past sixty years. We have seen significant changes in the justice system. I walk around older areas of my new location and read of convicts serving seven years for stealing a loaf of bread. I wonder if this drastic change in justice and many other parts of our social environment have left the church in an uncertain position in the minds of our new generations.
I have seen openness and willingness in the church and its people, but I have also seen practices that have remained unchanged for my lifetime, which seem out of touch in the current modern world. I am afraid that it may have scared off those who I have come close enough to be interested. I have seen old scripture readings scare away newcomers who do not understand the kinder meaning that the scripture works toward.
We are in an era of encouragement: using the carrot instead of the stick and choosing our words and actions to assist the audience in front of us. I cannot help but wonder if a bit more of this may assist the church and attendees further in finding their evolved state.
I feel disheartened as the ‘doorknockers’ corner people and try to force their views into others’ homes. Do they realize that they are acting like telemarketers and door-to-door salesmen, who are seen as invading people’s privacy and space?
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Today, I see people wanting the access and the time to find the right service for them. I see people wanting to believe but also wanting it in a modern way and with a service that integrates with the rest of the world around them. I see people who like the idea of religion, a community focus, and an extended family, but who fear the force of those pushing it onto others.
The commandments continue to be the basis of societies around the world regardless of race or various other religions. But they may possibly need a modern language and stage, one that relates more so to the world around us and not the world that finished 100 A.D.
Photo: Flickr/Sigursteinn AKA SHUGA Sigurdsson
When people stopped purchasing buggywhips, had they become taboo or obsolete? I’m afraid that you, or whoever came up with the headline, are conflating taboo and obsolescence. They are not synonyms.
“I see people who want to believe but also wanting it in a modern way…”
I recently went to a funeral for the father of my karate sensei…people read from different passages from the Bible…it seemed almost reassuring to hear the familiar words uttered in a familiar sequence…and to hear the same songs sung in their usual order…the familiarity of ritual seemed reassuring….above the altar were painted images of angels and saints…I wondered if the people there truly believed that his soul was now floating above with them…to me they seemed just like colorful pictures…
I admit that religion is connected in my mind with intolerance, arrogance and superstition.
I go to daily mass and although attendance is generally much less then Sunday mass, I would comfortably say that there are on average 75 to 100 people in attendance. And I would say that maybe 30 % are 50+ in age, and the rest are a good mixture of young including several young families with kids ranging from new born through the teens. This is an evening mass so I have no idea what the morning masses have in attendance. Thanksgiving, which isn’t a Holy Day of Obligation, was packed, standing room only. Our parish attendance has been pretty… Read more »
Thanks Tom for sharing this insight into your community and experience
Thanks Tom for also sharing your experience.
Thanks for also sharing your thoughts on this.
One anecdotal piece of the puzzle: I live in an old neighborhood with a lot of old church buildings, most of them built in the early 20th century. Most of them have been either converted to apartments or community centers or torn down. Of the ones that are still used as churches, many of them contain multiple congregations of different denominations. In my city, one of the biggest sources of membership keeping churches open is Christian immigrants. At one church near me, the building holds 5 different Christian services, using a total of 4 languages – English, Spanish, Korean, and… Read more »
One way to look at this question is through historical comparisons. The American rate of Sunday church attendance actually reached its peaks in the 1950’s and 1980’s. Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. has rarely been a society where the vast majority of people went to church every Sunday. Church attendance in the nineteenth century was generally as low as it is today, despite what Little House on the Prairie would have you believe. American Christians often have false nostalgia about “the good old days when everyone went to church.” It tends to go with that whole Greatest Generation myth… Read more »
The funny thing about discussions around religion, it’s always someone else that’s the reason why we can’t talk about it. It’s all too easy to blame Christians – infact – sometimes I think we perfer to blame Christians and see them as the ultimate bad guys and hypocrites. Perhaps your own postion as an agnostic atheist makes the people you speak with feel a little bit attacked. I have had discussion with those who don’t believe in God, and they sometimes they they are just talking but sometimes they are attacking. They don’t really want to know the answers to… Read more »
how did you come to not believe in Santa (if you once did) while still having faith in god,? I always wonder this with people who believe in god but not other things that they once believed in. What made you change your belief in some things but not others; especially when you don’t use evidence because faith doesn’t require evidence. Just some examples as to what I’m talking about: I can imagine people would answer that their parents or friends told them that santa isn’t real so they stopped believing – but there are plenty of people that will… Read more »