If “bloom where you are planted” epitomized church life in the 1970s,
todays slogan is “you better shop around.”
Each year, one out of every seven adults changes churches,
the Barna Research Group reports. One of six attends two or more churches on
a rotating basis.
Americans are a religious people – and church remains
an important aspect of life for tens of millions of Americans. However, there
is less concern about “brand loyalty” to churches than there used
to be, explained George Barna, founder of the California-based research group.
If “bloom where you are planted” epitomized church life in the 1970s,
todays slogan is “you better shop around.”
Each year, one out of every seven adults changes churches,
the Barna Research Group reports. One of six attends two or more churches on
a rotating basis.
Americans are a religious people – and church remains
an important aspect of life for tens of millions of Americans. However, there
is less concern about “brand loyalty” to churches than there used
to be, explained George Barna, founder of the California-based research group.
“Although Americans do not change churches as regularly
as they change the brand of gasoline they use, church loyalty is a modern casualty,”
he noted.
Though pervasive, “church hopping” is a trend that
in some ways defies explanation. Few churches and denominations keep track of
how long members stay or why they leave. Little research has been done into
what motivates church loyalty.
One common explanation is consumer mentality. If one church
lacks a desirable trait or service, todays churchgoer will look elsewhere.
“Religion and spirituality have become just another product
in the broader marketplace of goods and services,” American Demographics
magazine said in April 1999.
Adults will flit from one church to another the way they hunt
for Christmas bargains, observers point out.
Which church has the best childcare?
Which has a favorite style of music?
Which church has the strongest recreation program?
Which church is the friendliest?
In a society where there is always another option, it seems
even religion is for sale these days.
Perhaps that explains the “Church Shopping Guide”
offered online by Atonement Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wisconsin. The “guide”
suggests a series of questions the church shopper should ask. The questions
include – Is this church a theater or a temple, a gymnasium or a hospital?
Translation: Do you want a church where worship is about God
or about entertainment? Do you want one where wounded people come for healing
or the healthy come for exercise?
Also out there on the vast Web is Nicole. Unhappy in her Catholic
parish, she went to an Internet chat room for church-shopping advice. Todd advised
her to explore some other parishes.
Malcolm also joined the e-mail discussion: “It is all
too easy to flit from parish to parish seeking some particular atmosphere, way
of doing things, etc. The Mass then gets treated more as entertainment than
something in which we participate.”
However, it is not always a search for the best show, discussions
indicate.
“Sometimes people are just looking for a good fit, and
they cant find it,” San Francisco-area resident Brad Sargent told
the Christian lifestyle magazine FaithWorks. “You find that this church
helps you grow spiritually but doesnt have an outlet for you to serve
in.
“So you keep looking.”
Sargent cast himself as “bi-churchal.”
“I go to one church where I can grow spiritually, participate
in a Gen-Xer worship service and serve to make a global impact. I go to another,
new church on Sunday evening to contribute to my local community through service
there.
“Why should my attendance be an either/or? Why cant
it be both/and? This fulfills me. I dont think church hopping has to be
a negative.”
The choice of a church used to be a simpler matter. Most people
stuck to one denomination, often predetermined by family background, ethnicity
or geography. Now, blurred doctrinal lines and an option-driven consumer culture
have changed the equation. Hopping churches has become a way of life for many.
Most churches are unprepared for the new ground rules. They
watch in bewilderment as their membership rolls turn over or even decline because
of the practice.
Co-pastor Grant Teagarden and those just starting Living Hope
Church in Santa Clara, Calif., say they hope they have the solution – a
little something for everyone.
“For those from a liturgical background, wed like
to set up a room where you can come before the service and have communion and
liturgy,” Teagarden explained.
“For those who just need quiet and prayer, wed have
a room where the prayer team can pray for you and you can meditate. Wed
like to have a service where all the members of the family can worship together,
without having to be separated.”
Lifestyle changes also complicate the picture – and help
to keep people from making commitments to churches. For instance, the average
working couple in this country logs 717 more office hours a year than they did
in 1969.
James Atherton is pastor of the seeker-oriented church, The
Bridge, in downtown San Francisco. In his work, he acknowledged he must deal
with the expanding influence of work with Silicon Valleys “dot-com”
entrepreneurs.
“Their take is, Im going to work 24/7 for
the next 10 years, totally give up my life, and retire a millionaire at 35 or
40, ” Atherton said. “And they take a mattress to the office.
It leaves little time to attend a church, much less stick with one.”
Tiffaney Threatt agreed.
“You work 48 hours in a week – and you worked 12
of those Saturday – and you just want a day off,” said Threatt, a
member at Kathwood Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C.
For a person who has not settled into one church, it is easier
to take that day off without feeling guilty. Likewise, attending church sporadically
keeps many people from getting deeply involved anywhere.
Other church hoppers emphasize their membership shifts in relation
to their spiritual development.
“Your needs change,” acknowledged Reggie McNeal,
a leadership-development specialist from South Carolina. “You attend this
church partly because the childrens ministry is very good. But children
grow up into teenagers, and maybe this church doesnt have a strong youth
ministry. So, you look for a church that does.”
That happened to Jo from Columbia, S.C. After several years
at a downtown Presbyterian church with a “warm and wonderful pastor”
and a “fantastic childrens ministry,” she took her two children
across town to a different Presbyterian church. They were teenagers now, and
there was little for them at the downtown church.
About four years later, the family transferred again, this
time to the Baptist church across the street from the Presbyterian one. Her
children had graduated high school, and there was a new pastor at the Baptist
church. Her needs had changed, she said.
So, who exactly is church hopping?
Is it just the Gen-Xers who flit from church to church?
Is it only the market-shaping Boomers?
Lyle Schaller writes about the generational differences that
exist at this point.
“The loyal member born before 1940 is upset and baffled
when a longtime member becomes dissatisfied and quietly departs to worship with
a different congregation in that same community,” Schaller acknowledges
in one of his books on church life.
“The younger member, who was reared in a culture overflowing
with choices, shrugs off that departure as normal and completely acceptable.”
However, while each generation has a different take on loyalty,
church hopping is about more than generational differences.
“Its a values issue more than a generational one,”
said Brad Sargent, who teaches on ministry in the postmodern era.
Some church hopping is a result of consumerism, particularly
among Boomers, Sargent admitted. “(But) Postmoderns, whatever their age,
do it more for spiritual reasons,” he pointed out.
Futurist Cassidy Dale agreed. “I think often when people
church hop, theyre looking for spiritual hooks. They want to be drawn
in deeper. Theyre looking for spiritual depth. …
“The postmodern church-hopper is looking for spiritual
meat,” continued Dale, a research consultant in Washington, D.C. “They
want a church with a unique calling and identity, one that will go with them
on an adventurous spiritual journey.”
He paused, then dropped the bomb.
“Many churches dont offer this.”
However, while many church leaders lament the cultural changes
that have created a nation of church hoppers, others are more accepting of the
situation.
“I cannot in good faith judge the church hopper,”
consultant Jim Simpson of Columbia, S.C., admitted. “God may be working
in their lives. He may be using their church hopping.
“If theyre honestly looking for the beef, why berate
them? I wish we had enough substance that we were worthy of being hopped to!”
(ABP)
(Amanda Phifer is a seminary student and free-lance writer
in Mill Valley, Calif.)