Where is Everyone?

What's going on? What is happening? When I began ministry in the early 90s, I was constantly reminded of the days when the church was full (even the balconies were overflowing).  I'm not sure if that was true or simply an overly nostalgic memory of what never was. What I do know is that over the last 30 years I have seen a steady decline in church attendance in almost all of the churches I have worked with.  Why is this happening?  What is wrong with churches?

While I served in Troy, I completed my PhD at RPI.  I studied the introduction of visual technologies to Christian worship.  The use of projectors and TVs in worship began in larger evangelical churches but quickly spread to many mainline congregations to "bring in younger people". The loss of "younger people" has been an ongoing struggle for the church; I have certainly dealt with it my entire ministry.  My study found that the use of these technologies in creative ways could enhance the worship experience, BUT it had no impact on increasing "younger people" attending the service. This generational loss at churches is a social problem and we can't fix social problems with a technical fix.

Robert Putnam, the Harvard political scientist in his massive text "Bowling Alone", shows, with example after example, the decades old decline of community building organizations. From bowling leagues to fraternal organizations, we have seen massive decline of these once important organizations that build community; the church, of course, is one of these.  Church after church has seen this decline and many have even had to close over the years.

I'm a United Methodist and I worked as a District Superintendent. The DS role is a supervisory role and works with the Bishop to ensure all churches have a pastor and all pastors have a church.  This matchmaking process is not always that easy. United Methodist clergy are all guaranteed a full-time appointment.  When I began ministry I heard of this wave of older clergy that will be retiring and will result in significant shortage of clergy to serve in churches.  In reality, the decline of churches kept pace with the shortage of clergy and the crisis never happened.

The pandemic of course sped all of this up. Churches, when they reopened for in-person worship, found that many people never returned.  Clergy, overwhelmed with the demands of the pandemic, left the ministry. Many churches have kept live-streaming their worship and are now considered hybrid churches, but the impact of viewers of the service is far less than attendees to worship.  

So what is the future of the church? Clearly we are in a transitional time in the church and what we will be is not clear. I think it is clear that we don't need a technical fix, we need a social fix.  This isn't about finding a way to bring in young people; it is much larger than that.  The loss of young people in our churches is a symptom, not the problem.  The problem is a societal shift away from building community and this has major implications for us all, far beyond the church. Hopefully the church in the future can provide a counter-cultural voice that reminds us of the power of community.

The Rev. Dr. James Fenimore

Director of Clergy and Congregational Care

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