It comes as no surprise to religion watchers that church attendance continues to decline.

This week the Barna Group released “Americans Divided on the Importance of Church.” When asked what helped them grow in faith, “people offered a variety of answers — prayer, family or friends, reading the Bible, having children — but church did not even crack the Top 10 list.”

Sadly, half of Americans say attending church is “somewhat” or “very” important vs. half that say it’s “not too” or “not at all” important, according to the Barna Group study.

The report notes that the “divide between the religiously active and those resistant to churchgoing affects American culture, morality, politics and religion.”

I’ve witnessed dramatic declines in attendance over the 10-plus years I’ve attended church services in Anchorage. Some churches appear to have lost at least half of their attendees. Clearly Alaska mirrors the national trend. Although some churches appear to be experiencing attendance increases, on the whole declines are the norm in Alaska.

The Barna study asked unchurched Americans why they didn’t attend church. The top two reasons given were “I find God elsewhere” (40 percent) and “Church is not relevant to me personally” (35 percent). Regardless of age, denomination or background, the major reason (43 percent) people give for going to church is “to be closer to God.”

Being closer to God is a nebulous quest. The report cautions, “Although people cite their primary reasons for attending church as growing closer to God and learning more about Him, Barna Group finds such closeness is a rare occurrence. Fewer than two of 10 churchgoers feel close to God on even a monthly basis.

Additionally, while almost two-thirds of those who value church attendance go to learn more about God, fewer than one in 10 (6 percent) who have ever been to church say they learned something about God or Jesus the last time they attended. In fact, the majority of people (61 percent) say they did not gain any significant or new insights regarding faith when they last attended.

In other words, although people are seeking God or new faith insights, they’re not finding Him or them. During the past seven years, while blogging my church visits, I rarely sense particular churches offering attendees new information or leading worshipers to connect with God. After church, I often feel downright depressed by the experience. That’s not to say it’s all bad, but it suggests this may be an issue.

A report last year by the Pew Forum asked religiously affiliated respondents what kept them out of the pews.

The report found that among religiously affiliated Americans who say that religion is at least somewhat important in their lives, but who attend worship services no more than a few times a year, 24 percent cite personal priorities — including 16 percent who say they are too busy — as reasons they do not attend more often. Another 24 percent mention practical difficulties, including work conflicts, health problems or transportation difficulties.

 “Nearly four in 10 (37 percent) point to an issue directly related to religion or church itself. The most common religion-related responses include disagreements with the beliefs of the religion or their church leaders, or beliefs that attending worship services is not important. Meanwhile, almost one in 10 (9 percent) do not attribute their lack of attendance at religious services to anything in particular.”

The Barna Group discovered only four in 10 Americans said they’d gone to church in the past week. Disturbingly, this latest study shows a dichotomy among American seekers. “The data shows two trends, often at crosscurrents. Adults are aware of their very real spiritual needs, yet they are increasingly dissatisfied with the church’s attempt to meet those spiritual needs and are turning elsewhere,” the report said. This is where Americans say they’re spiritual, not religious.

In the Barna Frames project a New York City pastor, Jon Tyson, observed that Americans have virtually every spiritual resource available, including Bibles, electronic access to incredible teachings, and media galore.

Going further Tyson says, “How could the early church capture the imagination of the Roman empire while we, with all our resources and rigor, are slowly losing influence in our culture?

“The early church leaders didn’t have the things we now consider essential for our faith. They didn’t have official church buildings, vision statements or core values. They had no social media, radio broadcasts or celebrity pastors. They didn’t even have the completed New Testament. Christ followers were often deeply misunderstood, persecuted and some gave their lives for their faith. Yet they loved and they served, and they prayed and they blessed — and slowly, over hundreds of years, they brought the empire to its knees. They did it through love.”

I believe our individual and cultural narcissism has to give way to allow this to happen again. We’re looking at the wrong person.

Chris Thompson is a religion scholar who visits local churches and writes about his experiences and matters of faith on his blog, Church Visits, at adn.com/churchvisits.

 Original ADN Article
http://www.adn.com/article/20140328/chris-thompson-research-underscores-deeper-church-attendance-issues

Would we be better off for observing Sabbath?

The Sabbath and its observance are deeply rooted in Judeo-Christian belief. Many of us were raised with the belief that the Sabbath is based on the 10 Commandments and that those still apply to mankind. After all, didn’t we also believe in the concept of not murdering (sixth commandment), not stealing (eighth commandment) and not lying (ninth commandment), which are also part of the 10 Commandments?

There are more commandments but these are good illustrations. In many churches, the commandments seem to provide the moral code for adherents to follow.

The fourth commandment deals with the Sabbath. It’s very explicit: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-12 ESV)

From that beginning, the Sabbath was known and practiced as a day of rest and worship. Literally, this was a God-ordained break from most human activity. In all my church-visiting activity in Anchorage over 10 to 12 years, I can think of no local church I’ve visited that truly follows the biblical injunction in Exodus 20:8-12. Most Christian churches in Anchorage have one- or two-hour worship services, some offer Sunday school, which few members attend, and some offer Sunday evening services, which reflect a tiny cross section of members. For the most part, the rest of Saturday or Sunday, depending on the worship day observed, is business as usual. Consequently, most local Christians spend the Sabbath working, shopping, watching television, fishing, hunting, hiking, snow activities and thousands of other activities.

From the development of Christianity in the early church it is obvious the apostles and early believers worshipped on the Sabbath following the same practices as the Jews before them. But it goes even deeper. Well-known theologian Walter Brueggemann observes in his latest book, “Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now”: “In our own contemporary context of the rat race of anxiety, the celebration of Sabbath is an act of both resistance and alternative. It is resistance because it is a visible insistence that our lives are not defined by the production and consumption of commodity goods. Such an act of resistance requires enormous intentionality and communal reinforcement amid the barrage of seductive pressures from the insatiable insistences of the market with its intrusion into every part of our life from the family to the national budget. … But Sabbath is not only resistance. It is alternative. It is an alternative to the demanding, chattering, pervasive presence of advertising and its great liturgical claim of professional sports that devours all of our ‘rest time.’ The alternative on offer is the awareness and practice of the claim that we are situated on the receiving end of the gifts of God.”

The 24/7 mentality in our society is ruining our inner health and peace, intruding upon those sacred things many of us grew up with. The practical observance of Sabbath would provide some of what’s missing. This profoundly felt lack is being documented by many who are even beginning to take secular Sabbaths.

An intriguing article by Mark Bittman detailed this approach in a 2008 New York Times article, “I Need a Virtual Break. No, Really.” Bittman documents his struggles with technology and its controlling nature, especially apparent after he checks his phone messages and email on a flight, discovering he’d surrendered his last sanctuary. “Thus began my “secular Sabbath” — a term I found floating around on blogs — a day a week where I would be free of screens, bells and beeps. An old-fashioned day not only of rest but of relief.” Bittman has been joined by thousands who are seeking and finding relief in “secular” or “biblical” Sabbaths. And they are benefiting greatly from the experience.

It’s time for churches to dust off the 10 Commandments and teach about the power of true Sabbath observance. Moral relevance is still powerful, and the observance of the Sabbath offers powerful benefits when rightly presented by clergy who should know. As important as 10 Commandment observance is, I’d love to hear my first sermon from Anchorage clergy on Sabbath.

Chris Thompson is a religion scholar who visits local churches and writes about his experiences and matters of faith on his blog, Church Visits, at adn.com/churchvisits.

Original ADN Article
http://www.adn.com/article/20140321/chris-thompson-its-time-we-get-back-observing-sabbath

Last week I promised to offer advice on making that all-important first visit to a church. I also shared information about selecting a group or denomination consistent with core beliefs you might already have about religion.

My personal results, after using those tools, were surprisingly accurate for many of my beliefs.

The premise is to target churches that mirror the religious community you’d like to ultimately be a part of. There is also value in visiting churches you’ve heard about or have been suggested to you, as much can be learned from particular faith groups by observing their worship practices.

Selecting a church to visit

By now, you may have already selected a church you’d like to visit. Look it up on the Internet using Google or another search engine. You’ll want to find out where it is and what time they meet.

Be forewarned that many churches fail to list their worship times and meeting location on their home page. You’ll have to hunt for it. Sometimes you might have to call the church.

You can also check whether the Church Visits column has reported on a particular church. I’ve visited most of the larger churches in Anchorage, and my reviews can offer a general idea of what to expect.

The Anchorage Daily News archives stretch back longer than I’ve been visiting churches. Over the years I’ve observed that when visiting a church more than one time the dynamics of that church are usually the same.

If a church is unfriendly on the first visit, it’ll likely be unfriendly on the third visit. You can find these reports on a search engine.

For example, if you’re looking for Methodist churches I’ve reviewed, you can enter “adn.com church visits chris thompson methodist”. [Please note this feature is not active at this moment since I wrote this article.]

Original ADN Article
http://www.adn.com/article/20140228/chris-thompson-tools-finding-right-church-you