I’m an usher in my Catholic church, and over the past decade the attendance drop has been palpable.
As the manager of an AM radio station once told me, we lose ten listeners a day via the obituary column.
I think we are entering the end times period of both revival and falling away. People are getting off the fence and choosing sides. That is a good thing.
Most ex Catholics, I think about 7 out of 10 are secular or no religion. There was a study done on this a few years ago.
My local Catholic Church doesn’t practice very much outreach to the community. If you are single and not Young-young, there aren’t a lot of obvious ways to feel like a part of the parish.
I went back and found the study, half are secular and 9% are no longer Christian. Of those that went Protestant, 9% went mainline, 16% went Minority Protestant (congregations that are maybe more diverse protestant congregations racially) only 14% went White Evangelical Protestant which would be the overwhelming church affiliation of protestants here.
From 1955 to current number we have had millions of South Americans immigrated to the US most likely RC...
How can their numbers be down so steeply....
Christian researcher George Barna, in his book “Revolution,” in the 1990s pointed out a major disconnect in polling and reality. Most of his polls found that people who left church were not doing so because of “too much” religion, but because what they were getting was too watered down and was not serious enough.
Likewise, identification of “Christians” based on whether you “attend church regularly/weekly” gives a much different answer than “did you attend church last week?” The mere wording produced a whole different perspective.
I once did a research paper on tithing, and using the lower-bound # (”did you attend church LAST week”), the higher-bound # (self-identified “Christians”) and the “do you go to church” model, and using a 10% tithe for these numbers . . .
Based on the number of Christians in America, if #1 tithed regularly it would equal almost exactly the HHS budget;
#2 would yield 125% of the HHS budget;
and #3 would yield 250% of the HHS budget.
Conclusion, if even “nominal” Christians tithed, there would be no need for welfare at all. Churches could more than handle it.
Anyone who attends church weekly knows the difference between the number of regular members and the number of EC Christians. We see the EC Christians twice a year - on Easter and on Christmas - and there are a lot of them.
I think if you break out the “Protestant” category and look at Evangelical that number goes up.
We all have that desire deep inside to connect with our creator and try as they may, it can not be removed. The early church thrived and grew under the pagan environment even under the threat of persecution. Could it be that the faith granted provided a connection with God that the paganism did not? We can blame the prevalent humanism in our society for the downfall of the church, but the current environment is now way worse than say, 200 AD. Perhaps the light of the church has grown dim and no longer shows the way for all to see. I think the church of all creeds needs to look deep inside and see if God is still there.
Two words “Pope Fransoros”
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Attendance at a church has absolutely nothing to add to your spiritual condition.
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I wonder how much of an impact priest-pedogate had on Catholic attendance decline in the given time period?
And regarding protestant denominations declining, in my area there have been several non-denominational churches opening in the past few years.
I still remeber when "singing" during the mass was for special occasions or one or two times...but now it's just a bad episode of American Idol or The (bad) Voice.
I was wondering how many Christians went to church every Sunday...?
Jews come in last place at 34%...did they leave that bit out of the story?
Mainline Protestants have done no better and that is why their numbers of faithful are falling.
My Sunday School class is about half kids from the neighborhood not the children of current members. Most of them are sent because, hey, free babysitting! Are they more trouble then the well behaved, well groomed children of current members? Yep. But about a quarter of them will grow up to become believers. That makes it worth it.
Reach the children.