Statistically Speaking
Wed, May 9 2012 10:35
| religious sociology, Church Attendance
| Permalink
In my last post I reported factors that statistically speaking help youth transition to young adulthood with strong faith. At the same time I've been pondering the fact that while the factors are statistically relevant they aren't close to being 100% effective.
Consider this statistic: 70% of the highly religious young adults had parents who attended services weekly or more. Not bad! But that also means that 30% of highly religious young adults had parents who weren't so faithful. Furthermore, 40% of young adults whose faith took a dive during young adulthood had parents who frequently attended. 11% of young adults who have continued to have weak religious commitments from the teen years on also had parents who regularly attended worship. Souls in Transition p.245.
Most of us have a suspicion that we what we do as parents matters and sometimes that is true. But even parents who do well as parents cannot guarantee that their children will have faith (or vice-versa!).
As I think of my own son, who will soon be a teenager, I wonder about how his faith in and understanding of God will change. Will he (like many a preacher's kid) chuck it all away? Or will he grow in grace and knowledge of the love of God. There may be occasion to pat myself on the back or on the other hand to kick myself. But in the end there is so much mystery when it comes to each person and their relationship with God.
I think back on my own life and I can't really see what it was that was different for me than for some of my friends who appeared to have equally devout parents and who attended the same Sunday School and youth group activities. There were things I saw, things I heard, things I found compelling that they were able to shrug off. Again and again I came to see that God loved me, Jesus died for me, the Spirit was calling me to live into the person I was created to be. Meanwhile all that some of my friends saw was hypocrisy, all they heard was preaching (in the sense that they were being preached at) and there were plenty of activities besides church that they found to be more compelling. It's a mystery. On my best days I attribute it to grace which I don't deserve. I am grateful.
Consider this statistic: 70% of the highly religious young adults had parents who attended services weekly or more. Not bad! But that also means that 30% of highly religious young adults had parents who weren't so faithful. Furthermore, 40% of young adults whose faith took a dive during young adulthood had parents who frequently attended. 11% of young adults who have continued to have weak religious commitments from the teen years on also had parents who regularly attended worship. Souls in Transition p.245.
Most of us have a suspicion that we what we do as parents matters and sometimes that is true. But even parents who do well as parents cannot guarantee that their children will have faith (or vice-versa!).
As I think of my own son, who will soon be a teenager, I wonder about how his faith in and understanding of God will change. Will he (like many a preacher's kid) chuck it all away? Or will he grow in grace and knowledge of the love of God. There may be occasion to pat myself on the back or on the other hand to kick myself. But in the end there is so much mystery when it comes to each person and their relationship with God.
I think back on my own life and I can't really see what it was that was different for me than for some of my friends who appeared to have equally devout parents and who attended the same Sunday School and youth group activities. There were things I saw, things I heard, things I found compelling that they were able to shrug off. Again and again I came to see that God loved me, Jesus died for me, the Spirit was calling me to live into the person I was created to be. Meanwhile all that some of my friends saw was hypocrisy, all they heard was preaching (in the sense that they were being preached at) and there were plenty of activities besides church that they found to be more compelling. It's a mystery. On my best days I attribute it to grace which I don't deserve. I am grateful.
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Church on Christmas Day?
Thu, Dec 22 2011 12:19
| Church Attendance, worship, Holidays
| Permalink
Christmas falls on a Sunday this year. I recently heard two arguments for not holding services on Christmas that have stimulated my thinking about the church gathering together on Sunday.
(1) If the congregation cancels church on Sunday this allows the family to worship as a church. I find this argument misunderstands the point of the church gathering for worship. While it is true that the family has a place in God's story and is an important element in transmitting the faith, the congregation has a role in provisionally demonstrating the kingdom of God. The congregation does this as a "new family", a family united not by blood but by the waters of baptism and the Holy Spirit. And here is where I find my challenge to the bold-faced assertion troubling: while congregations do tend to be larger than biological families they usually (and understandably) gather along racial or even ethnic lines and often along economic lines as well. I say this is understandable because such gatherings are natural in the world: familiarity brings comfort. Bu the church is free to be different on this point: Jesus came to break down every wall that separates one race from another, as well as the barriers dividing slave from free and male from female. The congregation should seek, as much as possible to show what this looks like in its gatherings. If I take my objection seriously it not only speaks against the family as church but against congregations as we are familiar with them: yes, we come from different families but I believe God is calling us to be open to more diversity, a true gathering of people different from one another. So I ask myself: what can we do musically, and with language and symbols to make our gathering truly hospitable to other cultures and socio-economic classes?
(2) The church is the church wherever it is at. Let's be the church in the world on Christmas Day not in our building. Amen to that! But the reason the church gathers is not to be the church but to worship God through Jesus in the power of the Holy spirit together. Again: we don't gather to be the church. We are the church and we gather for worship (and support and transformation). We worship together on behalf of the world, offering praise to God on behalf of all and praying to God for the good of all. So I find it odd that Christmas Day is the one Sunday chosen to demonstrate that the church is a people not a destination. Ideally we recognize the church is the church and try to live into that every single day, whether gathered or dispersed. Yes, let's be the church on Sunday and the other six days as well. And let's gather together on Sunday, even when it rubs up against our commitments to family because it is also Christmas. But again, I am troubled by my argument or at least an underlying assumption in favor of the status quo. What troubles me here is my sense that I want to keep Sunday worship on each and every Sunday for reasons closer to unthinking tradition rather than the prompting of the Holy Spirit. In principle I am not opposed to a congregation not meeting on certain Sundays1 even if it is their normal custom to do so. But in practice I find a complacency with the way church is because "that's the way I've always done it." What if a congregation decided to sometimes meet as a larger body, other times to meet in smaller groups and indeed at other times to meet with other congregations all dependent on their understanding of how Jesus was gathering them to participate in the mission of God? My point here is that my thinking is held captive in a tradition which (ironically) invites us to embrace and cultivate and adapt, not remain stagnant.2 So my question here is: how can a congregation best demonstrate and participate in the reign of God in its gatherings as well as when dispersed? So, for instance, my congregation did not hold its own worship service on November 20th but instead joined with three other congregations on that day at a different place and time in order to publicly express our belief that Jesus' church is larger than our congregation and we worship and serve the risen one in common with other local congregations. I can imagine gathering at other times and places on other Sundays throughout the year to worship and serve. I would like to think more about this and move beyond Sunday in our building at 9:30 as a firm given.
Thus I am grateful for both of the arguments against worshiping as a congregation on Christmas Sunday. Both stretch me to think through what it means for the church to gather and each opens up possibilities that expand my vision for what church can and might be as we follow the Holy Spirit.
1I am not arguing that a congregation should meet on Sunday. A congregation could meet on Saturday or Tuesday and still be a congregation. My assumption here is that most congregations choose a regular time and place to meet. So if a congregation meets on Sundays but decides not to meet on a Sunday because Christmas falls on it, I'm curious as to the reasoning. Why not use bold faced argument #2 on other Sundays as well? I'm aware that some churches do use such arguments and I'm in principle more sympathetic. Perhaps my underlying suspicion is that Christmas has become the family holiday par excellence and what is really being worshiped is an idealized "traditional" family rather than the God who takes on foreign flesh and brings good news for all people.
2"The fact is that in tradition there is always an element of freedom and of history itself. Even the most genuine and pure tradition does not persist because of the inertia of what once existed. It needs to be affirmed, embraced, cultivated." Gadamer, Truth and Method. Continuum 2000. p. 281
Sports vs. Church attendance
Wed, Apr 20 2011 11:37
| religious sociology, Church Attendance
| Permalink
Of course kids aren't in Sunday School! They've got baseball and soccer games on Sundays. We can't compete with that!
True or False?
Neil McQueen, in an essay on why kids don't attend Sunday School like they used to, counters that this point is made without any serious research:
So, while the "sports explanation" only accounts for 38% of youth in general, it may count for a larger proportion of youth who do attend church and Sunday School but not as frequently as earlier generations did.
Of course, I'm playing with statistics here. The 2003 CDC study is for children age 9-13 and Smith and Denton's study is of an older cohort that overlaps the CDC study. Also, Smith and Denton's study goes beyond sports. Nevertheless, there just might be something to the anecdotal claim that begins this post.
As the parent of a ten year old, we haven't had the sports conflict yet but if he continues playing sports it will soon be upon us. My own take on the issue is that sports and other organized activities do take their toll on attendance. That being said, the trend cannot be pinned on sports (or other activities) alone. And I'm also intrigued by the body of literature that show marked social differences(non-age specific) that correlate between those who do attend and do not attend worship. These differences and other cultural shifts that play into church attendance will have to wait for a later post.
True or False?
Neil McQueen, in an essay on why kids don't attend Sunday School like they used to, counters that this point is made without any serious research:
According to a 2003 study by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 61.5% of children aged 9--13 years do not participate in any organized physical activity during their non-school hours. Worse: 22.6% do not engage in any free-time physical activity. This means if you're going to complain about sports in general as your church program's major competition, you can only use it as an excuse for 38.5% of your kids.While Neil may be on to something, there is some research that suggests otherwise. Sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton did extensive research into the lives of youth and noted this correlation:
American adolescent religion and spirituality appear to be significantly related to a larger propensity to get involved in a broader range of other organized social activities. U.S, teens who are more religiously serious and active are also more likely to be involved in a larger number of other programs, clubs, hobby groups, sports, or other organized activities; less religiously active teens tend to be involved in fewer. This may reflect differences in personailty types, general family orientations toward social involvements, the encouragment and facilitation of religious organizations to get involved in other groups or some other factor. (p.116 in Soul Searching).
So, while the "sports explanation" only accounts for 38% of youth in general, it may count for a larger proportion of youth who do attend church and Sunday School but not as frequently as earlier generations did.
Of course, I'm playing with statistics here. The 2003 CDC study is for children age 9-13 and Smith and Denton's study is of an older cohort that overlaps the CDC study. Also, Smith and Denton's study goes beyond sports. Nevertheless, there just might be something to the anecdotal claim that begins this post.
As the parent of a ten year old, we haven't had the sports conflict yet but if he continues playing sports it will soon be upon us. My own take on the issue is that sports and other organized activities do take their toll on attendance. That being said, the trend cannot be pinned on sports (or other activities) alone. And I'm also intrigued by the body of literature that show marked social differences(non-age specific) that correlate between those who do attend and do not attend worship. These differences and other cultural shifts that play into church attendance will have to wait for a later post.