Posted on 08/03/2023 8:05:45 PM PDT by anthropocene_x
About 40 million Americans have stopped going to church in the past 25 years. “That’s something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history,” he writes.
The Great Dechurching, a forthcoming book analyzing surveys of more than 7,000 Americans conducted by two political scientists, attempts to figure out why so many Americans have left churches in recent years.
The book suggests that the defining problem driving out most people who leave is … just how American life works in the 21st century. Contemporary America simply isn’t set up to promote mutuality, care, or common life. Rather, it is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success. Such a system leaves precious little time or energy for forms of community that don’t contribute to one’s own professional life or, as one ages, the professional prospects of one’s children.
The economists of the early 20th century did not foresee that work might evolve from a means of material production to a means of identity production. They failed to anticipate that, for the poor and middle class, work would remain a necessity; but for the college-educated elite, it would morph into a kind of religion, promising identity, transcendence, and community.
Workism doesn’t deliver on these promises. Even so, for those who have come to view work as the guiding principle of life, other priorities can quickly fall by the wayside. “The underlying challenge for many is that their lives are stretched like a rubber band about to snap—and church attendance ends up feeling like an item on a checklist that’s already too long,” Meador writes.
"American efficiency culture” makes it so that we’re just not incentivized to take it slow, sit down, and meet someone new.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
This article is the exact reason why now more than ever we need to have faith.
I have read all the comments and they mirror what I have seen. My wife and I and the kids were regular church goers. When Covid hit it was the last straw. The church went full woke and was even handing out tickets to Christmas mass. I go to church to hear the word of God not the word of our “leaders”.
People are so self-absorbed, they see no reason to serve the church. They want the church to serve them.
Too many people worship the god in their mirror
One good result of Covid is that it shut down a bunch of churches that needed to be shut down.
Some Christian cultures/Churches frown upon going to movies and a bunch of stuff like that, I goto one small Church where it wouldn't surprise me if any of it's members have stepped into a movie theater in ten years. and they hardly watch TV or involved in any thing on the Internet. I wouldn't doubt if I'm the only one out of about a hundred that have seen the movie in a movie theater.
Love Adrian! Gifted preacher.
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
My current Pope is the reason I prefer to speak to my maker directly.
Love my parish priest but cannot get past this Pope!
There are a lot of churches in America, but most are not Christian.
Most are religions founded upon, established by, and dictated to, by mere men. Those are not a church of Christ and, therefore, not Christian.
Not many want to listen to the woke/DIE crap spouted by so many church leaders, and the loss of the Latin mass drove too many away from the Catholic church, as well as the mad pronouncements that have come from recent popes, especially Frankie.
It is because he mainline churches have embraced the homosexual culture as Biblical. They say it is not sinful when Biblically it clearly is. Churches to stay relevant must not stray from the teachings found in the Bible.
I haven’t heard that one but I have heard that the RCC does.
My reason was I found Pastors to be stupid.
Mine tried to talk me out of going into engineering.
Now after all these years, he is still pastor of a congregation of about 100 telling the same stories.
Locking the church doors for the better part of a year put many people out of the habit of regular church attendance. Better to watch the Sunday morning propaganda shows.
Only a minority of the population of Iran actually attends weekly prayers.
The RCC is famous for it !
Years ago, I made the mistake of accepting an invitation to join the Worship Committee at my Presbyterian church. There, I got to “see the sausage being made” and it turned me off completely. Major disconnects in that meeting room from what was preached from the pulpit.
For decades, I’ve been a member of the Christian Church of the Bathroom Mirror. “If you don’t like who you see, then change him until you do.”
Worry not—When the Big war comes—the churches will be full and packed. Wait till the endless flow of body bags start to come and parks and spots fields become cemeteries. Wait till each family has victims of endless “Victories”—like Ukraine has today. We will feel what it is like when we feel the pain and suffering of real war. I fear its coming within a few months. I hope I am wrong—but I feel what is today is just prolog.
“For us the community aspect is huge - with folks that have Biblical wisdom.”
My wife and I haven’t found a church since moving over a year ago. We’ve been to a number of them. Some have Bible based sermons and good teaching, but none have had any feel of community. Maybe the people already going feel some connection but we’re gone to multiple churches for 4-6 weeks without anyone learning our names!
And when we stopped going, no one called, visited or even sent a text to ask why. Most no longer have Sunday School. Several large churches have “small groups” but I feel awkward going to someone’s home if no one there knows my name.
If I go to a church 6 weeks in a row, make a point of introducing myself, try to talk to others...and NO ONE remembers my name or notices if I’ve stopped going...something is wrong. And I don’t think I’m the one who is guilty.
We went to a large church a couple of weeks ago. The “Praise Band” was so loud my wife literally put her fingers in her ears. The sermon was about how God is sovereign and we have to accept that He chooses to save some and leave others lost (hard core Calvinism). I didn’t get up and walk out DURING the sermon but we left and won’t be back. Guess I cling to “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that WHOEVER believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
So...it is hard. The American church has real issues, and it isn’t just a lack of bible-based preaching.
I’m very pleased with my church. It is a vibrant, growing, welcoming congregation, ably led and scriptually based.
Welcome!
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