Flock strays from U.S. churches

Washington Times ^ | October 18, 2002 | Mark A. Kellner

[anncoulteriscool]

If Campus Crusade founder Bill Bright's evangelistic come-on of the 1970s

[anncoulteriscool]

*****Of 16 million Southern Baptists on the rolls of America's largest Protestant denomination, plus another 4 million "adherents" who attend but haven't joined the church, only 8 million are in church each week, says Thom S. Rainer, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Ky.******

Thats interesting they used to always say that the thing that helped southern baptist membership was that if someone left the church there would always be someone a friend perhaps to welcome or invite them back to the church. I geuss that must not be so true anymore

[anncoulteriscool]

My theory on why this is happened is as follows:

Many years ago there were alot more banks and when you went to the bank you may have actually known who the teller was and since there were many banks to choose from they worked harder on customer service. Now with banks merging there are fewer to choose from you feel like "a number" and maybe the customer service is not so greaat....I think to some extent people feel left out the mega-church where it can kinda seem a bit phony where everyone goes put on an act, smiles and says "i'm great how are you" but they dont really feel like they really know anyone so after a while they just wonder why am i bothering to do this...i am pray ann read the Bible at home. Oh well, those are my thoughts...keep the dime!

[narses]

While this article talks about Protestant congregations, it is quite relevant to the crisis in the Catholic Church, at least imho. Thanks for the post.

The most common reason people leave church, Mr. Rainer says, is that it's too similar to their everyday lives. They are searching for a spiritual community, radically different from their workaday environment, that demands a higher commitment.

The most important factor in retaining converts seems to be the use of "member preparation" classes before a church enrolls or baptizes a newcomer. Churches that have such classes, Mr. Rainer said, "have a retention rate 14 to 20 times higher" than those that do not.

[anncoulteriscool]

Yippee!!!!! someone responded to my post. Thanks. I thought somewhere i heard that catholic church membership has actually gone up. I dont know if thats nationwide or just in the State i was reading about (I'm never been to a catholic church except for weddings and funerals).

[Mike Fieschko]

Of 16 million Southern Baptists ... , plus another 4 million "adherents" who attend but haven't joined ... , only 8 million are in church each week

Only 40%!! They have 40% attendance, and they're worried??!! With 25% - 33% attendance at Sunday Mass, what ought to be the Catholic bishops' reaction?

This, though, is interesting, as you point out:

The most common reason people leave church, ... is that it's too similar to their everyday lives.

I suppose that is what those who left told them.

[narses]

The Roman Catholic Church differs from almost all others in that officially none of Her Doctrines or Dogmas have changed. (100 years ago almost every mainstream Christian faith forbade divorce, birth control and abortion as well as sex outside of marraige, today only the Roman Catholic Church does, at least in the major denominations.)

In the last half century however a movement has pushed Her to change the externals (liturgies, architecture, homeletics, education, etc.) on the argument that it would increase membership. Many feel that such "modernisations" have failed and actually have been harmful. They point to decreased attendance at both daily and Sunday Mass, a decrease in the number of new priests, a huge increase in divorce (a major sin), birth control (another major sin) and an enormous drop in the rate of confessions amongst those who still attend.

[ultima ratio]

Scratch the surface of the Novus Ordo and you will find liberalism, the same this-worldly yearning to create a paradise on earth that is found in Socialism or Communism--or in the Democratic Party. The Catholic belief in the Transcendent has been systematically suppressed in favor of an exclusively social agenda. Gone are the teachings familiar to Catholics before Vatican II--talk of death and judgment, Heaven and Hell. Now it is essentially this-worldly do-goodism not much different from the agenda set by Democratic Party activists. It even includes the worst of the feminist and gay agendas--and it is at the heart of the new religion, defended by its devotees with all the zealotry and passion of the old Catholic orthodoxy.

But the young aren't buying. They are walking away in droves.

[Dajjal]

I thought somewhere i heard that catholic church membership has actually gone up

It's hard to tell how much of that increase is due to immigration from Central & South America.

[narses]

WHat I've seen is more complex. In some places the young are flocking to the Church. If they are given a sense of the sacred, of something Holy, they come. The more orthodox the Diocese, the more the young respond. Among the young priests I know, conservative orthodoxy is the rule.

[narses]

And in those areas, evangelical congregations are the "growth" Churches. The RCC is going through a painful period.

[ultima ratio]

Not exactly. The number of Catholics in the US is deceptive. Increasing Hispanic immigration gives comfort to American bishops--but this is really a mere shifting around of numbers. Mexico loses citizens, we gain immigrants--but if the two countries were measured together, they would record a loss.

[ultima ratio]

Unfortunately the American Church is predominantly liberal in its prelature. Even so-called "conservative" bishops and cardinals are left of center. It is true orthodoxy prospers in almost direct proportion to the decline of heterodoxy. But the bishops pay no notice and refuse to change their commitments to the liberal agenda. And while it's true the Catholic Church has not OFFICIALLY changed its doctrines, in practice it has changed radically. Divorce is not sanctioned in the Church, for instance, but annulments ("Catholic divorces") have soared, especially in the US. So in addition to being less orthodox, the Catholic Church in America is also far less honest about what it believes and what it teaches than it ever was before Vatican II.

[anncoulteriscool]

******an enormous drop in the rate of confessions *****

Someone rates the confessions! LOL!

[narses]

I don't think there is an arbitron rating service going on, but I have seen repots that as few as 20% of congregants regularly go to confession. The Sacrament of Penance (the formal name for confession) is the most common Sacrament (Sacraments are those things God gave us to help us accept His Grace) in the Catholic culture, followed closely by the Holy Eucharist (the Communnion whereby the Body and Blood of Our Lord is shared as He instructed us). To accept the Body and Blood of Christ without confessing and being forgiven mortal sin is blasphemy and itself a mortal sin. When most people who take Communnion do not preceed that by a valid Confession, it calls into question the entire structure of how the Faith is being taught and learned.

[narses]

Is it the Church or the modern American culture that drives divorce inside the Church? If catechesis is so poor that many marry without the correct intention, then bad (non-sacramental) marraiges occur and annulments follow. Either way, the failure is clearly that of authority and therefore attributabal to the hierarchy, but I wonder if divorce is just the symptom, not the root issue?

[ultima ratio]

The American culture was Hollywoodized long before you or I were born. It should not have affected good practicing Catholics. Traditionalists don't divorce, for instance. They have as many marital problems as anybody else and live in the same decadent culture, but they take their vows much more seriously. The whole annulment fiasco is still another sign of decadence within the American Church. They are granted by reason of a new Vatican II definition of marriage which places procreation of children as subsidiary to true love. This is the same theology that pushes for gay marriage on the grounds that the bond of love transcends mere sexual procreation.

[RnMomof7]

It is also hard to tell real numbers because you are kept on the church rolls even if you are not attending . I have not been a Catholic in 24 years or so...I am still on the rolls (I still get parish mail and the Catholic Charities appeal) I assume my kids that left are also on the rolls..

[RnMomof7]

The problem from my point of view is there are alot of people that attend church for political, social or family reasons..they are not saved. In John 11:27-29, the Lord Jesus states that the believer will never perish; "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand".

[RochesterFan]

The most common reason people leave church, Mr. Rainer says, is that it's too similar to their everyday lives. They are searching for a spiritual community, radically different from their workaday environment, that demands a higher commitment.

May I suggest an alternate interpretation of the observations. First, I think that in the quest for numbers, many have substituted "easy-believism" for the Gospel.

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved [Rom 10:9]

The concept of "confessing Jesus as Lord" is more than an intellectual exercise. It includes acknowledging Jesus as the sovereign will over your life.

Next, I suggest that many reject the Truth of the Scriptures for "feel-good teaching."

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires...[2 Ti 4:3]