Thank you for your review and for sharing this. Not surprising at any level.
The beauty of what the future holds for people of faith will be determined in how well we learn to love and continue to love ‘one another.’
We don’t need church buildings in order to be spiritual for sure.
We have been watching the decline of the American Church for many years while still engaged in the mission of starting more churches.
Not always clear if that motivation was profit or love based.
I personally feel a movement of the sacred, Divine, feminine Spirit of God hovering very near to our conversations. She, I might add, was always with God.... her name is Wisdom.
A good dose of Presence may just be the alchemy we long for.
First, I wonder if a way to think about The Great Dechurching is the “old” Believing-Belonging-Behaving Trilogy.
Their research looked primarily at the Belonging issue. Some people who Belong to church are not too good at Believing and Behaving. Some people who are dechurched are still pretty good at Believing and Behaving.
Some research looks primary at Believing, some primarily at Belonging, and some primarily at Behaving. In a few places it might be possible to say the research behind this book got hold of a partial picture of all three, but not a fully integrative picture of all three.
Second, then you also have the “reformed” theology that permeated the book – especially in Parts Three and Four.
Third, when you talk about the mega churches, many of them are still very homogeneous in nature. (Their homogeneity is not always race/ethnicity. It is can also be social class, economic status, educational attainment, etc.)
Fourth, regarding the socioeconomic status I still believe in the churching pattern that says a lower income mindset wants a small church, lower middle income wants a medium size church, a middle to upper middle-income mindset wants a large church, an upper income church wants a small to medium size church.
Thus, when the churching of America loses small to medium size churches, we lose whole strata of these people from the organized church.
In 1980 in an urban think-tank in St. Louis sponsored by the from Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, the workgroup I was in recommended that SBC start a new denomination focused on lower income to lower middle income target groups because we were losing these people with the upward mobility of our denomination and already their churches were closing or were taken over by leaders with other than spiritual foci.
Just some random thoughts from a Centrist Baptist Maverick.
I think that when historians look back from the perspective of fifty years hence (the length of time that it takes for history to begin to jell, not solidify) they may come to the conclusion that the US went through a Great Awakening of sorts in the latter part of the 20th century and into the 21st. We've had several GA's throughout our history and this one has marks of the others along with, as one would expect, major differences from past events so characterized.
This by way of differing with your statement that "We are primed for a Great Awakening." My perspective, as one who studied and taught US history for many years and who, for a time, was a member of the clergy who began new congregations for a major US denomination (that is considered Progressive) in the years from the mid-60s through the 80s. (That denomination, according to its own authorities, will probably be out of existence within the next twenty to thirty years.)
I studied futuristics during post-graduate work and worked to acquaint clergy with some of the basic techniques of the craft as a possible strategy for congregational life and development. I won't be around to see if I am anywhere near correct but I believe right now that there will be a continuing decline in the Christian and other religious memberships tending toward the European condition rather than any Great Awakening and revival movement, although there will be spasms of enthusiasm, ripples of religious fervor that may be assessed by historians as "positive" (helping the nation) or "negative" (hindering our nation's Constitutionally-stated aims.' [perceiving the Preamble as a national mission statement.)
Religion will never be completely gone, although it will present a form of asymptotic decline. Spirituality--which is different from religion as I see it--will continue, however. Is that enough?
I hope you are right. It’s looks pretty bleak in the pews of the UMC-PUSA-UCC world. Will go get that book!
Thank you for your review and for sharing this. Not surprising at any level.
The beauty of what the future holds for people of faith will be determined in how well we learn to love and continue to love ‘one another.’
We don’t need church buildings in order to be spiritual for sure.
We have been watching the decline of the American Church for many years while still engaged in the mission of starting more churches.
Not always clear if that motivation was profit or love based.
I personally feel a movement of the sacred, Divine, feminine Spirit of God hovering very near to our conversations. She, I might add, was always with God.... her name is Wisdom.
A good dose of Presence may just be the alchemy we long for.
Cass,
First, I wonder if a way to think about The Great Dechurching is the “old” Believing-Belonging-Behaving Trilogy.
Their research looked primarily at the Belonging issue. Some people who Belong to church are not too good at Believing and Behaving. Some people who are dechurched are still pretty good at Believing and Behaving.
Some research looks primary at Believing, some primarily at Belonging, and some primarily at Behaving. In a few places it might be possible to say the research behind this book got hold of a partial picture of all three, but not a fully integrative picture of all three.
Second, then you also have the “reformed” theology that permeated the book – especially in Parts Three and Four.
Third, when you talk about the mega churches, many of them are still very homogeneous in nature. (Their homogeneity is not always race/ethnicity. It is can also be social class, economic status, educational attainment, etc.)
Fourth, regarding the socioeconomic status I still believe in the churching pattern that says a lower income mindset wants a small church, lower middle income wants a medium size church, a middle to upper middle-income mindset wants a large church, an upper income church wants a small to medium size church.
Thus, when the churching of America loses small to medium size churches, we lose whole strata of these people from the organized church.
In 1980 in an urban think-tank in St. Louis sponsored by the from Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, the workgroup I was in recommended that SBC start a new denomination focused on lower income to lower middle income target groups because we were losing these people with the upward mobility of our denomination and already their churches were closing or were taken over by leaders with other than spiritual foci.
Just some random thoughts from a Centrist Baptist Maverick.
I think that when historians look back from the perspective of fifty years hence (the length of time that it takes for history to begin to jell, not solidify) they may come to the conclusion that the US went through a Great Awakening of sorts in the latter part of the 20th century and into the 21st. We've had several GA's throughout our history and this one has marks of the others along with, as one would expect, major differences from past events so characterized.
This by way of differing with your statement that "We are primed for a Great Awakening." My perspective, as one who studied and taught US history for many years and who, for a time, was a member of the clergy who began new congregations for a major US denomination (that is considered Progressive) in the years from the mid-60s through the 80s. (That denomination, according to its own authorities, will probably be out of existence within the next twenty to thirty years.)
I studied futuristics during post-graduate work and worked to acquaint clergy with some of the basic techniques of the craft as a possible strategy for congregational life and development. I won't be around to see if I am anywhere near correct but I believe right now that there will be a continuing decline in the Christian and other religious memberships tending toward the European condition rather than any Great Awakening and revival movement, although there will be spasms of enthusiasm, ripples of religious fervor that may be assessed by historians as "positive" (helping the nation) or "negative" (hindering our nation's Constitutionally-stated aims.' [perceiving the Preamble as a national mission statement.)
Religion will never be completely gone, although it will present a form of asymptotic decline. Spirituality--which is different from religion as I see it--will continue, however. Is that enough?