The Christian Science Monitor has written a thorough piece on church decline, highlighting phenomena that may not surprise long-time readers of the Café; a partial list of those highlights follows: studies show that church attendance is cyclical and current numbers resemble the ’40s, that the faithful are more actively devout than they were in the ’50s & ’60s, the false binary between science and religion, and that the pathways to and expressions of faith remain diverse and plentiful.
As part of the piece, they interviewed a number of believers from different traditions, who share their stories and bear witness to their faith.
You can read the personal narratives, statistical data, and analysis, on the Christian Science Monitor Blog.
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I believe that the dichotomy between strong Biblical tradition and community is a false dichotomy. Perhaps the Church should do a better job of articulating the Biblical traditions of community going all the way back to Exodus and Deuteronomy.
Seems to me there are some interesting bits little commented on in the linked article. The suggestion that more conservative people want a church strong on Biblical tradition while more liberal folks want a church strong on community seems important – though I’m not sure how… except that if we are a part of the church that is more liberal, than we would do well to strengthen support for community within the church. And we would not do well trying to replicate what seems to work for our more conservative siblings.
Thanks for this– seems that except for the blip in the 50s-60s — churches are just moving along as they always have. What seems like decline is in the mind of boomers who think church was always as they remember it as children.