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The Surprising Reason Why More Americans Are Not Going To Church
The Atlantic via msn ^ | 08-2016

Posted on 08/28/2016 2:41:41 PM PDT by Salvation

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To: Chauncey Gardiner
"They like the “God the Redeemer” part, but struggle to recognize God’s role as the Creator of all things."

Kind of funny how folks on the left like to believe in "Mother Nature" but see God the creator as silly and childish...

I think it's because mother nature comes with no rules or expectations... God on the other hand expects us to live a clean life... Something the left definitely has a problem with....

81 posted on 08/28/2016 4:15:58 PM PDT by unread (Joe McCarthy was right.......)
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To: tellw
I almost never listen to sermons or go to coffee hour. I like the music, that’s it.

I personally hate the music they play at church. I drag my feet and try to be late just so I can miss the 20 minutes of music before the sermon. Modern church music sucks. Maybe it's good for the radio but not before a sermon. The lyrics are empty and repetitive.

82 posted on 08/28/2016 4:16:09 PM PDT by dragonblustar
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To: GingisK

They said that at an LMCS church????

So what are you doing now? Staying home, going somewhere else?


83 posted on 08/28/2016 4:16:38 PM PDT by Claud
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To: GingisK

Sorry, LCMS I meant. :)


84 posted on 08/28/2016 4:17:10 PM PDT by Claud
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To: Claud
BECAUSE THEY ARE LAZY. Period.

For some but not all. Sometimes the pettiness inside the church with the "clicks" drives people away. That and all the focus to help people overseas or in urban communities but never any help for some of the church members themselves.

85 posted on 08/28/2016 4:21:04 PM PDT by dragonblustar
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To: TexasTransplant

God made me to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next.” Here, in just 26 words, is the whole reason for our existence. Jesus answered the question even more briefly: “I came so that [you] might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

The mission of the Church is to help us be with God when we die for our eternal salvation. Catholics believe that Christ founded a visible Church—which subsists in the Catholic Church—and has protected its doctrines from error.

The Church offers the Sacraments that Christ provided for our benefit. Baptism, Confession and the Eucharist where we can receive the Body and Blood of Christ and 4 other sacraments.

Jesus said it is not enough to have faith in him; we also must obey his commandments. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not do the things I command?” (Luke 6:46, Matt. 7:21–23, 19:16–21).

All the alternatives to Catholicism are showing themselves to be inadequate: the worn-out secularism that is everywhere around us and that no one any longer finds satisfying, the odd cults and movements that offer temporary community but no permanent home, even the other, incomplete brands of Christianity. As our tired world becomes ever more desperate, people are turning to the one alternative they never really had considered: the Catholic Church. They are coming upon truth in the last place they expected to find it.


86 posted on 08/28/2016 4:21:06 PM PDT by ADSUM
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To: RitaOK
As someone here abouts has said...there is no church...there is no religion...there is only Yeshuah.

And oddly enough, he's a Jew.;-)

:So I guess we are Jewish after all.

87 posted on 08/28/2016 4:26:16 PM PDT by RoosterRedux (Einstein: I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity)
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To: bigbob
People realize they don’t need the building or formal organization to believe and follow the Word.

It seems the author of the Book to the Hebrews disagrees with you. See Hebrews 10:25.

88 posted on 08/28/2016 4:27:56 PM PDT by CommerceComet (Hillary: A unique blend of incompetence and corruption.)
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To: Salvation

The cultural center of modern society has shifted from the church to oneself. That’s where it went.

Some churches preach less about God’s glory than what He can do for you. In effect, He becomes a cosmic vending machine designed to cater to the most selfish in today’s society.

In days gone by, people would wear their finest clothes in order to go to church. So you don’t want to wear a suit? That’s fine; for guys in particular, “dressing up” is so painfully simple that I cannot imagine what leads my fellow men to walk into church in torn jeans and flip-flops except selfishness. How can “I” feel most comfortable?

The music in contemporary churches can reach such levels of meaninglessness as to turn a time of worship into a rock concert with no spiritual value whatsoever. Again, it’s all about making “me” feel good all the time.

As other FRiends have mentioned, cliques can be part of churches. This is simply more evidence of selfishness on a different scale - it’s all about “us,” and if you’re not one of them, you can go twiddle your thumbs in the corner.

So from my point of view, the church itself has contributed in a number of ways toward this trend. I feel blessed to have found a church family where that’s not the case.


89 posted on 08/28/2016 4:31:16 PM PDT by Cato in PA (Resist!)
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To: ADSUM
All the alternatives to Catholicism are showing themselves to be inadequate.

Yeshuah is a Jew...not a Catholic.

All alternatives to Yeshuah are inadequate.

He is the Old Testament and the New Testament. They are ONE.

He is not Catholic nor Protestant...He is spreading the Jewish faith around the world.

90 posted on 08/28/2016 4:31:33 PM PDT by RoosterRedux (Einstein: I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity)
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To: dragonblustar
Modern church music sucks.

Yes it does.

We're Catholic and since most Catholic parishes are infested with that stuff unfortunately, we now go to the Latin Mass almost exclusively. The music is mostly Gregorian Chant and a few classic English hymns.

Our choir sometimes sings this during Holy Communion...it transports me straight to heaven:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yd5EE0hAB8

"As the deer longs for flowing water, so my soul longs for Thee my God"

91 posted on 08/28/2016 4:32:00 PM PDT by Claud
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To: dragonblustar
clique
klēk,klik/
noun
noun: clique; plural noun: cliques
  1. a small group of people, with shared interests or other features in common, who spend time together and do not readily allow others to join them.
    synonyms: coterie, set, circle, ring, in-crowd, group; More

92 posted on 08/28/2016 4:38:58 PM PDT by Mycroft Holmes (The fool is always greater than the proof.)
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To: Claud
The battle with the pastor over breach of office confidentiality was in the LCMS. After a battle lasting almost two years, I left that organization. The "happy Ramadan" greeting was in an ELCA church.

I walked away and never looked back. I have no further desire to put any faith in any clergy. My dad was an LCMS pastor, so I had attended that church for most of my life. Or die. The ELCA experience spanned a scant two years. Those guys are wackos.

93 posted on 08/28/2016 4:40:41 PM PDT by GingisK
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To: dragonblustar

True, I’ve seen that as well.

But I still think there’s a degree of laziness in it all the same. Because people driven away by cliques or some other petty issue often just go somewhere else.

Believe me, I’ve been wickedly lazy in this area myself....I know the thought process. You get upset because you can’t find what you want and then you just *happen* to alight on a plan that allows you to stay home on Sunday. Oh wow, well that makes it easy! :)

And you give up trying.


94 posted on 08/28/2016 4:41:38 PM PDT by Claud
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To: Buttons12

“I don’t feel as I should when I leave the building.”

I’ve heard that if you feel good when you leave church, the preacher isn’t doing his job. You should feel convicted and challenged.


95 posted on 08/28/2016 4:44:09 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam
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To: MayflowerMadam
Perhaps you should feel convicted, repentant, and forgiven.

If you miss the forgiveness part...you have missed our Lors.

96 posted on 08/28/2016 4:47:43 PM PDT by RoosterRedux (Einstein: I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity)
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To: ThunderSleeps

“I stopped going when the ELCA decided to embrace gays.”

Our church is in the process of revising its ancient Church Constitution. It’s being updated to specifically update regarding today’s issues that weren’t discussed 100 years ago — homosexuality for one. Practicing homosexuals cannot become members.


97 posted on 08/28/2016 4:49:53 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam
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To: CommerceComet

And your view could be called a very institutional interpretation of the verse. A building all too often becomes a place to ‘slip in, toss a few in the plate, slip out, and call it good... until next Sunday anyway. There absolutely is blessed pulpit preaching without a doubt. However, the most intimate growth and maturing, and I argue disciple making, often times occurs in the intimacy and vulnerability of a small group setting for which no building is needed.


98 posted on 08/28/2016 4:50:50 PM PDT by mn-bush-man
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To: MayflowerMadam; All
I don't address this to just you.

But the preacher or priest has no job, per say.

His task is to be filled with the Holy Spirit and, as a voice for that Spirit, speak...

99 posted on 08/28/2016 4:50:52 PM PDT by RoosterRedux (Einstein: I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity)
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To: Shadow44

An Hour of Eucharistic Adoration at our parish. Solemn, for sure. Come adore the Lord with us: St. Mary’s, Johnson Citym TN.


100 posted on 08/28/2016 4:51:18 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (O Lord, by your Holy Spirit you have made me one with Your saints in heaven and on earth.)
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