Big Conversations about Declining Churches
In the past week, a conversation has filled Facebook walls and Tweet chats. Many have hit the blogosphere. They want to discuss an op-ed article by Ross Douthat in NY Times & a follow-up by Diana Butler Bass in the Huffington Post.
Ross Douthat wrote to pile on with those who describe the steep decline of attendance in the Episcopalian Church. Could there be complex and multiple reasons for their decline? Not according to Douthat. He views the culprit as the embrace of a social liberal agenda. He writes, "But if conservative Christianity has often been compromised, liberal Christianity has simply collapsed. Practically every denomination — Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian — that has tried to adapt itself to contemporary liberal values has seen an Episcopal-style plunge in church attendance." In other words, embrace liberal values and plummet in attendance.
Douthat may be right. The liberal social agenda may drive many church-goers to more conservative congregations. But he also may be way oversimplifying things.
Here's a link to Douthat's piece.
Diana Butler Bass responded to Douthat's article with a longer article that struck me as more carefully written than Douthat's piece. Butler Bass researches and writes about mainline Protestantism in the US. I enjoyed her book The Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church.
She stands on more data and says that "liberal" churches aren't the only ones declining. In her words, all North American churches are seeing a drop in attendance. "Liberal churches are not the only ones declining. It is true that progressive religious bodies started to decline in the 1960s. However, conservative denominations are now experiencing the same. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention, one of America's most conservative churches, has for a dozen years struggled with membership loss and overall erosion in programming, staffing, and budgets. Many smaller conservative denominations, such as the Missouri Synod Lutherans, are under pressure by loss. The Roman Catholic Church, a body that has moved in markedly conservative directions and of which Mr. Douthat is a member, is straining as members leave in droves. By 2008, one in ten Americans considered him- or herself a former Roman Catholic. On the surface, Catholic membership numbers seem steady. But this is a function of Catholic immigration from Latin America. If one factors out immigrants, American Catholicism matches the membership decline of any liberal Protestant denomination. Decline is not exclusive to the Episcopal Church, nor to liberal denominations--it is a reality facing the whole of American Christianity."
I'm sure that some find fault with some of her suggestions, but I find her article fairly well reasoned. Here's a link to Butler Bass' piece.
All this reminded me of an article in the Wall Street Journal written over a year ago by a Southern Baptist who teaches at Southern Theological Seminary. Russell Moore tried to say that young Christians were fleeing mainline denominations for community churches and charity groups. What he speaks to, however, implies that Christians are not breaking new ground with non-church-goers. They're just retreading existing church-goers. Then he tried to claim that Southern Baptists were doing just fine on this front.
Hmm. Wishful thinking? Here's a link to Moore's article.
Ross Douthat wrote to pile on with those who describe the steep decline of attendance in the Episcopalian Church. Could there be complex and multiple reasons for their decline? Not according to Douthat. He views the culprit as the embrace of a social liberal agenda. He writes, "But if conservative Christianity has often been compromised, liberal Christianity has simply collapsed. Practically every denomination — Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian — that has tried to adapt itself to contemporary liberal values has seen an Episcopal-style plunge in church attendance." In other words, embrace liberal values and plummet in attendance.
Douthat may be right. The liberal social agenda may drive many church-goers to more conservative congregations. But he also may be way oversimplifying things.
Here's a link to Douthat's piece.
Diana Butler Bass responded to Douthat's article with a longer article that struck me as more carefully written than Douthat's piece. Butler Bass researches and writes about mainline Protestantism in the US. I enjoyed her book The Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church.
She stands on more data and says that "liberal" churches aren't the only ones declining. In her words, all North American churches are seeing a drop in attendance. "Liberal churches are not the only ones declining. It is true that progressive religious bodies started to decline in the 1960s. However, conservative denominations are now experiencing the same. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention, one of America's most conservative churches, has for a dozen years struggled with membership loss and overall erosion in programming, staffing, and budgets. Many smaller conservative denominations, such as the Missouri Synod Lutherans, are under pressure by loss. The Roman Catholic Church, a body that has moved in markedly conservative directions and of which Mr. Douthat is a member, is straining as members leave in droves. By 2008, one in ten Americans considered him- or herself a former Roman Catholic. On the surface, Catholic membership numbers seem steady. But this is a function of Catholic immigration from Latin America. If one factors out immigrants, American Catholicism matches the membership decline of any liberal Protestant denomination. Decline is not exclusive to the Episcopal Church, nor to liberal denominations--it is a reality facing the whole of American Christianity."
I'm sure that some find fault with some of her suggestions, but I find her article fairly well reasoned. Here's a link to Butler Bass' piece.
All this reminded me of an article in the Wall Street Journal written over a year ago by a Southern Baptist who teaches at Southern Theological Seminary. Russell Moore tried to say that young Christians were fleeing mainline denominations for community churches and charity groups. What he speaks to, however, implies that Christians are not breaking new ground with non-church-goers. They're just retreading existing church-goers. Then he tried to claim that Southern Baptists were doing just fine on this front.
Hmm. Wishful thinking? Here's a link to Moore's article.
Comments