Pastors are either corrupt or lukewarm.
I believe the Bible called it “the great falling away before the end”.
I go regularly, just not weekly. I enjoy more alone time talking with Him.
The American church is feminist and woke. This isn’t a problem in Africa or elsewhere outside the Western World.
For various reasons I’m not as mobile as I used to be. But I do listen to an old TV sermon from the late, great Charles Stanley every Sunday.
Does that count? I think it should.
I talked to god in a foxhole in Vietnam.
I had no need of churches after that.
Because Woke has infiltrated the churches in most Western countries. This includes nearly all denominations.
The one denomination that has for the most part escaped Woke (not entirely, but mostly) is the Orthodox Christian church.
The other issue, especially with the Protestant/Evangelical church is shysters/con-artists duping their congregants out of Millions.
most people are not stupid. the church, much like government, believe the people are stupid. the church believes they can act any way they want, but just have to say a few words and the congregation plates will continue to runnith over!!
a contractor doesnt last if he doesnt service their customers. same goes for the church!!
Our society and government used to encourage church attendance through things like “blue laws.” In my upstate NY town in the 60s, no stores were allowed to be open on Sunday. The law granted an exception to the local pharmacy, but it could not open until 1 p.m. so its employees could attend church on Sunday morning. Even gas stations weren’t open on Sundays. Now, Sundays are basically seen as just another day of the week, and not as a special day for rest and worship.
I don’t know why, or even if it is true, but to accept The Atlantic’s summary is absurd. The rabid leftists want us to take them seriously. NONSENSE!!!!!
The cult I was raised in required you to attend every Sunday and on holy days so that I could listen to a closeted homo tell me a Necco Wafer was the actual body of Jesus. If church is your thing that’s cool but I’d rather spend my Sunday laying mulch.
For those not attending, how do you do the great commission: Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
A better question would be, why is any religious American still going to church given the woke pope that is running the catholic church, and the protestants doing gay marriages and having LGBTQRSTUV “ministers”?
I attend a non-denominational church that teaches The Gospel and God’s Word as written. Our attendance is phenomenal. I have noticed that other churches that do the same don’t have any problems.
The woke churches are dead.
Catholic church went gay.
Stopped singing hymns and moved to “Jesus is my boyfriend” and Hare Krishna style repetitious chanting. Too many preachers seem like game show hosts or seem to be caught up in celebrity culture. In an effort to be liked, they jumped in with every pop culture trend like homosexuality, abortion, etc, no matter how badly they have to compromise their principles. Last, the buildings are bland and uninspiring... except for the ones that look like malls and have coffee shops and gift shops.
They stripped away the majesty, stopped leading and started following, and made it ordinary.
And it turns out “ordinary” is everywhere.
I would get in trouble posting this anywhere else, and I might get in trouble here too...
First, the situation is much worse than this would indicate. Not only are fewer people going to church, but much fewer people are going to a church that preaches Christ and Him crucified, desiring heaven and avoiding hell, and what discipleship costs, in terms of life choices, and willing to give it all to God. For all the doctrinal differences between denominations, this was not an issue 100 or 150 years ago, outside of high criticism which might be found in big cities but nowhere else. Today, at least half of the churches preach everything except the Bible, the Gospel, and discipleship, so attendance there doesn’t count.
Second, the church throughout most of its history has been able to balance the devotional with the martial, the monks with the knights, the prayer warriors with the antidevil warriors. Today, “manliness” is not a part of church practice, whether it be the man who stands before God in prayer, or the man who stands before Satan with the full armor of God. Discipline is nonexistent in the church, and so there is nothing to be gained from going there, or associating with those who go there. Even the secular world recognizes this in some ways, such as the rise of the martial arts—if you wanted to be a disciple of Christ and didn’t have a Bible to guide you, bushido would be a good place to start.
Third, there is nothing, outside the Eucharist, that you get at church that you can’t get at home, usually at a higher aesthetic quality. Church services from large churches with music and nationally-recognized pastors come over the TV, livestreamed on the internet, or through your church app. Why should I go to the dinky church that has 20-30 or even 100 people with volunteer musicians and average preachers, when I can save my time and my gas and watch the Big Dogs of the church, often while I’m multitasking like eating breakfast or cleaning the house or scrolling through Facebook?
So how is all of this going to change? It will take a massive move of the Spirit over the whole land, and that will most likely take a massive collapse of the peace and prosperity that we have come to expect for the last 80 years, requiring people to beg God to come back into their lives and our society. Until then, it’s just going to get worse and worse, because there is nothing outside of hell that is lost by being anything other than a disciple of Christ.
If I told you the fattest, most comfortable and passively entertained people to ever exist didn’t bother to go to church much, would it really be shocking?
Freegards
The defining problem is that the Protestant Churches no longer, by and large, preach the Gospel, a soul-changing reformation experience (Justification) where God himself changes the man from the inside out.
Conquering the power of sin in the life of men and replacing with a Love of God.
Churches have become worldly places filled with rock music and pastors in $10,000 suits and ministering women.
People are instinctively repelled by this even if they can’t accept why.
Most churches encourage self worship and wealth worship instead of telling people to purify themselves and spread the Good News.