Do you go to church?

[bigbird 60,500]

With a new report stating that church attendance has fallen 20% since 2000, I was wondering where others stood.

 

[AUDub 11,147]

My answer wouldn't be on here. Yes we do go to Mass. Or did. Pandemic and all that. 

[bigbird 60,500]

56 minutes ago, AUDub said:

My answer wouldn't be on here. Yes we do go to Mass. Or did. Pandemic and all that. 

I get that, I think everyone is in that boat now.  Did you have a decline in your participation prior to Covid?

[AUDub 11,147]

49 minutes ago, bigbird said:

I get that, I think everyone is in that boat now.  Did you have a decline in your participation prior to Covid?

No we were regulars. 

[AUBwins 10,075]

7 hours ago, AUDub said:

No we were regulars. 

Same here.  Really thought we would try for Easter, but remembered how full church gets on Easter.  We still watched online though.  Church has gotten a you tube channel where they air the mass live or on demand.  Very nice option during this time.  They've also started some video series at the previous church I went to online.  Meditation episodes with pastor.  Nice way to be proactive.  

Although glad I'm not still in Louisiana attending the previous church.  Church was packed to pre pandemic levels with maybe 25% wearing masks.  We would have had a panic attack.  Lol

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

Haven't been to a church service in over 15 years.

[aubearcat 2,137]

12 hours ago, AUBwins said:

Same here.  Really thought we would try for Easter, but remembered how full church gets on Easter.  We still watched online though.  Church has gotten a you tube channel where they air the mass live or on demand.  Very nice option during this time.  They've also started some video series at the previous church I went to online.  Meditation episodes with pastor.  Nice way to be proactive.  

Although glad I'm not still in Louisiana attending the previous church.  Church was packed to pre pandemic levels with maybe 25% wearing masks.  We would have had a panic attack.  Lol

I think Bishop Raica (Birmingham Diocese) has ended the dispensation for in-person Mass attendance.  We still wear masks and every other pew is blocked off with attendance limited to half. Our priest has added more Masses so that attendance limits can be maintained yet give parishioners the opportunity to attend. 

[SaltyTiger 7,790]

Regular pre Covid. Active in a zoom Sunday school class after Covid, a zoom social as much as anything. Attended a few services late summer and stopped with increasing fall crowds. Attending an early Sunday morning class now.

[abw0004 10,110]

23 hours ago, bigbird said:

With a new report stating that church attendance has fallen 20% since 2000, I was wondering where others stood.

 

I think a lot of it is due to many church's reluctance to change with the times in how the service is carried out.  I grew up in a Presbyterian church where we sang hymnals.  I don't like hymnals.  When I attended Auburn I found Church of the Highlands and it renewed my desire to go to church since it has contemporary music and the services are about teaching love and hope.  Many churches just do not want to change to appeal to the younger generation.  This is why I believe Church of the Highlands is growing at an extraordinary rate each year, because they figured this part out.

[CoffeeTiger 5,101]

14 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

I think a lot of it is due to many church's reluctance to change with the times in how the service is carried out.  I grew up in a Presbyterian church where we sang hymnals.  I don't like hymnals.  When I attended Auburn I found Church of the Highlands and it renewed my desire to go to church since it has contemporary music and the services are about teaching love and hope.  Many churches just do not want to change to appeal to the younger generation.  This is why I believe Church of the Highlands is growing at an extraordinary rate each year, because they figured this part out.

 

This is kind of the big divide in Religion in America right now. A lot of evangelical, traditional churches believe that the Bible is a mostly literal interpretation of how they should worship, teach, and conduct themselves, so they scoff at the idea of changing to attract a younger audience, as they believe that's basically saying "The Bible/God is wrong and we need to update it to become more exciting, more  socially acceptable, etc". 

That's obviously not how more contemporary Churches like Highlands views things, as they see themselves as doing away with strict, unneeded traditions and specifically focusing more on hope of salvation and less on punishment, condemnation, ect. Like you said, you draw more bees with honey than vinegar.  

 

 

[Barnacle 9,064]

I don't think contemporary worship is as appealing to young people as many churches believe. 

[aubearcat 2,137]

4 hours ago, Barnacle said:

I don't think contemporary worship is as appealing to young people as many churches believe. 

I agree. I also think the relativism of “the Church hasn’t changed with the times” is a lie sold by the prince of lies and bought by well intentioned Christians. The Church DOES NOT change with the times it changes the times. I read a quote that said something to the effect of “I don’t want a Church that changes with the world. I want a Church that changes the world.”

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

5 hours ago, Barnacle said:

I don't think contemporary worship is as appealing to young people as many churches believe. 

I've said it before, but the last decade has done long term damage to the Church here in America.  When consistent Church-goers were exhalting folks like Trump and openly saying he was "hand picked by God", that soured a ton of people.  I know I certainly have a hard time taking a bunch of Christians in my family seriously anymore and won't even engage in the converasation with them.

[MDM4AU 332]

We’ve been in person once since the pandemic began. Otherwise, we’ve been attending online every week. 

[tomcat 569]

When I lived Orlando 1992-1995, I dated a wonderful lady that attended a Methodist church on Redbug Road. Wonderfully philosophical paster grounded in reality. I was there when he cut the service short to go to a neighborhood bar to watch the final four! Beyond that I was bored and squirming as much as I did as a child anytime I was in church.

yes! I do believe in God! However, religion and churches have become a big business racking in millions of dollars. Saving souls is secondary to raising dollars. See Joel Osteen and most mega churches.

We then turn to the Trump era where many “Christians” sold their souls to the evil “messiah” to pack the court. Sorry, simple reprehensible.

[SaltyTiger 7,790]

2 hours ago, Brad_ATX said:

I've said it before, but the last decade has done long term damage to the Church here in America.  When consistent Church-goers were exhalting folks like Trump and openly saying he was "hand picked by God", that soured a ton of people.  I know I certainly have a hard time taking a bunch of Christians in my family seriously anymore and won't even engage in the converasation with them.

But we are looking at the last two decades. Are you saying Trump “ hand picked” reinforced your decision about church...Christianity being specific.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx

 

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

19 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

But we are looking at the last two decades. Are you saying Trump “ hand picked” reinforced your decision about church...Christianity being specific.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx

 

Yes, it absolutely reinforced decision and view of church.

But the trend of the religious right in particular expousing beliefs and then immediately being hypocritical about them pre-dates Trump.  For Catholics, it was the priest abuse scandals.  On the Protestant side, its multiple examples of pastors using funds for things like private jets or being caught in sex scandals. 

The move away from the church only accelerated though with Trump, Falwell Jr, etc because people were very in your face proclaiming how God-ly an obviously God-less man was.

[TitanTiger 20,472]

11 hours ago, abw0004 said:

I think a lot of it is due to many church's reluctance to change with the times in how the service is carried out.  I grew up in a Presbyterian church where we sang hymnals.  I don't like hymnals.  When I attended Auburn I found Church of the Highlands and it renewed my desire to go to church since it has contemporary music and the services are about teaching love and hope.  Many churches just do not want to change to appeal to the younger generation.  This is why I believe Church of the Highlands is growing at an extraordinary rate each year, because they figured this part out.

I don't really think this is an accurate assessment of the American church scene.  The dominant form or style of worship these days is the contemporary style similar to COTH.  Growing up, if you wanted that about the only place to find it was in Pentecostal/charismatic circles.  Non denominational churches were still fairly rare and the regular denominations (Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, etc) were still doing things in a more traditional manner (hymns, etc).  Today, it's actually harder to find (outside of Catholic circles) a church that's more traditional than the other way around.  The contemporary worship movement has spread to every denomination and non-denoms have exploded in popularity.  So it really doesn't make sense to tab that as a reason for the decline in Sunday attendance.

That said, it's also far from universal to assume that the younger generation only wants that style.  In fact, more liturgical styles of worship have been experiencing a renaissance of sorts and it's not the grey hairs making it happen.  From about age 14 until my late 30s, I was firmly ensconced in the contemporary church realm, both in Pentecostal/charistmatic and regular non-denominational churches.  And what I'm about to say isn't meant as a blanket criticism or to say that God isn't doing wonderful and awesome things in these kinds of churches.  Nor is it to say that I didn't grow closer to God or experience incredible times of worship there.  Half my family goes to churches like that and they are growing spiritually, discipling well, and doing great things in their communities.  But I was tired.  For me, contemporary church felt like it was constantly reinventing the wheel - fighting to stay current with culture (and usually a few years behind).  Sometimes, it felt gimmicky.  Other times it felt more like a performance than a worship service.  The teaching was excellent, the people were great, the programs were helpful.  But for me, it lacked something.  It's hard to describe but the best way I can put it is that - again, for me - the services often lacked reverence and transcendence.  It didn't feel sacred.  There was no otherness to it.  

As I began to try and figure out why I felt this way, I began to look at the way the church had worshipped for centuries before the contemporary Jesus movement that got kicked off in the 70s started.  And what I came away with after a while of looking at it was that there were so many great elements of church and worship that had sustained believers for two milllenia that had just gotten thrown out with the bathwater.  We'd labeled a bunch of stuff as "stuffy tradition" and tossed all or most of it overboard for a constant pursuit of the new.  I felt like maybe we should reexamine what we discarded and see if we hadn't been hasty.  In the end, I decided that what I was longing for was found in a lot of those elements.  I wanted the weightier theology of a lot of those old hymns.  I wanted the prayers that had been said for centuries.  I wanted to say the creeds.  I wanted Holy Communion every week rather than once a month or once a quarter.  So we searched and found a church like that.  And the thing is, while I know my experience isn't universal, I'm also far from alone.  I was feeling that way in my late 30s.  But there were young couples and families 10-15 years younger than us feeling the same thing.  Our church and our denomination is growing.  Now, we do play some quieter contemporary worship music during the Eucharist, but that's about it.  And what's funny is, the ones in our church who tend to push for the more informal, contemporary stuff is the Baby Boomer generation, not the 40 and under crowd.  

I repeat - what I'm saying here is not an indictment on your church if it's a contemporary style service they use.  I'm just using my experiences to say two things:

1.  It's not true that the younger generation just wants über-contemporary church.  They are the ones driving interest in liturgical worship coming back or in so-called "ancient-future" worship.

2.  Despite #1, the contemporary style has grown and spread in popularity in American evangelicalism.  A lack of options in that style can hardly be blamed for the decline in church attendance.

If you really want to know what's bugging the younger generation when it comes to church, to me you can look no further than them feeling like the church and American politics have gotten far too intertwined and it's compromised their witness.  

[AURex 1,994]

 Why is Going To Church a POLITICAL activity? Going to church is a RELIGIOUS activity. not a POLITCAL activity/. Why is is in this section?

 

 

[TitanTiger 20,472]

Just now, AURex said:

 Why is Going To Church a POLITICAL activity? Going to church is a RELIGIOUS activity. not a POLITCAL activity/. Why is is in this section?

Settle down, Francis.

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

4 minutes ago, AURex said:

 Why is Going To Church a POLITICAL activity? Going to church is a RELIGIOUS activity. not a POLITCAL activity/. Why is is in this section?

 

 

Because this....

38 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

If you really want to know what's bugging the younger generation when it comes to church, to me you can look no further than them feeling like the church and American politics have gotten far too intertwined and it's compromised their witness.  

 

[AUFAN78 3,894]

6 hours ago, Brad_ATX said:

I've said it before, but the last decade has done long term damage to the Church here in America.  When consistent Church-goers were exhalting folks like Trump and openly saying he was "hand picked by God", that soured a ton of people.  I know I certainly have a hard time taking a bunch of Christians in my family seriously anymore and won't even engage in the converasation with them.

I've never once witnessed a person stating Trump was hand picked by God. Seriously surprised you did. I've certainly seen this or a reasonable facsimile stated on left leaning cable news, but in each case snippets of conversations were taken and not the entire context. 

[AUFAN78 3,894]

2 hours ago, Brad_ATX said:

The move away from the church only accelerated though with Trump, Falwell Jr, etc because people were very in your face proclaiming how God-ly an obviously God-less man was.

Do you have an example?

[TexasTiger 12,831]

1 hour ago, AUFAN78 said:

I've never once witnessed a person stating Trump was hand picked by God. Seriously surprised you did. I've certainly seen this or a reasonable facsimile stated on left leaning cable news, but in each case snippets of conversations were taken and not the entire context. 

Folks on my FB feed did.

[aubearcat 2,137]

3 hours ago, AUFAN78 said:

I've never once witnessed a person stating Trump was hand picked by God. Seriously surprised you did. I've certainly seen this or a reasonable facsimile stated on left leaning cable news, but in each case snippets of conversations were taken and not the entire context. 

https://www.al.com/news/2020/01/tuberville-says-god-sent-us-donald-trump-in-new-radio-ad.html
 

This is pretty close.