Anyone who pays any attention at all has noticed that church attendance in America has dropped off in recent years. Some of the reasons are obvious. Others are more subtle or more complex.
In this article, we will examine some of the reasons from what others have seen and from the author’s personal experience and we will explore at least one possible solution.
Why do people stop going to church?
Articles appear frequently, lamenting the fact that church attendance in America has declined in the past few years.
We can analyze these articles and add our own observations to arrive at some likely reasons why this might be so.
There are likely many reasons for declining church attendance. We can group them into categories that might enable us to analyze them more efficiently. They seem to fall into seven broad categories, presented here in ascending order of justification (that is, the first reason is less justifiable than the last, in my judgment):
- Not enough time, disruptions, busy schedule (relevancy failure)
- Bad experiences at church (personal failure)
- Personal disconnect, feelings of isolation (community failure)
- Preference for privacy (personal failure)
- Controversies in the church (church failure)
- Theological doubt or disagreement (theology failure)
- Recognition of hypocrisy or dishonesty by clergy (church failure)
Not enough time, disruptions, busy schedule (relevancy failure)
Families today most certainly have busy schedules. In most American families, the moms and the dads work. Kids have sports, music lessons, homework, school projects, scout activities. Families have picnics, beach days, day trips, museum, zoo and aquarium trips, trips to visit friends and relatives.
All of this is true. It is simply a matter of priorities. If a family believes that church is important, they will make the time. They will make church attendance a priority. If it is not important, they won’t.
Church relevancy will contribute largely to this decision.
Bad experiences at church (personal failure)
A child might have a bad experience with a Sunday School teacher or other adult. He might be bullied by another child.
An adult might have many kinds of bad experiences like arguments, gossip, bullying, lying. The list goes on.
It might be 1970. He might be a member of the choir who plays in a rock band on Saturday nights and still makes it to sing every Sunday morning. Maybe some of the older choir members think his long hair is inappropriate. He might make a choice.
In all of these examples, a person failed. Not always the same person.
Personal disconnect, feelings of isolation (community failure)
I have had people tell me they do not feel at home at a given church. If they themselves are sincere, this is a failure of the church community. I remember when my wife and I decided to take our kids to church (we had both stopped going by that time), in the church we selected, everyone welcomed us and made us feel at home. Had that not been the case, we would not have gone back.
If a church community does not make people feel welcome, that church community has failed and should be dissolved.
Preference for privacy (personal failure)
A person might choose not to attend church because he prefers to worship privately. Frankly, I do not see any theological or even Biblical reasoning against this. I am listing it as a personal failure only because it is not a failure of the church, its clergy or its community.
Controversies in the church (church failure)
Church controversies can take many forms. There might be a problem in the overseeing church hierarchy.
In the Roman Catholic Church, there is currently a Papal conflict.
In the Anglican church, conflicts abound worldwide.
The Southern Baptist Convention is imploding slowly in modern times.
The United Methodist Church is no longer united.
There might be problems within a congregation and its clergy.
Many cases of clergy abuse of power have been reported. It is quite easy to see how an experience or knowledge of these activities might cause none to stop going to church.
Theological doubt or disagreement (theology failure)
A person might simply find that a church’s theology, beliefs and creeds or dogma disagree with his personal beliefs.
A reasoning person can never agree with every single thing a church’s theology or dogma require. When this disagreement produces sufficient stress or a form of cognitive dissonance, the person will leave the church behind.
I have certainly observed this phenomenon over the years. For example, my father once left a church because it had become openly political.
Recognition of hypocrisy or dishonesty by clergy (church failure)
Of all the reasons, this seems to be the saddest and possibly the easiest reason to rectify. As far as I can determine, after a fairly intense study over at least five years, people who attend seminaries learn many things about the history of the evolution of the Christian church and more importantly about the evolution of the sacred book they revere and even the evolution of the deity they worship.
In seminary, rabbis, priests and ministers ALL learn about how the Bible was written and who did and did not write it. They learn about the ancient deities of the Hebrew people and how the deity they worship rose out of the pantheon of ancient Canaan, Phoenicia, Samaria and Syria.
In seminary, Catholic and Protestant clergy learn who did not write the canonical gospels, which “letters of Paul” he did not write, how the many Johns cited are separate and that there was almost no agreement among early Christians in any aspect of their theology.
They know the truth about the “virgin birth.”
They know that the “rapture” is not Biblical.
They know that the Book of Revelation was written to people in the first century CE and has NO RELEVANCE to anything or anyone after about 150 CE. No relevance whatsoever.
Priests, rabbis and preachers have been deceiving their flocks at least since the Babylonian captivity (586-538 BCE) of the Jewish people. Since that time, Jewish priests and rabbis and Christian priests and ministers have taken steps to consolidate power in their institutions and in the clergy and the people can sink or swim, swim if they agree and sink if they don’t.
There are a few exceptions, but not many.
What can clergy do?
While I realize that there is a delicate balance of faith and facts, I believe that clergy have chosen to go too far into dogma and have lost sight of what they are there for.
I will cite one example. In my town there is a small but sincere congregation. During COVID, attendance was abysmal. The clergy decided to find a need in the community and fill it. Many churches have food banks. Many do meals on wheels.
This church went into action. If COVID was keeping people out of church, homelessness was keeping some of them hungry.
The church started taking food to the unhoused right where they were. That church is no longer failing. It is thriving and growing.
Where does it all lead?
Going to church is a personal decision. I would suggest that each person make the decision based on theological agreement. Some of the other church problems are surmountable but if a person believes that a church’s belief system or the clergy’s honesty is unacceptable, he is better off going fishing.
At least he is communing with Nature, a deity of Her own for many people.
I don’t recommend golf. Golf sucks.
I KNOW someone out there agrees or disagrees. Please leave a comment. I am a public student of Biblical scholarship. Join me on this journey.
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