Posted on 04/06/2013 3:19:57 PM PDT by NYer
It may not be the reason you think.
The Rev. Stephen Fichter understood just how dominant a role sports has assumed in the culture when a family told him they would be out of town Good Friday to Easter Sunday to attend their child’s volleyball tournament.
“It’s truly sports that has become like the religion” for many people, said Fichter, a researcher and the pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Haworth, N.J.
From youth travel teams to big-time national festivals such as the Final Four, sports have been making increasing inroads in the busy lives of many Americans. Some scholars even trace the evolution of sports from pastime to a form of civil religion to now having become almost a folk religion.
And it is having an impact on religious groups, which report increasing difficulty convincing families that are willing to spend half a day traveling to a 9-year-old’s softball or soccer game to make time for worship services.
Some congregations are meeting the challenge by offering alternative service times and their own sports teams and programs. But many despair of their ability to compete in a culture increasingly consumed by athletics, with its multi-million dollar idols and its own sacred relics. Witness the Babe Ruth jersey that sold last year for $4.4 million.
In a study of 16 declining congregations in the U.S. and Canada, the reason most cited by clergy and members for falling attendance was the secularization of Sunday, with many identifying children’s sports as most responsible. Researcher Stephen McMullin of Acadia Divinity College in Nova Scotia reported the findings in the current issue of the Review of Religious Research.
“(Parents) will make sure Johnny goes to sports, but when it comes to church, I’ve just seen it over and over again, and even in our own congregation, the families that have children in sport will sacrifice church for the sake of their son or daughter’s sports program, so sports is another huge reason why our church is declining,” one pastor said.
There were few Easter Christians, individuals who show up for worship one or two days a year, among the earliest followers of the faith.
Facing penalties “like hanging — that tends to clear the head,” the Rev. Aidan Kavanagh, the late liturgy professor at Yale Divinity School, dryly observed.
Christians in the United States no longer need fear persecution for missing services. Demanding schedules, many of which revolve around youth sports, are the new competition for congregations.
Fichter surveyed 341 Catholics in one congregation who reported attending only on Easter and Christmas. He said he thought many people would cite disagreement with church teachings or negative experiences. But only 7 percent of respondents gave either of those reasons.
More than two-thirds said the reason they attend only twice a year was that they were too busy with other commitments. Sixteen percent admitted they were lazy. Fichter reported the findings at the joint annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Religious Research Association.
I really don’t think much of this guy’s idea. People don’t go mainly because the church simply isn’t important to them. If it wasn’t ball games it would most certainly be something else, like needinf extra sleep or it being the only time of week they can get to the grocery store.
The truth is that we have become conditioned to believe that we should be entertained in all things. Why go to church? Yes, to worship God but also to promote community amongst believers. We are told not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. If we as a whole do not meet, how can we know who needs our support, who needs our prayer? When I sit in the congregation, they may be playing music that I don’t particularly care for but I sing anyway. Why? Because I know that I may be uplifting someone else with my worship. I frequently don’t get a great deal out of the message. I find that God gives me greater insight when I’m in the Word for an extended period of time. He speaks through His word. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t gotten great insights from time to time. So, in short, why go? Because it honors God, sometimes lifts our spirits and ministers to those around us. It’s not all about ourselves.
Not to make excuses either, I go two to three times with my wife and kids. We homeschool and sometimes they’ll go to our homestate to be with our parents for 2-3 weeks. I have a hard time going without my wife, so often I don’t during those weeks she’s gone.
HOW early? We really liked our church before we moved...first service started around 8am...that way we were in and out by 9:30....and had the rest of the day. PLUS, it was a PCA Presbyterian church....VERY conservative.
I would have no interest in Christianity if all I had to go by it were posters from FR.
Dear friend, learning our christian heritage begins in the home, certainly not in the classroom. It is the responsibility of parents to raise their children in the faith. One look around you is reason enough.
Why should people go to church when they hear that many churches are “changing” with the times? God’s Word does not change, only our attitudes.
Martin Luther opened Pandora's box when he said anyone, even a milkmaid, could interpret scripture. Since then, thousands of churches have sprung up, all claiming to hold the Truth. Only one church has remained unchanged and that is the one founded by Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church is the only one that still proclaims the truths of the faith entrusted to Peter. Check it out .. you may just find your way back home.
Do you realize the irony of your statement. You, a male, complain about how churches seem to cater to women, but then you, the male, don’t go. If the churches cater to women because so many of them DO have more women showing up, then maybe YOU are the crux of the problem. I am very happy to say that my husband and I have just joined a church - left our other church after 24 years - that is very strong with male leadership. There are tons of men there. It’s time you found a church and started pitching in. If you are a true disciple of Christ, you can do nothing less.
Nita, when I hear people make comments such as yours, I always wish they would actually list the NAME and ADDRESS of the church that did these things, because I’m not sure I believe it. I have belonged to the same church for 24 years and attend every single weekend. We finally switched churches and at neither have I ever heard anything even remotely close to what you have written here. Also, we like to visit some churches, too. We have visited several of our friends’ churches in the summer time. We have also planted two churches and attended one for two years and the other for one year.
I think people “think” this stuff is preached. And maybe there is some church somwhere like the one that Fred Phelps runs - of course, I don’t consider that a Christian church, but a cult...so you need to broaden your horizons some. Ask people. They’ll let you know.
Amen, Scoutdad. I remember many years ago, I was in a situation where I had to take calls from people hurting financially who were wanting “help” of all sorts. None of them had a church. My church has all kinds of ways they help people struggling with financial needs and every other kind of need. There are ministries to help fix things for widows and single moms; ministries to help single moms; ministries for the elderly and those in nursing homes...in fact, so many, I couldn’t even begin to NAME them. THIS is the CHURCH. People are missing out on the greatest community of all...the community of believers.
That was my experience when I served as Director for Religious Education. One year, a new mother decided to sign up her 13 year old daughter for religious education. Asked about previous classes she had attended, the mother said "none". To compound matters, the child had been baptized in a hospital and made First Communion but not First Penance. Since this was a small parish, I felt the best approach was to work with the child, one on one, using the Baltimore Catechism. A few weeks into the program, another mother saw the catechism in a pew, picked it up and exclaimed she had never learned any of this and could I teach her!
You are absolutely right! The problem is less the children and more the parents who were never properly catechized in the first place. There are a wealth of programs now to educate parents but, unless they are done at a time convenient for the mother, it's nothing more than wheel spinning.
To counter this problem, I now use the weekly bulletin to educate everyone via a column on the Year of Faith.
Nita is simply stirring the pot for a little reaction.
Like wizr, I also cited God’s removal from public schools as one reason and I stand by it.
I can remember learning Christmas Carols and participating in Christmas Biblical plays in Elementary School, which are banned today. Some of those plays were better and just as religious as the plays we put on at St John’s parish for our parents.
I would not have known the Christmas Carols, but for the public school. I certainly didn’t learn them at Mass on Sunday.
Because most churches have thrown tradition out the window.
>>I’m single and when I go to church I feel a little odd sitting by myself. Not to makes excuses but often I don’t go because of it.
Are you the only single person in your church? My wife and I make it a point to sit with our single friends, or our friends who have a spouse on deployment, and one friend whose husband is in prison. Your church should be like a family. You may walk in alone, but you shouldn’t ever feel alone once you are there. Maybe you need a new church.
The uniform response of the non-churchgoers seems to be that they do not go because they do not find it pleasing to their sensibilities or tastes.
In other words, they feel that worship is primarily about them, and not about the Lord being worshipped.
Moreover, the worship that is actually being conducted is being conducted for the most part according to the sensibilities and tastes of the people who do attend, and so they also act as if worship is about them and not about the Lord.
My personal preference is the Tridentine Rite of Holy Mass.
But what is important is Holy Mass - not the rite, nor the use, nor the language, nor the homilist, nor the music, nor whether it is celebrated the way I would prefer.
We are there to recognize the body, not to complain. We are not there for ourselves, we are there for Him.
Go back and reread the last 2 lines of #24 -- you stopped too soon.
Oh, and my church 'family' is wonderful. ;)
>>Churches have become places that have stopped discipling and are now, often, just places to collect tithes and condemn behaviours.
Many of them don’t even condemn behaviors anymore.
But some churches do disciple. If you aren’t looking for one, then everything else is just an excuse. In fact, all the reasons in this article and the reasons in replies are just excuses. If a person loves Jesus and loves God with all their heart, then nothing will keep them from worship. If they don’t, anything will keep them away.
It is not the function of any church to teach you how to sing a christmas carol or put on a play. Church is where you go to worship God, as He commanded.
From both your comments, I get the impression there was little discussion of faith at home. Here again, it is YOUR responsibility to learn the faith and transmit it to your children, while bringing them to church on Sunday to worship God.
While neither of you has specified to which church you belong, I believe ALL christian churches follow the Apostles Creed. As such, you may want to begin here. It is the same for ALL christian faiths. To know your faith is truly liberating! It brings great joy and peace.
Well, "stirring the pot," maybe, but not for a reaction. I have enough drama surrounding me; i don't need more!
Self-contemplation about that "throwing the 1st stone" thingy would be nice. :-)
>>I don’t think religion is connecting with people below the age of 30. Thoughts?
People are taught that God is what you think He is...or what She is. Once you instill that idea into people’s heads, then why go to church to worship “some other guy’s version of God”. They will tell you that “I’m spiritual but not religious.” When you ask what spiritual means, they give you some confused mixture of science fiction and Buddhism, with Buddy Jesus sitting on top like the cherry on a sundae.
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