I have been thinking. I have been wondering what has been happening to church attendance over the years. It seems that in the mainline denominations, the attendance has been dropping. We keep coming up with ideas as to how to bring more people into the churches. We come up with ideas about how to grow the faith of those who are there. We keep coming up with plans. But I wonder if we are doing exactly the right thing and that we really shouldn't be getting so worried.
What if we look at society through the lense of "Stages of Faith?" What if what we are seeing is exactly what is to be happeing? What if we are going from the Stage 3 faith on to Stage 4 and then into Stage 5? If we ARE growing as a people/society, shouldn't the attendance in our congregations drop?
I think the major point is that we in mainline denominations to stand strong and to not be afraid just becasue we see our numbers dropping. We also need to NOT drop back to earlier stages of faith trying to regain past glories. If the collective faith development is growing and maturing, then to try to move backwards will be insulting as least and damaging at worst.
4 comments:
Amen! We can never go back to the "glory days" (which may or may not have been that glorious). If we really want to preach the gospel, we'll have a lot of "letting go" to do.
Take me now.
One of the major problems is that the institutional church (and our culture as it relates to churches) has bought into the business success model and paradigm. Bigger budgets (profits) and more people (customers) equal "success". In the light of that measure when attendance drops, etc. it must mean that we are doing something wrong. It usually drives institutional leaders to embrace further this disastrous business model.
The Church has always been most successful (in terms of the Gospel) when it has been a failure (in terms of the world).
One of the major problems is that the institutional church (and our culture as it relates to churches) has bought into the business success model and paradigm. Bigger budgets (profits) and more people (customers) equal "success". In the light of that measure when attendance drops, etc. it must mean that we are doing something wrong. It usually drives institutional leaders to embrace further this disastrous business model.
The Church has always been most successful (in terms of the Gospel) when it has been a failure (in terms of the world).
You have a tough road I think.
People like 'glitz'.
Another factor; to some extent people like being told what to do/follow something strong so they don't have to think for themselves. I think both are not good, yet it all is attractive to the masses.
Maybe there is another factor - God doesn't change but people do - they get scared of 'the same old thing' and want allegedly new things, including their view of God.
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