Showing posts with label Religion Shrinking Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religion Shrinking Church. Show all posts

Monday, September 21, 2015

Don Aines Hagerstown Herald-Mail: Numbers going to church steady, but churches seek more

Don Aines Hagerstown Herald-Mail: Numbers going to church steady, but churches seek more


Don Aines Hagerstown Herald-Mail Saturday, September 19, 2015 8:30 pm

It might seem as though America is a less religious nation than in years past, but the numbers have remained remarkably steady over the decades. About four in 10 Americans report attending church weekly, a figure that's changed little from year to year, according to a Gallup poll conducted in 2012.

On the occasion of Pope Francis' upcoming visit to the United States, The Herald-Mail spoke to local clergy and religious leaders about the state of religion in Washington County and found them working to build their congregations amid generational shifts in how people relate to religious institutions.

Washington County is about as religious as the rest of the country, according to a 2010 profile the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), which found about 38 percent of county residents said they attended religious services regularly.



Faith in the future

The Rev. Sarah Dorrance, pastor of Middletown United Methodist Church in Middeltown, Md., noted 20 percent of Americans and 30 percent of people under 30 are "none," or people with no religious or denominational affiliation.

"Those numbers are growing by 20 percent year after year," she said.

Following that trajectory, it will not be too far into the future when America is like Europe, a continent where about 5 percent of the people still regularly attend church, she said.

"I have a heart for Millennials," Dorrance said of this generation of young adults, adding that they are the generation "most absent from all of our churches."

Like Metzner, she said churches have to ask the question, "How can we serve you?" to bring people into the faith life and into church.

"Worship is not necessarily the first point of entry," Dorrance said.

Churches like hers try to build "on-ramps," ways to get people involved in church. Many young people are interested in serving their communities, and churches working alongside them can be one of those on-ramps, she said.

If churches reach out with excitement, rather than despair, they can bring people closer to God, she said.

"The message is still the same, the way the message is delivered does change," Dorrance said. "Jesus is still as relevant in our lives as he was 2,000 years ago."

Read more here: http://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/local/numbers-going-to-church-steady-but-churches-seek-more/article_a2846613-6473-518c-91e8-5372295624f9.html



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Baltimore Sun Carroll Eagle: 
Tumblr: Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems www.kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/
Kevin Dayhoff is an artist - and a columnist for:
Smurfs: http://babylonfluckjudd.blogspot.com/
Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/

E-mail: kevindayhoff(at)gmail.com

My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/


See also - Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art www.kevindayhoff.com: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, music, culture, opera... Ad maiorem Dei gloriam inque hominum salutem. “Deadline U.S.A.” 1952. Ed Hutcheson: “That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!” - See more at: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/#sthash.4HNLwtfd.dpuf
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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Changes




Kevin E. Dayhoff

Last night I covered the Westminster mayor and common council meeting for the newspaper: “Broad range of topics discussed at the Westminster mayor and common council meeting Monday night http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/2015/08/broad-range-of-topics-discussed-at.html. And I had spent almost all day in church at Grace Lutheran Church in Westminster. 

At the end of the day, as I was writing the article on the council meeting, I could help but to recall one of my all-time favorite sermons about change.

Both Westminster city government and Grace Lutheran Church need to continue to change in order to continue to relevant.

Fortunately, Grace Lutheran, under the leadership of Pastors Martha and Kevin Clementson, and church council – especially Council President Ron Fairchild are continuing in the correct direction of adapting with the times.

Along with my sister-in-law, United Methodist Church Pastor Sarah Babylon Dorrance, this simply must be some of the brightest and best church leadership around.

Same goes with the Westminster city government.

As I sat last night in the Westminster council chambers beside city attorney Elissa Levan, I reflected upon the fact that I have now been going to Westminster City Hall since the late 1950s and have always been impressed with the level of care, diligence and expertise exhibited by our government at work.

But the current administration simply must be one of the best in the state of Maryland – and the current mayor and common council are going some great things. We should all be proud and help in any way we can.


So, anyway, this one of my all-time favorite sermons…. June 14, 2001: "Sharing Faith in a New Century” By Lutheran Bishop H. Gerard Knoche

"Sharing Faith in a New Century”
By Lutheran Bishop H. Gerard Knoche

** Here is the text of the sermon by Lutheran Synod Bishop H. Gerard Knoche at Synod Assembly Opening Worship, June 14, 2001, based on Acts 17:16-34; given at Western Maryland College in Westminster, MD.

Permission is given for congregations to reproduce it for their own use.

This one of my all-time favorite sermons…. June 14, 2001: "Sharing Faith in a New Century” By Lutheran Bishop H. Gerard Knoche http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/2001/06/thisone-of-my-all-time-favorite-sermons.html

Labels: #Dayhoff5EasyPieces, Change, History This Day in History 0614, Religion Grace Lutheran Church, Religion Lutheran, Religion Lutheran Bishop H. Gerard Knoche, Religion Shrinking Church - See more at: http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/2001/06/thisone-of-my-all-time-favorite-sermons.html#sthash.MTtrx3fN.dpuf
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If we do not share faith in the new century many of the congregations in the Delaware-Maryland Synod will die.  I am sorry that my first words as a preacher at Synod Assembly carry bad news.  But in my travels around the synod in these last nine months, I have come across too many congregations where the largest demographic group in the congregation is over 55.  Two urban churches have closed since I took office, both being sold to other denominations that expect to make a go of it.  If they can do it, why can’t we?  It was almost shocking last Sunday to be in a congregation where there were more teenagers worshiping than in any other church I have attended (20 or 25 at least).  “If this church can do it, why can’t others?”  I asked myself.  Churches that will survive, that will grow, are churches that have, as our assembly theme suggests, learned how to share the faith in a new century.

The lesson from Acts tells the story of Paul sharing the faith with a group of people who are new to him.  Paul has been left in Athens and is depressed to see the city is full of idols.  Apparently there were beautiful statues to every imaginable Greek god or goddess throughout the city.  He is waiting for Silas and Timothy and so decides to argue for the faith with the Jews in the synagogue and with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.  Like other Athenians, the text says, they “spent their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.”
This evening I would like to look at Paul’s speech to see what it might tell us about Sharing Faith in a New Century.  First, Paul went out to the Areopagus, the public square where folks gathered to talk.  Unlike times past, we cannot expect folks to come to church looking for us.  Those who do that are largely those who have had some experience with the church in their background.  Increasingly, there are many Americans who have had no contact with Christianity, know nothing about it—and may even feel it is irrelevant or may be hostile to it.  A telling commentary on our culture is the fact that ”spell check” in Windows 95 does not have all the books of the Bible in its list, much less many of the Biblical names.  They are not part of the general basic knowledge base.  In campus ministry it was not unusual to have a student come in timidly saying, “I’m dating a Christian.  I have no idea what that means.  Can you tell me?”  To share faith in the new century we will need to go to the unchurched where they are.

Secondly, Paul knew the world-view of those with whom he wanted to communicate.  He had discovered their altar to an unknown God and he knew that they shared his belief that God had created all things.  He spoke the gospel to them in a form they were most likely to understand and accept.  We need to be more attentive to our audience.  Leonard Sweet is one of the writers who has researched what the postmodern culture is like. I don’t have time to share all the characteristics, but I will say that it is a culture more interested in spiritual experience than spiritual arguments.  They want to feel God more than they want to understand God.  Stories of personal belief are more convincing than explanations of doctrine.
Today’s culture also seems to be able to hold two contradictory notions at the same time.  F. Scott Fitzgerald said that the test of a first-class mind is the ability to be able to hold two opposing ideas in the head at the same time and still be able to function.  Book titles catch the doublespeak with ”Ordinary Miracles” or “Open Secrets” and movies with “True Lies.”  More significantly, it is true that new houses are bigger while families are smaller; more farmers are making big bucks and more farmers are facing financial catastrophe; more people are becoming rich than ever before and more people are becoming poor than ever before.  The postmodern is able to handle paradox, which in other days we have called dialectics.  We need to understand the worldview of the unchurched if we are to share the faith in a new century.

Thirdly, and perhaps most obviously, we need to know the gospel ourselves. 
Paul makes his connection to their thought world and then moves on to talk of
God’s judgment, of their need to repent, and of the resurrection.  It pains me to read that pollsters have determined that four out of ten folks who call themselves Christians are unable to name the four Gospels.  If the way that
Jesus speaks to us and guides us in our life is through the Scriptures, then
if we don’t know the Scriptures we don’t know Jesus very well either.  There
is no question in my mind that the key factor in churches that are reaching
out to share the faith is the rostered and lay leadership.  Folks who know Jesus, know the Bible, and are excited about sharing that relationship with
others do it best.  To share faith in the new century, we need to deepen our
Biblical knowledge and our love of Jesus, so that we will have something
fresh and dynamic to share.

One of the fears about changing the way things have always been with new
music or the use of the Internet or coffee house churches is that what is most precious to us will be lost.  The story is told that in the early days of the Tennessee Valley project, a dilapidated homestead was going to be torn down.  They were damming the river and the valley would be flooded out.  A new split-level ranch house was built for the Appalachian family on a hillside nearby.

The day of the flooding arrived and the bulldozers were there to tear down the old house.  The family refused to move out of the homestead.  Finally, out of desperation, a social worker was called to find out what the problem was.  “We ain’t goin’ anywhere” was the reply.  The social worker pleaded with them to tell her what the problem was and why they would not move into their beautiful new home.

”See that fire over there?” the man asked, pointing to a blazing fire in the
primitive hearth of the log cabin.  “My grandpa built that fire over a hundred years ago,” the man explained.  “He never let it go out, for he had no matches and it was a long way to the neighbors’.  Then my pa tended the fire, and since he died, I tended it. None of us let it die, and I ain’t goin’ to move away and let grandpa’s fire go out.”

The social worker got an idea.  She arranged for a large apple butter kettle
to be delivered to the home.  The hot coals would be scooped up and transported to the new home, kindling would be added, and the grandfather’s
fire would never go out.  The Appalachian family accepted and moved up to the
split-level rancher on the hillside after they knew that they would have the
fire of their ancestors.

As we share faith in the new century, we will keep the fire—of water, of bread and wine, of the book that is a love letter from God, but we will move to new places, where we do things differently, lest the flood of modernity wipe us out.  Paul and Jesus would want it that way.  Then, just like with Paul, some will scoff; others will hear us again; and some will become believers.
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Baltimore Sun Carroll Eagle: 
Tumblr: Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems www.kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/
Kevin Dayhoff is an artist - and a columnist for:
Smurfs: http://babylonfluckjudd.blogspot.com/
Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/

E-mail: kevindayhoff(at)gmail.com

My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/


See also - Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art www.kevindayhoff.com: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, music, culture, opera... Ad maiorem Dei gloriam inque hominum salutem. “Deadline U.S.A.” 1952. Ed Hutcheson: “That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!” - See more at: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/#sthash.4HNLwtfd.dpuf
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Monday, May 27, 2013

May 19 was Pentecost Sunday by Kevin E. Dayhoff May 22, 2013 http://tinyurl.com/q4sk774



Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday; the 50 day after Easter and the birthday of the church. Along with Easter and Christmas, Pentecost is one of the three most important holidays in the church. It’s time to renew the spirit of Pentecost in our daily lives. Here’s why.

Pentecost has many meanings, which are, in essence, really only different parts of the same elephant. The English word ‘Pentecost’ is actually a transliteration of the Greek word ‘pentekostos,’ which means ‘fifty.’

It is one of the oldest holidays in the church. Its roots may be traced to the Jewish Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot, (as is referred to in Exodus 34:22, Deuteronomy 16:10,) which is celebrated 50 days after God passed down the Torah, which included the Ten Commandments to the assembled nation of Israel at Mount Sinai. This year Shavuot took place May 14 – May 16, 2013.

There are those who believe that the Jewish faith borrowed the holiday from ancient pagan rituals which celebrated the death of winter and a spirit of (spring) renewal.

In the Bible, Pentecost is mentioned in St. Paul's letter to a troubled church, the First Letter to the Corinthians 16:8. “But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost…”

On my recent trip to Greece, I had the honor of standing in the marketplace at the very spot where it is believed Paul spoke to the turbulent crowds in Corinth. Thousands of years later, we must redouble our efforts to carry the example of Paul forward to address our troubled times.

Pentecost is also mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles in Chapter 20, verse 16: “For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.”

Pentecost Sunday marks the end of the Easter season on the Christian calendar. Pentecost Monday – the first Monday after the celebration of Pentecost is celebrated as a holiday in many countries, most notably, in England.

The story of the first Pentecost is told by Acts 2; when people had gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish festival, the Feast of Weeks.

It was during Pentecost Sunday, 10 days after the ascension of Christ, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Twelve Disciples and followers of Jesus. Today, Pentecost is the important celebration of that fateful day when the Apostles were bestowed the gifts to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to all peoples and nations.

According to Acts 2: 2-4: “… please click here to read more: http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=5790

See also:

May 23, 2013
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Many believe that the current decline in church attendance directly contributes to the erosion of our quality of life, the deterioration of our sense of community and lack of confidence in the future.

May 22, 2013
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday; the 50 day after Easter and the birthday of the church. Along with Easter and Christmas, Pentecost is one of the three most important holidays in the church. It’s time to renew the spirit of Pentecost in our daily lives. Here’s why.

May 15, 2013
Kevin E. Dayhoff

Last month my wife and I left our house in the wee-hours of the morning and joined other households in Carroll County for the shared experience of putting box after box of old documents in a large ravenous shredder-truck which devoured the paper voraciously
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Kevin Dayhoff is an artist - and a columnist for:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoffTwitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff
Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/ = www.newbedfordherald.net

Tumblr: Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems www.kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/
Smurfs: http://babylonfluckjudd.blogspot.com/
Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/

E-mail: kevindayhoff(at)gmail.com
My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/
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Friday, June 15, 2001

This one of my all-time favorite sermons…. June 14, 2001: "Sharing Faith in a New Century” By Lutheran Bishop H. Gerard Knoche

This one of my all-time favorite sermons….

"Sharing Faith in a New Century”
By Lutheran Bishop H. Gerard Knoche

** Here is the text of the sermon by Lutheran Synod Bishop H. Gerard Knoche at Synod Assembly Opening Worship, June 14, 2001, based on Acts 17:16-34; given at Western Maryland College in Westminster, MD.

______________________________
If we do not share faith in the new century many of the congregations in the Delaware-Maryland Synod will die.  I am sorry that my first words as a preacher at Synod Assembly carry bad news.  But in my travels around the synod in these last nine months, I have come across too many congregations where the largest demographic group in the congregation is over 55.  Two urban churches have closed since I took office, both being sold to other denominations that expect to make a go of it.  If they can do it, why can’t we?  It was almost shocking last Sunday to be in a congregation where there were more teenagers worshiping than in any other church I have attended (20 or 25 at least).  “If this church can do it, why can’t others?”  I asked myself.  Churches that will survive, that will grow, are churches that have, as our assembly theme suggests, learned how to share the faith in a new century.

The lesson from Acts tells the story of Paul sharing the faith with a group of people who are new to him.  Paul has been left in Athens and is depressed to see the city is full of idols.  Apparently there were beautiful statues to every imaginable Greek god or goddess throughout the city.  He is waiting for Silas and Timothy and so decides to argue for the faith with the Jews in the synagogue and with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.  Like other Athenians, the text says, they “spent their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.”
This evening I would like to look at Paul’s speech to see what it might tell us about Sharing Faith in a New Century.  First, Paul went out to the Areopagus, the public square where folks gathered to talk.  Unlike times past, we cannot expect folks to come to church looking for us.  Those who do that are largely those who have had some experience with the church in their background.  Increasingly, there are many Americans who have had no contact with Christianity, know nothing about it—and may even feel it is irrelevant or may be hostile to it.  A telling commentary on our culture is the fact that ”spell check” in Windows 95 does not have all the books of the Bible in its list, much less many of the Biblical names.  They are not part of the general basic knowledge base.  In campus ministry it was not unusual to have a student come in timidly saying, “I’m dating a Christian.  I have no idea what that means.  Can you tell me?”  To share faith in the new century we will need to go to the unchurched where they are.

Secondly, Paul knew the world-view of those with whom he wanted to communicate.  He had discovered their altar to an unknown God and he knew that they shared his belief that God had created all things.  He spoke the gospel to them in a form they were most likely to understand and accept.  We need to be more attentive to our audience.  Leonard Sweet is one of the writers who has researched what the postmodern culture is like. I don’t have time to share all the characteristics, but I will say that it is a culture more interested in spiritual experience than spiritual arguments.  They want to feel God more than they want to understand God.  Stories of personal belief are more convincing than explanations of doctrine.
Today’s culture also seems to be able to hold two contradictory notions at the same time.  F. Scott Fitzgerald said that the test of a first-class mind is the ability to be able to hold two opposing ideas in the head at the same time and still be able to function.  Book titles catch the doublespeak with ”Ordinary Miracles” or “Open Secrets” and movies with “True Lies.”  More significantly, it is true that new houses are bigger while families are smaller; more farmers are making big bucks and more farmers are facing financial catastrophe; more people are becoming rich than ever before and more people are becoming poor than ever before.  The postmodern is able to handle paradox, which in other days we have called dialectics.  We need to understand the worldview of the unchurched if we are to share the faith in a new century.

Thirdly, and perhaps most obviously, we need to know the gospel ourselves. 
Paul makes his connection to their thought world and then moves on to talk of
God’s judgment, of their need to repent, and of the resurrection.  It pains me to read that pollsters have determined that four out of ten folks who call themselves Christians are unable to name the four Gospels.  If the way that
Jesus speaks to us and guides us in our life is through the Scriptures, then
if we don’t know the Scriptures we don’t know Jesus very well either.  There
is no question in my mind that the key factor in churches that are reaching
out to share the faith is the rostered and lay leadership.  Folks who know Jesus, know the Bible, and are excited about sharing that relationship with
others do it best.  To share faith in the new century, we need to deepen our
Biblical knowledge and our love of Jesus, so that we will have something
fresh and dynamic to share.

One of the fears about changing the way things have always been with new
music or the use of the Internet or coffee house churches is that what is most precious to us will be lost.  The story is told that in the early days of the Tennessee Valley project, a dilapidated homestead was going to be torn down.  They were damming the river and the valley would be flooded out.  A new split-level ranch house was built for the Appalachian family on a hillside nearby.

The day of the flooding arrived and the bulldozers were there to tear down the old house.  The family refused to move out of the homestead.  Finally, out of desperation, a social worker was called to find out what the problem was.  “We ain’t goin’ anywhere” was the reply.  The social worker pleaded with them to tell her what the problem was and why they would not move into their beautiful new home.

”See that fire over there?” the man asked, pointing to a blazing fire in the
primitive hearth of the log cabin.  “My grandpa built that fire over a hundred years ago,” the man explained.  “He never let it go out, for he had no matches and it was a long way to the neighbors’.  Then my pa tended the fire, and since he died, I tended it. None of us let it die, and I ain’t goin’ to move away and let grandpa’s fire go out.”

The social worker got an idea.  She arranged for a large apple butter kettle
to be delivered to the home.  The hot coals would be scooped up and transported to the new home, kindling would be added, and the grandfather’s
fire would never go out.  The Appalachian family accepted and moved up to the
split-level rancher on the hillside after they knew that they would have the
fire of their ancestors.

As we share faith in the new century, we will keep the fire—of water, of bread and wine, of the book that is a love letter from God, but we will move to new places, where we do things differently, lest the flood of modernity wipe us out.  Paul and Jesus would want it that way.  Then, just like with Paul, some will scoff; others will hear us again; and some will become believers.
+++++++++++++++
Baltimore Sun Carroll Eagle: 
Tumblr: Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems www.kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/
Kevin Dayhoff is an artist - and a columnist for:
Smurfs: http://babylonfluckjudd.blogspot.com/
Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/

E-mail: kevindayhoff(at)gmail.com

My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/


See also - Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art www.kevindayhoff.com: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, music, culture, opera... Ad maiorem Dei gloriam inque hominum salutem. “Deadline U.S.A.” 1952. Ed Hutcheson: “That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!” - See more at: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/#sthash.4HNLwtfd.dpuf
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