What does the future hold????

Below you will find an article from the Winston-Salem Journal from Winston-Salem NC sent to me by my brother...an interesing article about this man's perspective on the decline of Sunday Morning church goers...join you on the other end....


EHRICH COLUMN: Many are saying no to church on Sunday
RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
Published: March 28, 2009
For 50 years and in growing numbers, American Christians have been saying no to Sunday church. I think that it is time we listened.
We have labeled them "unchurched," "nonbelievers," "former Christians," "happy pagans," "lost," and a "mission field" that's "ripe for harvest." These negative terms imply that the absent have a flaw that needs to be addressed.
New congregations have harvested some of these former mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churchgoers. But even their numbers rise and fall -- especially when the founding pastor slips up or retires, and the overall trend in church participation remains down. In some Western states, Sunday churchgoing has fallen below 10 percent of the population.
Losses were ignored
When this slide started in 1964 as baby boomers began graduating from high school, many church leaders didn't even acknowledge it. For years, they kept counting the absent as present. Then, when the losses couldn't be ignored, they blamed them on whatever hot-button issues were roiling the religious establishment, as if new liturgies, women in leadership, and liberals (or conservatives, take your pick) had driven people away.
We need to see that these "formers" aren't saying no to God or to their Christian identity. Many are simply saying no to Sunday church.
They are expressing a preference for something other than getting up early on Sunday, driving across town, sitting in a pew for an hour or more, making small talk with people they don't really know, and driving home again.
They are saying no to Sunday, the only day that they can get a slow start in this everyone-works-hard era.
They are saying no to being an audience in an age of participation and self-determination.
They are saying no to institutional preaching, repetitive liturgies, and assemblies controlled by small cadres usually older than themselves.
They are saying no to being told what to believe.
They are saying no to having their questions ignored.
Instead, they find spiritual enrichment on the Internet and on television. They read faith-related books. They pray on their own. They find their own networks of faithful friends.
Poor delivery system
The problem is Christianity's delivery system. We are stuck in trying to lure people to physical locations at a time of our choosing, to do what we think they ought to do, and to be loyal in paying for it. It is time that we looked beyond the paradigm of Sunday church.
I think the future lies in "multichanneling" -- a combination of on-site, online, workplace and at-home offerings that create networks of self-determining constituents, many of whom might never attend Sunday church.
The first challenge, however, is to recognize how deeply wedded we are to Sunday on-site participation as the only true expression and measure of faithfulness. Almost everything about our institutions aims to draw people to a central location on Sunday.
We need to see that what works for some doesn't work for others. Not because the others are flawed, nor because our culture has collapsed and turned against God, but because things change. Just as Jesus took his ministry out of the synagogue and radically rethought the meaning of Sabbath, so God is drawing us away from "former things," even ones we treasure and consider our duty.
■ Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest. His Web site is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com/.


OK...I can't disagree with all that Rev Ehrich has to say...this decline has been a long time in coming and we weren't all paying attention to what was going on until it was getting late. And believers are not saying no to God or their faith, but rather to the practice of it. They are saying no to irrelevant worship, to worship just for worship's sake...But there is no mention of discipleship and community. Christianity is always counter-cultural - we currently live in a very isolated, self serving, individualistic culture...Christianity's counter to that, is that it is centered in sharing in community - we are meant to be in relationship with others. Rev Ehrich's vision doesn't speak much to that...and I believe that is our hope...that even though Sundays are the one day we have to rest - it can also be the one day we can reconnect with each other and encourage one another for the week ahead.

I do believe God is at work to bring about a new reality... We are called to remain faithful, even in the midst of change and even when it seems we are a minority. While it is tempting to get discouraged, I find that I am more and more intrigued by the ways of the world and where God IS at work. Our hope is in relationship and in sharing our faith with those around us.

Thanks, Steve!