TheViking
10-12-2004, 09:42 AM
I do not know much about the situation of churches in the USA, but in Europe very few churches are actually growing. The few churches I know of that actually grows, seems to gain members from other churches rather than getting new believers to come.
A lot of the kids who are born into the church disappear over the years as well. Here are a few observations around this phenomenon.
When I grew up in church, church was a family thing. Of course we had Sunday school, activities for kids and youth work, but the congregation would be together in praise and worship across the ages. To me, this was a good thing. You knew people from every age segment in your church. The young ones would bring in passion and excitement; the older member would have the wisdom and give guidance to the young ones. We went to regional gatherings, national gatherings and of course had activities happening for the different age groups as well, but then something happened. I think it must have been an attempt to offer a wider assortment of activities to keep people coming to church but obviously it has not been working all that well here.
Every age segment has set of their own activities. Kids under 6 yrs old, kids from 6 to 13, young ones from 13 to 18 yrs of age, young couples, young singles, young married couples, young families, middle age couples, middle age singles, senior citizens and so on. To me this looks like we are getting congregations within the congregations. This can be positive, but more and more we see that the barriers between the segments are unnatural limits. Many people seem to have a hard time crossing over to their “right†group. I remember when this change started to taking place during the mid 1980’s, the church I was in had a youth choir with approx 170 member, within a couple of years it was reduced to less than 40, and maybe 30 of the guys from back then, are still members of a church.
These days the kids only attend regular services if the children’s choir has a gig. Young people show up for youth services or go to regular services if they are going to perform drama, sing or dance. Old people do not attend family services and so on and so on. This just can’t be right. We need to get the entire church back in a room. Kids, young ones, old ones, families and singles all joining in at the same time in praise and worship. Mixing styles and forms, music, dance, drama, using what is special for each segment to lift up the Lord. I am all for having loads of activities in church. I would love to see any church filled with people all the days of the week, but we need to find away to let people interact across all of the different segments. What do you guys think about this?
A lot of the kids who are born into the church disappear over the years as well. Here are a few observations around this phenomenon.
When I grew up in church, church was a family thing. Of course we had Sunday school, activities for kids and youth work, but the congregation would be together in praise and worship across the ages. To me, this was a good thing. You knew people from every age segment in your church. The young ones would bring in passion and excitement; the older member would have the wisdom and give guidance to the young ones. We went to regional gatherings, national gatherings and of course had activities happening for the different age groups as well, but then something happened. I think it must have been an attempt to offer a wider assortment of activities to keep people coming to church but obviously it has not been working all that well here.
Every age segment has set of their own activities. Kids under 6 yrs old, kids from 6 to 13, young ones from 13 to 18 yrs of age, young couples, young singles, young married couples, young families, middle age couples, middle age singles, senior citizens and so on. To me this looks like we are getting congregations within the congregations. This can be positive, but more and more we see that the barriers between the segments are unnatural limits. Many people seem to have a hard time crossing over to their “right†group. I remember when this change started to taking place during the mid 1980’s, the church I was in had a youth choir with approx 170 member, within a couple of years it was reduced to less than 40, and maybe 30 of the guys from back then, are still members of a church.
These days the kids only attend regular services if the children’s choir has a gig. Young people show up for youth services or go to regular services if they are going to perform drama, sing or dance. Old people do not attend family services and so on and so on. This just can’t be right. We need to get the entire church back in a room. Kids, young ones, old ones, families and singles all joining in at the same time in praise and worship. Mixing styles and forms, music, dance, drama, using what is special for each segment to lift up the Lord. I am all for having loads of activities in church. I would love to see any church filled with people all the days of the week, but we need to find away to let people interact across all of the different segments. What do you guys think about this?