Churches are struggling to hold on to members - not just the numbers, but their minds and hearts. What do you do when people just don't believe you anymore?
Turns out basically nobody is as conservative as their church.
That's an interesting vid. It seems like there's a difference between the idealist conception of religion (that people join the one that matches their values) and the actual way churches operate (that people are inducted into it as part of a community and stay with it as long as they remain members of that community).
My own family seems to follow this logic, leaving and joining and leaving and joining again churches based on community rather than any kind of changing religious conviction. My mom left when she left her parents' community behind and became an atomized middle class type, then would try to join churches and bounce off because she just didn't have the attachment to the communities those churches represented necessary to maintain membership, and then in recent years has re-joined a church because my youngest siblings made friends who were members of it, drawing the whole family into that community in what I suspect will be a much more durable membership than any of the ones we flirted with when I was growing up.
I've not joined though because I'm moved out and have no desire to. I did get forced to go to church when I was a kid for a while, but that was strictly so that my mom could get a discount on tuition because we lived in a shitty neighborhood and she didn't want me in public school at that time.
the actual way churches operate (that people are inducted into it as part of a community and stay with it as long as they remain members of that community).
I mean yeah. No one gives a shit about what the pastor has to say (except for the minority of people drunk on ideology) so long as it's not too crazy. It's all about the community events and stuff. Church camps, youth groups, cell groups, talking to people as friends face to face once a week, etc. It's a great place to meet people, provided you share similar values.
I don't share these values, so it kinda sucks for me and makes me feel alienated. Probably why I'm an atheist
That's an interesting vid. It seems like there's a difference between the idealist conception of religion (that people join the one that matches their values) and the actual way churches operate (that people are inducted into it as part of a community and stay with it as long as they remain members of that community).
My own family seems to follow this logic, leaving and joining and leaving and joining again churches based on community rather than any kind of changing religious conviction. My mom left when she left her parents' community behind and became an atomized middle class type, then would try to join churches and bounce off because she just didn't have the attachment to the communities those churches represented necessary to maintain membership, and then in recent years has re-joined a church because my youngest siblings made friends who were members of it, drawing the whole family into that community in what I suspect will be a much more durable membership than any of the ones we flirted with when I was growing up.
I've not joined though because I'm moved out and have no desire to. I did get forced to go to church when I was a kid for a while, but that was strictly so that my mom could get a discount on tuition because we lived in a shitty neighborhood and she didn't want me in public school at that time.
I mean yeah. No one gives a shit about what the pastor has to say (except for the minority of people drunk on ideology) so long as it's not too crazy. It's all about the community events and stuff. Church camps, youth groups, cell groups, talking to people as friends face to face once a week, etc. It's a great place to meet people, provided you share similar values.
I don't share these values, so it kinda sucks for me and makes me feel alienated. Probably why I'm an atheist