Pandemic frees people from church

According to this article in Christianity Today, the rate of people leaving and joining churches has increased since the pandemic - with the first increasing more than the second.

Online worship was a great opportunity to explore a different church - they were all there at your fingertips. And your normal church wouldn't even notice your absence.

Then there were a bunch of people who decided not to return. Even once all churches were open only three-quarters of people had returned.

Of course, it turns out that the active attenders ("active" in the sense of sitting in a pew) are attending even more, and the "back row" not-so-much.

"We’re seeing that the people who came 8 or 12 times a year have stopped attending"

The mix of people switching churches and worshiping online has created mystery around the true number of members who have exited church permanently.

One interviewee said, “Maybe God is placing people where they need to be for his kingdom to grow in post-pandemic times.”

For some, it seems, that ideal place is outside the church.

Q&A with Father Rod

In my previous article I mentioned the Father Rod, the famous priest from Gosford Anglican, did a Q&A session at the end of his talk.

Here's some more highlights from that:

The current refugee situation

He was asked about the current refugee situation. As coincidence would have it, he has written his view in an article for The Saturday Paper.

LGBT and Christian

He was asked by an LGBT person about the difficulty of being a Christian when church people tell you how bad you are for being LGBT - and LGBT people think you're crazy to hang out with church people (and get told how bad you are). She asked for Bible verses to counter the ones thrown at her by Christians.

Father Rod says the best thing you can do (in both situations) is be the loving kind person that you are. The kind of Christians that use cherry-picked Bible verses to back their point of view are generally not interested in a scholarly interpretation of the context of those Bible verses nor in hearing other Bible passages that might lead to a different conclusion.

Whether it's people inside the church accepting who she is, or people outside the church accepting her Christian faith, the best thing is to be a loving and kind person.

His famous signs

Father Rod was asked how he got started with his famous church signs. He had been asked to carry out a funeral service for a gay person, and the family were worried about negative reactions from the church.

It's a longer story but afterwards he put up the sign "Dear Christians. Some ppl are gay. Get over it. Love God" just for the local community and passers-by. It went a bit crazy on facebook and since then he has been putting up loving, but sometimes-controversial, messages on the church sign.

Did people leave? "Yeah a few left." (At this point I could imagine church treasurers vowing to stick with boring, forgettable messages lest they lose even one member).

But Father Rod hadn't finished. "A few left. Some don't like it, but stayed. But many more came."

To be blunt, he said "there's not much competition for churches that welcome everyone".

In a way that's really sad, but on the positive side, it's an opportunity for a church that's willing to live out a love-based faith.

Father Rod Bower on "Religious Freedom"

Father Rod Bower is in Brisbane this week/weekend and I saw him speak last night. The topic was religious freedom but afterwards he fielded questions on refugees, LGBT issues, faith struggles and his infamous church signs.

I urge Brisbane people to get along to his Friday night or Saturday. But be warned - just as Jesus was inclusive of people shunned by the society of his day, Father Rod has a reputation for being that way in today's world.

As a result, the people attending his events include people of other faiths (or none) and a variety of sexualities. If this would be too much for you, then perhaps you're not ready for these events. Otherwise, by all means go.

Father Rod's talk on religious freedoms

He began with a childhood anecdote. Whenever one parent would drive him and sister somewhere, there would be a race to see who could 'bags' the front seat - to be in the privileged position. He sees the religious freedom debate as Christians trying to bags the front seat of society.

Teaching of Jesus are inconvenient

Of course the teachings of Jesus are that we should give up the position of privilege and instead adopt a position of service. He referenced Jesus' parable about humility.

Freedom of speech?

Father Rod's opinion is that speech is not free. Someone always has to pay. Normally it's the voiceless, the vulnerable, the marginalised, the minority, the poor and the powerless. The interesting thing about the Folau case is that for once it is the speaker who had to pay the price.

What's the ICCPR?

The International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights allows people the right to their beliefs (ie religious freedom). Actions, however, are still constrained by law. In simple terms, Father Rod says it gives a person the right to believe in the Aztec religion if they want, but not to sacrifice virgins.

Religious exemptions

Already the church has certain exemptions which allow for it to discriminate. Catholics ordain only male priests because that's their religious belief - fair enough says Father Rod (though that's not his belief). But as for teachers in religious schools, he thinks it's OK that a teacher of religion should be required to have a certain faith but perhaps not for teachers of maths etc.

New laws?

Father Rod sees the proposed "protection" of religious freedom to be mostly protecting the worst of our religion (the hatred and bigotry) rather than the good. His view is that this will lead to catastrophic abuse. He says we're in jeopardy not because of persecution, but because of how we sometimes live out our faith in not-so-good ways.

Q&A with Father Rod

In the Q&A session, Father Rod used the analogy of being on a train. If you're on a train at the platform, and another train pulls in on the track beside you it can appear like you're going backwards. but it's just an optical illusion. If you look out the other side you'll see that the platform and everything else is just where it was. You've got a better reference point.

In his view, Christians have been used to having a privileged position of others in society. Now that things are becoming more equal it appears to some parts of the Christian community that they are going backwards. In other words, equality feels like discrimination. But in reality, they need to look out another window to get a better reference point.

It reminds me of Tim Costello's article about Christians needing to "calm down" over alleged persecution.

More of Father Rod's Q&A session will be in my next post...

Shane Claiborne in Brisbane

I saw Shane Claiborne (author of irresistible Revolution) speak in Brisbane. Here's my summary of his talk - in italics. Words in brackets are my comments.

First he read from Luke 7:20-22.

If people came to us and asked us the same question would we have anything to point to - except ideology and doctrine. Ideology and doctrine are OK, but you can't love them.

In church we often recite creeds. How about we recite the beatitudes.

Jesus never said to make believers, he said to make disciples.

"Oh I love Jesus I just wish the Christians would take him more seriously." - Ghandi

Research group Barna identified the top 3 perceptions of Christians as

1. AntiHomosexual
2. Judgemental
3. Hypocritical

(Hardly an accurate description of Jesus)

The current generation the least giving to church.
But the are also the most generous givers. (Just not to church)

1 in 6 people are dying because they don't have clean water - and we need a heater to get baptised. (Said in an astounded tone*)

Independence might be an American value but it's not a gospel value. When we ask God "Why didn't you do anything?" if we listen carefully we might hear him say "I did I made you".

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(The heater was a real thing. A church Shane attended had a water pool in the church for full-body water immersion baptisms. As baptisms took place later in the church service the water was a bit cold for people's comfort. So the church was asking for money for a heated baptism pool.)

Why missional churches marry same-sex couples

From today, ministers in Australia's Uniting Church are permitted to marry same-gender couples - provided their congregation is OK with it.

This decision has a great theological basis and is great news for the church and for gay Christians, but that's not my focus here. This blog is mostly about how we (often unintentionally) block people from seeing Jesus - and ways to fix that.

For churches wanting to connect with people in their community, this is a fantastic opportunity - and here's why.

Unblock faith

McCrindle surveyed Australians about faith. Non-religious people were asked if they were open to faith - and asked to rate several issues as "blockers to Christianity".

"Homosexuality" (ie. the church's historical attitude towards it) was the biggest barrier between people and Christianity.

33% of people said it "completely blocked" them from the faith. A deal-breaker.

A third of people dismiss the church out-of-hand because of our historical attitude on this.

I would have expected issues like burn-in-hell preaching, hard-to-fathom miracles and faith v science to be more challenging - but apparently not. All those issues are further down the list.

It seems that for potential new Christians, it's easier to believe that Jesus walked on water than to believe that followers of a loving God would be so harsh towards gay people.

Anyway, my point for the local church is this; how much better could we reach people if we didn't alienate 1/3 of people before we even start?

The survey says...

For political reasons, Australia had a survey about same-sex marriage before it became law. The upside is that we now have stats on how the various parts of the country feel about this.

In my area it was 73% Yes, 27% No. Three-quarters of our community thinks this should happen.

The Uniting Church says there is no theological obstacle. So why would a local church that wants to connect with the community put up a barrier between itself and 3/4 of the community.

The counter-point to this is to ask "what about the other 27%?". I come at this from a Christian church perspective. People who can't stomach same-sex marriage can still connect with any number of other churches. If a Uniting Church congregation can be open to reach the 73%, then 100% of people have the potential to connect with the Christian church. Surely that's got to be an improvement on 27%.

Wedding witness

Figures from early June show how many same-sex marriages had taken place in Australia. In my home state it looks like about 900 same-sex marriages will occur each year. It's unclear how many couples will want a church wedding, but for accepting congregations there is an opportunity to show somewhat unexpected support.

Gay couples (even Christian ones) have been somewhat accustomed to either being lectured by the church, or having to hide their true identity from their church family.

Given that history, a church that provides a positive, loving and affirming environment would be a much-welcomed (and celebrated) change.

In an era when church is barely a blip on most people's radar, this is an opportunity for church to make a positive memorable impact in the lives of the new couple and their hundreds of guest who come to support them on their big day. They would be left with a memory of church being an accepting place - a place that is open to all as a practical demonstration of God's love that is open to all.

Not for everyone

Churches seem to exist on a spectrum between being inward and outward focussed. Our choices of ministries, worship format, and music selection are just some examples of whether we tend towards providing spiritual nourishment and a comfortable environment for long-time Christians, or whether we tend towards finding new ways of expressing our faith in ways that might help new people connect with the church or with God for the first time.

Churches that are more towards the first of these might find this new opportunity too difficult for the comfort of some members. But for churches that are more towards the second of these, this opportunity for the Uniting Church to connect with people can be truly a Godsend.

"Welcome to our judgemental church"

A church near me dropped calendars into neighbourhood mailboxes.

Here's July's picture:

And November's:

Their message:

The other months continued with that theme:

God's great. You're terrible. Stop being so evil because judgement is coming.

This is how they choose to introduce themselves to the neighbourhood. Basically saying "We're they negative judgmental church. Want to join us?"

Interesting outreach tactic. Perhaps not very effective and definite oblivious to the church already having a reputation for being judgmental and moralising.

At least they're up-front about it. They're as honest as they are totally unappealing.

Factcheck

I was going to stop writing here but then looked up that Hebrews quote. It's a classic case of a half-quote being the total opposite of the full one. Here's the whole thing:

Hebrews 9:27-28
And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.

It's one thing to pick your harshest 'burn in hell' quotes from the bible. It's another to trim quotes about salvation to make them suit your mindset.

I take back what I said about them being honest.

Jesus turned water into ... what?

We're all familiar with the story. I'd remembered the bible to say Jesus turned water into wine.

But then came this kids book of bible stories (yes, it's a real book).

Isn't the whole point of the story that the hosts of the party were embarrassed to run out of wine at the party?

Now it seems we're too embarrassed to even admit that wine existed in the bible.

While some Christians advocate marriage "as the bible intended" it seems when the bible doesn't suit our values we just change it until it does.

It's probably not new news that we pick and choose which parts of the bible are important, but I think this is the first time I've seen the key part of the story re-written.

Church and Australia's same-sex marriage

So it looks like Australia will shortly be allowing same-sex couples to marry. Julia Baird writes a great article about this, which is more about the church than it is about marriage.

She finishes with this advice for those now confused "about the place of Christianity in the public square":

"It might be time to get back to that old thing, what is it again, that book... the Bible, in which there are more than 2000 references to poverty and a scant handful to sexuality. It might be time to closely examine the true preoccupations of Jesus (who reserved his harshest words for Pharisees and publicly pious Church leaders) – greed, selfishness, lack of love. It all boils down to love, he said. Funny that.

Earlier she contrasts the statements of major church denominations with the beliefs of people in the pews - including leading politicians from different parties. She also notes that even Martin Luther King saw this kind of thing coming as far back as in 1963. Some of his words were very prescient:

"Is organised religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the 21st century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust."

10 church things that alienate introverts

Introverts account for up to 50% of people. So why do we do things that make up to half our guests feel like running away?

I've covered a couple of these before (holding hands and over-intense attention) but have now found this list of 10 things we would be better off avoiding if we really want to show we care.

it's good reading - and very useful.

What do non-church Christians do?

Recently, I've been writing a fair bit about Christians who no longer attend church. Today I found that some survey stats on this topic.

They compared Christians who had not been to church in 6 months, called "Love Jesus but not the church", to "Practising Christians" which refers to people who go to church.

It turns out the church-leavers still hold the same beliefs as church-goers. If anything slightly moreso.

So these are not people who have lost faith. They just don't see value in church.

When it comes to spiritual practices, there are some differences.

The "Love Jesus but not church" group do less bible reading, journaling, reading spiritual books and (perhaps obviously) less meeting in groups. But they do more reflection in nature and more meditation. Prayer is about the same.

It's fair to say that these people are still Christians. I also think it's unfair to imply that they aren't "practising" because they don't enter a certain building. Some continue to denigrate them, wag the finger and say they should go to church.

Sure they would probably benefit from meeting with other Christians. But sadly almost the only thing that is available is the standard sing/pray/lecture process that many find so futile.

I think there needs to be more alternatives. Alternatives that value following Jesus as much as following a worship style.

What leavers say

The book "Life After Church" is written for and about people in the process of leaving church. Here are some of the quotes from "leavers":

"Church used to be exciting to go to. It's not like they did anything different back then but I guess it was new and we were younger and hadn't heard these sermons. But as the years have gone by it seems a bit like Groundhog Day. The church has failed us because it really only serves new believers. I'm not sure if that's what they're setting out to do, but everything seems so basic." - Dave

"Sometimes I feel like I would get as much out of staying at home as going, or better yet fishing or reading a good book. I might experience truth at the very least-more than the morning at church. It just feels like one more thing on my week of things to do and there is a lack of joy associated with it, an obligation moreso." - Crystal

"The thing that strikes me most is the manner in which church has become a routine. Everyone falls into line, follows the events in the service: when to greet and say hello, when to pray, sing, shout etc. I felt like one robot in the midst of others - emotionless, passionless, without zeal." - Joann

"The focus was always on what we needed to stop doing and never what we ought to be doing. There wasn't much mention of Christ's redemptive power. This combination caused me to fell hopeless because it put the onus of perfection on me and I knew that wasn't working. The only reason I ever went back was guilt." - Dan

"We're told not to go where the non-Christians are because it's potentially dangerous and we should be in church as much as we can. Wednesday night service, Sunday morning service, Saturday (7am!) men's group, a small group etc. Where are the relationships with those not in the church? It's almost as if we put the evangelism on God. No seeking at all. Just waiting." - Dave

What can we learn from what these people say? Clearly they're not done with faith. If anything they long for more than church can currently deliver.

4 stages of leaving church

People leave church. Some are shopping for a better church. Some no longer believe. Others are leaving the church not God.

These leavers (the subject and audience of this book) are leaving because of their pursuit of God. They "want to do what is right and to live in a way that honours Jesus" but find that "for them to stay (in church) and to remain faithful to Jesus are mutually exclusive".

So how does this happen? Author Brian Sanders says there are 4 stages:

Contentment

You're growing and learning and everything seems fine. At least if it's not fine we are able to focus on the positives.

Disaffection

Physically present. Emotionally absent. Thinking about leaving. You and the church are in different places. This might have been from a crisis or just from maturing as a Christian.

Threshold

Physically absent. Emotionally present. Now you've stopped attending church events. You still feel connected. You may still hope for change.

Full Exit

Physically and emotionally absent. You've now disconnected from church. Occasionally you may try to reconnect but generally the stage of contentment will disappear even quicker than before.

The author wonders if this leaving, rather than being a problem, is exactly what is needed. Perhaps it is too late to change church. Perhaps we need to leave it and build something new. Something closer to what Jesus taught.

Living Questionable Lives

Can I go now?

When I learned the topic would be evangelism, my enthusiasm for the mission seminar dropped sharply. I was already there so it was too late to leave. But I was in for a surprise.

Living questionable lives

Based on the bible passages 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 and 1 Peter 3:15-16 the premise of the talk was that few people are the evangelism type. The rest of us can live "questionable lives". What does that mean? Sometimes 'questionable' can means dubious, but in this context it just means something that might cause someone to ask a question.

In 1 Peter 3:15, St Paul gives advice for when we're asked about our faith. But that hardly ever happens. Our lifestyles are generally so predictable and non-intriguing that no questions are asked.

High predictability, low impact

There's nothing evil about a "fine upstanding middle-class lifestyle in the suburbs ... but if we’re trying to live questionable lives, then cutting the lawn, saying hi to the neighbours, washing our car, walking the dog and driving to the office every day is hardly an intriguing lifestyle".

Five Habits

The talk was based around the book Five Habits of Highly Missional People by Michael Frost. Both as individuals and as groups our habits are what make us the type of people we are. The habits outlined in the book, and the talk I was at, help us to be people (or churches) who are missional. They help us become more Christlike, more generous, and more connected to people outside of church.

I recommend reading book. Here are the five habits/challenges:

1. Bless 3 people this week. It can be an affirmation, by serving or with a gift.
2. Eat with 3 people this week. We have to eat anyway, why not eat with someone?
3. Listen. Designate some time with no distraction to let God in and follow his prompting
4. Learn. Designate time to learning about Jesus. Read the Gospels or other books.
5. Sent. Journal the ways you're demonstrating the values of God.

There's more detail in the book, but that's the basics.

Overall, this is quite different from a lot of what church does. But church can possibly help. If you're in a church and can find others in who are interested in this, it may be helpful to make a small group to help you form these habits as part of your life.

Are the TV people right?

The Census data is out now!

Headline stats

The fraction of Australians who identify as Christian has gone from 61.1% to 52.1%.
"No religion" at 30.1% is now higher than any one denomination.
Catholics is highest with 22.6%.

My stats

I compared denominations. e.g. Catholics went from 25.3 to 22.6%, shrinking by a tenth.

Here is each denomination's shrinkage over 5 years.
Catholics: 10.7% smaller
Anglicans: 22.2% smaller
Uniting Church: 26% smaller
Presbyterian & Reformed: 17.9% smaller
Eastern Orthodox: 19.2% smaller
Other Christian: 2.4% smaller

TV people guessing

The TV talk that suggested that the child abuse crimes played a big part in the decrease seems to off-base given that the Catholic church (the most publicised during the child abuse investigations) showed the smallest decrease. The 'Other Christian' is a mixed bag of various small denomination and people who write just "Christian".

The ABC does a great interactive visualisation of the census - This is Australia as 100 People. Here's a screenshot of the religion bit.

Time ticking for Uniting Church

The Uniting Church is now just 4 dots. Even that is generous. It is 3.7% of Australia, down from 5.1% last time. This is not new news.

It is the church's biggest drop so far, and since 1991 it loses about one dot per census.

With just 4 dots left, its future is interesting.
Perhaps my projection of a 2041 end was too generous.

Different question, different answer?

Very soon the results will be released from the 2016 Census. One of the usual talking points is the shrinking of the number of Australians who identify with Christianity.

But this time the question has changed. Or more precisely, the answers choice has changed.

As "No religion" has become more popular over the years, the Census decided to move it to the top of the list of options.

How much will this affect the results? What will people tick? In particular the people who were raised in a Christian denomination but have little to do with it these days.

In the past they may have ticked 'Anglican' for example and moved on to the next question, without reading down the list to find "No religion". Now it's at the top of the list, how many will now tick that option instead?

I guess what I'm asking is how much of the change this time will be due to people who have not changed their views but just ticked a more convenient box. And how much will be due to people who have actually left religion?

It will be interesting to see the results.

The year the last church closes

Even as our country grows in population the church manages to shrink. That's not new news. But how quickly is this happening?

I've graphed the percent of Australians who put my denomination as their religion in the census.

It's a pretty clear trend.

The way things are headed (the dotted line) the year my denomination ceases will be 2040. Maybe 2041.

Why did I do this?
Partially just plain curiosity. But mostly I felt that in general church is quite complacent about this. I think we've sensed that decline has been happening for some time and that it's nothing to worry about.

But these numbers tell a different story. Things are looking very bleak very soon. It really is about time we start thinking of different ways to be church, because whatever we're doing no is clearly not connecting with people.

For too long we blame the people for disengaging, rather than ourselves for being so disengaging.

Church score - 2 out of 10

There's new research data about faith in Australia. It's surprisingly interesting reading.

They asked how often people attend church. Remember they're asking Christians.

2 out of 10 Christians attend weekly
Even Christians don't go to church each week. Church seems to operate as if we all do, but it's very much exception to the rule. Perhaps we shouldn't feel (or be made to feel) guilty about that.

Half don't attend in a whole year
This is probably the bigger wake-up call. Half of Christians don't want anything to do with church. Not even for Christmas or Easter.

This has to be the ultimate example of "they love Jesus but hate the church". How have Christianity and church come to be so distinct from each other?

Why Facebook (and church) makes you sad

There's a lot of talk about the effect of Facebook (and other social media) on our self-esteem. We see finely-tuned photos and edited highlights of people's lives and feel that we don't measure up.

Of course we feel that way. These perfect lives are an illusion. The bad bits, and even the average ones, are cut out. Even the people themselves don't compare to the image that's created.

An article by Russell Moore looks at the constantly upbeat worship songs of church. You know the ones - about how much we love God and are totally committed to following him. But most of all it's the ones about how consistently great life is when you follow God - as if nothing bad ever happens to you.

Hmmm, I'm sure we can all think of many examples when that's not the case.

There's probably also something to be said for a bit more frankness in those after-church chats. "How are you? Fine. How's your week been? Fine. How's work? Fine."

Perhaps we could try some openness. "How am I? Struggling. How was my week? Quite stressful and it's getting to me. How's work? Unfulfilling. I wonder why I let it suck up so much of my life."

Ok, it's probably not likely. But perhaps we could try it once in a while. It might help someone else's self-esteem.

Being good on Good Friday

Further to my post on Tuesday, I have found out about two events in the suburbs near me.

One church starts at 8 am, but not with a service. At 8 am there is barista-served coffee, hot cross buns and kids activities. Then at the more respectable time of 9am there is a church service.

Another put a postcard in our letterbox, also offering barista coffee, live music and supper along with their service - which sounds like it's also outdoors (like the one I talked about on Tuesday).

Perhaps it's just my denomination that is still to catch up. Or perhaps the Baptists (which both these churches are) are leading the way.

Good Friday "options"

Here's a slide from a 'thinking outside the box' presentation I did last year. It's my worship options for Good Friday - the distance from my house and the time of worship. The picture represents where I am at that time on a public holiday.

It's almost as if for a special day we go to extra lengths to avoid any new people coming to church. We pick a really inconvenient time (from the public's perspective) and we seem to synchronise all our churches so that if you miss one you've missed them all.

As half our neighbourhood is still in their pyjamas, we've already packed up for the next two days.

So what did I do last year? I found a non-denominational group that meets in a park. From memory it was a 10am start but as it's outside, people are free to drift in (or out) at any time. There were some relevant songs played by a guitarist and a singer. Some Bible passages were read and some prayers prayed. Afterwards people could gather socially if they wanted.

Regardless of whether or not it was better than a traditional Good Friday service, it was at least 10 times more accessible to the general public.

Perhaps there are lessons to be learnt. Some that spring to mind are to be accessible, to be at a reasonable time and generally consider the needs of people. I note the number of strollers and kids - something that rarely happens in 'regular' church.

PS. See my Thursday update on this topic.