Were you at church last weekend?
If so, you are among a shrinking number of Christians in
America who believe that weekly worship is an important part of their faith
walk. More and more of us stay home on Sunday mornings to pour ourselves a
second cup of coffee and tackle that 50-pound weekend newspaper.
A recent Pew Research Center study showed church attendance
in the US at an all-time low. Among Christians surveyed, 30 percent said they
go to church “seldom” or “never,” and 33 percent attend “a few times a year.”
Only 36 percent said they go to church once a week. (Strangely, 1 percent said
they “don’t know” whether they go to church. 😊)
And the younger you are the less likely you are to be part of the worship
experience, with teenage participation in weekly church life at only 11%.
This goes hand in hand with a general decline in organized social
activities like bowling or dancing.
In his book Bowling
Alone – published in 2000 before social media, iPhones and video games
became part of the landscape – Robert Putnam takes aim at television as the culprit
most leading to the downfall of American social life. He notes, however, that
not all groups have come under the spell of the TV remote (or Facebook!). He holds up the Amish as having resisted the
trend. When asked why they continue to engage in such a vibrant social life,
one Amish member tells Putnam that the lack of electronic devices in Amish
homes is a big reason. He says, “They (electronics) would destroy our visiting
practices. We would stay at home with the television or radio rather than meet
with other people . . . How can we care for the neighbor if we do not visit
them or know what is going on in their lives?” Church is a powerful bonding
force in Amish life.
Americans have also gotten busier. Among the pastors,
priests and ministers I’ve worked with across the country in the past decade, most
of them are losing the battle, with members coming to church less or stopping
altogether because of kids’ sports, demanding jobs, and simply being too tired
to add one more activity to their week. Kicking back on the weekend is their antidote
to overstretched lives.
In this crazy, busy age when believers can worship online –
even taking Communion while plugged into a website (check out https://saddleback.com/archive/blog/internet-campus/2014/01/24/take-communion-online-with-us)
– do we really need church anymore, much less to come together in worshipping
God? Isn’t that so last century?
We are reminded that humans are social creatures. Engagement
with others is critical to our wellbeing.
That shouldn’t surprise us since we are created in the image
of God. We understand God to be “triune,” three persons who are one in perfect
relationship with one another. God chooses to engage with us in prayer and
worship and Bible study; and we’ve been created to live in a community of
faith, where we come together to worship the Almighty and minister to one
another, our community and our world. Church also represents a “timeout,” where
we can catch our breath.
Think of yourself as an electric car. Church is your
charging station.
We are also reminded that worship of God is a necessity, a
way of keeping him in the pole position of life and of drawing closer to him.
It’s been that way since the beginning of recorded time as God’s people
gathered around primitive altars, desert tents, magnificent temples, humble homes
and awesome cathedrals that have represented places where people come together
in community to encounter God and be together as his people.
For those of us in that rapidly shrinking demographic of hopelessly
delusional regular church goers, Ascension has been that safe place where we
worship side-by-side, where we can ask the tough questions of faith and lift up
one another when life’s challenges become too great, where we can try out a new
skill or explore a new opportunity that promises to make a big difference in
other people’s lives. I’ve been challenged, comforted, picked up, dusted off
and sent back into the battle of life countless times at Ascension, just like thousands
of others who have come through the doors of our church over the past 70 years.
That’s what churches do. That’s what regular fellowship with
other Christians does.
Here’s a parting thought . . . On a hilltop in the little
town of Montforte d’Alba in Northern Italy stands a medieval church with a
tall, slender steeple. It’s topped with a cross. Its bells still ring hourly,
erupting in a medley of chimes on Sunday mornings, presumably as a call to
worship. Yet the sanctuary has been completely gutted, turned into a makeshift
cafeteria to serve attendees of weekend music festivals held in the church
courtyard. Like many churches and cathedrals throughout Europe, it no longer
serves as a place of worship or of ministry or of faith-filled community. It’s
a concert venue. The peal of the bells merely echoes a
time in which the townspeople gathered to worship the Almighty.
Is that the future of churches in America?
Some things are worth saving.
© Ed Klodt, 2018
(Views from the Pews
are occasional insights written by Ed Klodt. He and his family are longtime
members of Ascension. Ed earned his Master’s Degree in Theology from Fuller
Theological Seminary, has served as an interim pastor and has been a longtime
lay minister at Ascension. Questions and insights can be addressed to him in
the blog post on Ascension’s website or at jonahfactor@gmail.com.)
