Shaping Communities, Declining Church Attendance and St. Saviour's

This paper addresses a problem of growing concern to churches and congregations of every denomination in the industrialized world.  This problem is the decline of church attendance and what, if anything can be done about it. This paper will approach this issue in two sections.  The first section will provide a review of Peter Marty's Shaping Communities essay.  The second section will review the case study of St. Saviour's Church in terms of the issues raised in the essay.  The final section will be summary and conclusion.

Section 1: Shaping Communities in Critical Review

Marty's essay highlights a key difference between two perceptions of Christian worship.  The first is the private, individualized experience of religious practice and observation.  The second is the communal experience.  Marty argues that the communal experience is the true way to reap the benefits of Christian teaching and practice.  But in recent decades this experience is being lost in favor of a less socialized, more individualized approach.  In his rather inspiring essay, Marty argues that the body of Christ refers specifically to the Church as a community.  This community is meant to share the lived experiences of its members, including hopes, fears, pains and sorrows.  This Christian community is meant to be diverse and welcomes individuals that might be avoided in other aspects of life.  The purpose of the community is to build an association of people that includes both the like-minded and the not so agreeable.  As Marty writes, holiness is only possible in a true communal fashion worshipping Christ.  

Indeed, this individual-communal contrast can be seen in the ascetic-monastic dynamic in the early Christian era. Whereas the ascetic seeks to attain closeness to Christ by way of an individualized experience, the monastic seeks the same objective through community with other worshippers.  The latter may be the more natural way to live one's way.  As "no man is an island" as the old phrase goes.  

Unfortunately, Marty notes, the pastorate has become too focused around administrative rather than theological issues.  At the same, congregants see the Church as a place they attend once per week rather than an integrated whole into their total experience.   This disconnect is leading to a decline in participation as individuals who need a greater social interaction seek this outside the church.  Thus the issue of the declining attendance at church is tied to certain functions and needs that the church isn't fulfilling. 

In some ways, Marty is underlining a problem that has concerned a number of social commentators for decades now.  This is the decline of social capital in the US. One thinks most notably of Putnam's work on declining social capital.  Putnam points out the increasing isolation that individuals experience in modern society.   Some would locate the cause of this isolation as a by-product of an urban industrial society. In a sense, Marty is focused on the implications of this problem for church attendance. However, he is drawing attention to a much broader problem in society.  For Marty a way out of this isolation is by building a greater community in the Church.  The focus on Christian teaching and spirituality in the Church could provide much greater personal fulfillment.  However, he doesn't seem to recognize that many individuals in modern society are simply not open to a Christian model of life. That is, a model of life that extends beyond mere lip service to Christian teaching.   As secularism has expanded, the significance of the Christian Church has declined.  This would seem to be as big an issue for the pastorate as the declining social networks of modern society.  It is an issue he unfortunately does not address in his essay.  

Section 2: St. Saviour's

St. Saviour's, in many ways, epitomizes the problems that the Church is having on a larger scale.  Church attendance is down at St. Saviour's, the position of minister remains unfilled after a previous departure, and the volunteer staff at the OpShop does not attend the church.  What is most telling is the age distribution of the church's congregation.  Whereas the age range of the suburb in which the church is located is between 12 and 50. The age of the church's membership has trended much higher.  Also the overall congregation's membership is not growing.  The church's membership is overwhelmingly conservative. The church needs to make changes in order to attract new members.  But changes in its operations are not welcomed by members of the existing congregation. 

The Church, in the more general sense, has a number of problems that it must address as it seeks to remain relevant to a younger generation.  First, are the numerous pedophilia scandals involving members of the clergy and underage members of the congregation.  There is some evidence that the decline in church attendance is partly tied to these scandals.  The church has violated the trust of many congregants and must work very hard to regain this trust.  

The second problem is the changing nature of modern society.  As noted above modern urban industrial society has shifted towards secularism.  Although the Church continues to perform much appreciated charity work, government social welfare programs have replaced this role to a large degree.  Church recruitment drives were often tied to fund-raising and charity work.   The higher role of government in society has lowered the visibility and need for church-provided services. This in turn has lowered the pool of potential congregants to recruit from.  

The third problem is the Church is not always seen as welcoming to all members of the community as Marty argues it must be. This may be changing, at least in the Roman Catholic Church, with the accession of Pope Francis.  Pope Francis's "who am I to judge" response to the issue of gays in the Church seems to indicate a policy shift.  But the reaction to it from many Catholics seems not.   The Church will have a hard time attracting the optimum number of new adherents if it still appears to be hostile to the right of a large minority of the population to even exist. 

The shift towards individualism may well be due to the prevalent notion that the Church is just not that welcoming of certain members.  These individuals, somewhat like the ascetics in ancient Egypt, would prefer to pursue their spiritual needs without participating in an organized institution.  Perhaps it is promising for the Church that many individuals are still interested in spirituality at all. As it is, we live in an age dominated by materialistic pursuits. But the Church would do well to examine what can be done to bring these individuals into the congregation. 

Summary and Conclusion

In sum, the Marty essay and the St. Saviour's case study both point to similar issues.  This is the difficulty the Church is having staying relevant in a changing society.  The decline in church membership is addressed in each case, but the underlying causes are not.  Indeed, there seems to be a rather persistent resistance to dealing with real issues.  The importance of community is rightly underlined in Marty's essay. However, the details of why the Christian community itself is faltering are not fully addressed.  It will be difficult for the Church to chart a course forward until its numerous challenges, some of which it can and cannot control, are more closely examined.  

Bibliography

"Catholics in Crisis." Theweek.com, Apr. 30 2010. http://theweek.com/article/index/202388/catholics-in-crisis.

Donadio, Rachel. "On Gay Priests, Pope Francis Asks, ‘Who Am I To Judge?'" NYtimes.com, July 29, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/world/europe/pope-francis-gay-priests.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. 

Putnam, Robert.  "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital." Journal of Democracy 6 (1995):65-78.

Shook, John. Church-Goers Now a Minority in America. Huffingtonpost.com, May 24, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-shook-phd/churchgoers-now-a-minorit_b_1537108.html.