Posted on 03/02/2014 3:02:05 AM PST by franky8
AustriA 18% [16]Belgium 7% [17] Canada 20%[18] Denmark 3% [16] Cyprus 25% [16]Czech Republic 11% [16] Estonia 4% [16] Finland 5% [16]France 12% [19] Greece 27% [16]Hungary 12% [16]Ireland 46% [20] Italy 31% [16]Latvia 7% [16] Lithuania 14% [16] Malta 75% [16]Norway 3% [21] Poland 63% [16] Portugal 29% [16]Slovakia33% [16]Slovenia18% [16] Spain 21% [16]Sweden 5% [16]United Kingdom 12% [22]United States 43%[18]
AMERICAS’ FUTURE GOING DOWN ? ? ?
Church attendance don’t equate to belief in God, nor does it indicate the number of people who are Christian. It only indicates the number of people who have been able to find a church worth going to that hasn’t been corrupted. Many people worship and pray at home.
Keep telling yourself that.
(I realize that there are some who do so...but if you think that those numbers are explained by home worship, you are utterly deluded)
Agree. We are a nation of nomads; changing jobs, frequently moving. Church services are vastly different in each denomination. Have attended ‘community’ services at converted buildings where young adults are in the majority. The services include uplifting music and joyful sermons by enthusiastic young pastors. Very encouraging.
Public worship and belief in God. Eating out or a home cooked meal.?????
Yeah, I see a bunch of decomposing Western cultures. There is a church next to my house that is shared by two congregations (one meets on Saturdays). I came in on a hot day and saw the bulletin board with pictures of the church members for both congregations. One was a bunch of old white people, 75% had gray hair, maybe four children in the whole congregation. The other group was a local Korean church, mostly young smiling people, 1/3 of them kids.
The Church is doing just fine, it is just dying in the West while catching fire in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Christianity has a bright future, but it will be a black, yellow, and brown future, not a white one. One day not too long from now, African missionaries will be sent to Europe and America to teach the good word to the heaven.
I hope and pray that God will give us some help in that area. I don't see a religious leader today who has what it takes to fix that problem without His intervention. The other side is doing too well at suppressing church attendance and at discouraging compliance with God's Word.
A MUST READ
The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved
by St. Leonard of Port Maurice
Saint Leonard of Port Maurice was a most holy Franciscan friar who lived at the monastery of Saint Bonaventure in Rome. He was one of the greatest missioners in the history of the Church. He used to preach to thousands in the open square of every city and town where the churches could not hold his listeners. So brilliant and holy was his eloquence that once when he gave a two weeks’ mission in Rome, the Pope and College of Cardinals came to hear him. The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus were his crusades. He was in no small way responsible for the definition of the Immaculate Conception made a little more than a hundred years after his death. He also gave us the Divine Praises, which are said at the end of Benediction. But Saint Leonard’s most famous work was his devotion to the Stations of the Cross. He died a most holy death in his seventy-fifth year, after twenty-four years of uninterrupted preaching.
One of Saint Leonard of Port Maurice’s most famous sermons was “The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved.” It was the one he relied on for the conversion of great sinners. This sermon, like his other writings, was submitted to canonical examination during the process of canonization. In it he reviews the various states of life of Christians and concludes with the little number of those who are saved, in relation to the totality of men.
The reader who meditates on this remarkable text will grasp the soundness of its argumentation, which has earned it the approbation of the Church. Here is the great missionary’s vibrant and moving sermon.
Introduction
Thanks be to God, the number of the Redeemer’s disciples is not so small that the wickedness of the Scribes and Pharisees is able to triumph over them. Although they strove to calumniate innocence and to deceive the crowd with their treacherous sophistries by discrediting the doctrine and character of Our Lord, finding spots even in the sun, many still recognized Him as the true Messiah, and, unafraid of either chastisements or threats, openly joined His cause. Did all those who followed Christ follow Him even unto glory? Oh, this is where I revere the profound mystery and silently adore the abysses of the divine decrees, rather than rashly deciding on such a great point! The subject I will be treating today is a very grave one; it has caused even the pillars of the Church to tremble, filled the greatest Saints with terror and populated the deserts with anchorites. The point of this instruction is to decide whether the number of Christians who are saved is greater or less than the number of Christians who are damned; it will, I hope, produce in you a salutary fear of the judgments of God.
Brothers, because of the love I have for you, I wish I were able to reassure you with the prospect of eternal happiness by saying to each of you: You are certain to go to paradise; the greater number of Christians is saved, so you also will be saved. But how can I give you this sweet assurance if you revolt against God’s decrees as though you were your own worst enemies? I observe in God a sincere desire to save you, but I find in you a decided inclination to be damned. So what will I be doing today if I speak clearly? I will be displeasing to you. But if I do not speak, I will be displeasing to God.
Therefore, I will divide this subject into two points. In the first one, to fill you with dread, I will let the theologians and Fathers of the Church decide on the matter and declare that the greater number of Christian adults are damned; and, in silent adoration of that terrible mystery, I will keep my own sentiments to myself. In the second point I will attempt to defend the goodness of God versus the godless, by proving to you that those who are damned are damned by their own malice, because they wanted to be damned. So then, here are two very important truths. If the first truth frightens you, do not hold it against me, as though I wanted to make the road of heaven narrower for you, for I want to be neutral in this matter; rather, hold it against the theologians and Fathers of the Church who will engrave this truth in your heart by the force of reason. If you are disillusioned by the second truth, give thanks to God over it, for He wants only one thing: that you give your hearts totally to Him. Finally, if you oblige me to tell you clearly what I think, I will do so for your consolation.
FULL HOMILY
http://www.olrl.org/snt_docs/fewness.shtml
Then the church changed. It was no longer a solemn place of worship. The Latin was gone. The guitar took the place of the majestic organ. It had lost its calm.
And the final straw....I returned to the church after many years. The priest greeted me and I told him of my return. He welcomed me with a box of envelopes. I never went back.
I pray every day....most of it aimed at my family.
I give to St. Jude instead of the church.
The Last Supper is in reality Christ's very sacrifice on the cross, they cannot be separated. And as Jesus said, if you do not drink his blood and eat his flesh, you have no life in you.
The music and the behavior of the priest are secondary.
When the people in the church use your presence as an opportunity to sell sweetly-worded destruction to the community, voting with your feet can be the most God-afirming move you can make.
Poland is still faithful to Jesus Christ, though the above 63% refers to those who attend the Holy Mass on regular basis, while there are many percents more who do it irregularly.
So, as always - POLONIA SEMPER FIDELIS:
see video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q3_Zt1JMi8
Where’s Germany? They pay a `church support tax’ over there.
I think that is the second time I have agreed with you. The first being back in May of 2007. ;-)
Those who want church affiliation do.
Most German’s who pay the tax do so because it get’s them baptized, married and buried.
There are “free churches” that exist outside of this scheme and are actually doing well.
” I think that is the second time I have agreed with you. The first being back in May of 2007. ;-)”
Scary
Sometimes I wonder what Jesus said when he mentioned the rich man and the kingdom of heaven, some days I think he may have been referring to today, where some of the poorest people in the world enjoy going to church, while a a good deal of the wealthy make mocking those who believe in him their past-time.
United States 43%[18]
I'd be very surprised if this were true. I suspect a lot of people are lying to the poll taker.
I’m a little surprised that the US is as high as 43%.
Even setting the religious component of church aside, what going to church IS would tend to make it completely undesirable to younger people. Physically going to a large gathering of people on a morning when you’re off work to listen to someone talk and others sing music you absolutely can’t stand to listen to.
‘Church’ should be done online, or at least have that option as a part of a physical church. Setup a paypal for offerings and such. This would increase attendance, making it accessible from anywhere in the world, and they would likely even get more funds.(not many folks carry cash anymore and it’s easy to get them to use a card)
BTTT!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.