By chance, my seatmate at the O’s game last Sunday was an old guy. We bonded instantly. Old people find each other fascinating.
(I see you’re still alive. Good for you. Half my friends aren’t.)
Old people are quick to make friends. We don’t have time to be coy. Our numbers diminish daily. Our ship is sinking. There are no strangers in a lifeboat.
There aren’t many of us left who can share memories of Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Willie Mays. My new friend and I reminisce between innings, but during an inning we keep our eye on the ball, the pitcher, the batter, the catcher, the infield, the outfield, the first and third base coaches.
We’re on the edge of our seats.
My new friend sees I’ve brought four grandchildren to the game. He pats me on the back.
My granddad took me, he says.
He finds out I’m a retired minister. For the rest of the game he suggests sermon topics.
That’ll preach, won’t it?
Would have but I’m retired. I’ve got no pulpit anymore.
I ask him about his work.
I was a shoe repairman.
Really?! You can make a living repairing shoes?!
Yes. A really nice living if you own 20 stores for the repair of high-end leather boots.
I had no idea! I exclaim. Sounds like we were both in the soul repair business.
Good one! That’ll preach!
(Another pat on the back. I’m thinking he may be a bit daft.)
Then he tells me he’s Jewish but baseball is his religion and Camden Yards his church, and he’s sad because young people aren’t interested in baseball like they used to be because baseball is slow and boring, and there are more exciting, faster games like football, basketball, hockey, and soccer for young people to follow these days.
Attendance has been dropping steadily for decades, he sadly declares.
And that rang a bell. A church bell.
According to the New York Times, The Atlantic, and NPR, all across this land people are “dechurching” at accelerating rates. Some drift away. Some stomp out. There’s even a book about the phenomenon: The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back?
A pitch clock brought fans back to baseball this year. It sped up the game by 30 minutes.
A clock won’t save the church.
What will?
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See Paula’s photograph on the home page.
Maybe reestablish awareness of the importance of the separation of church and state by emphasizing teaching civics in the classroom.
Certainly necessary Rebecca.
Church goers aren’t going, and leaders like you aren’t going, but faithfully searching in arcane ways. My atheist friend who took his Final Exit had found great faith, calm resolve. Faith doesn’t have to be in anything except you. It’s maybe the un-namable unknown inexpressable, ineffable as many in and out of organized religions say. So play ball.
Maybe a better question is what will save this beautiful planet? I am not sure that “church,” whatever that is, is part of the answer.
Most of the Christian church in the US has left Jesus for wealth, power, greed, hate, hypocrisy and heresy. And those who try to follow Jesus refuse to challenge the evil the church has come to represent. Christianity that rejects Jesus and Love is a force for division, manipulation, hate, judgement and oppression.
Church has too many answers; books of liturgy to rigidly follow. The soul, all life really, is a great mystery and church does not provide the right space for wonder, for speculation, for questioning and possibilities – unless it’s part of the sermon given by the minister.
I come from a family [my dad’s side] of agnostics. Mom’s side were practicing Catholic’s, which turned me into an agnostic!! I’ll save that story for another day!! My Grandfather Wood, Bobo, pulled me aside one Sunday, as I was preparing to go to church with mom. He told me, “You don’t have to go to church to worship God! Just go outside, sit under our big sugar maple in the front yard and hang out for awhile. Listen for His voice in the rustling leaves.” Agnostic? Bobo had his own Great Spirit. She lived in nature.
A clock may have saved the Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church for a time. Back in the olden days, church services were supposedly a daylong endeavor. Akin to tales of going up a hill to and from school. Padded pews and 45 minutes to an hour service seemed to bring some folks closer to God and their neighbors.
Reading the Atlantic article made me think of Church and church. The former being the larger set of beliefs and governance. With the latter being a community-based hub for believers with various proclivities regarding religion and spiritual seeking.
A “Church” may put people off when LGBTQIA+ folks are not welcome or for some other reason. A “church” can reflect a community of families and individuals. Usually, the glue that holds it together are folks raised in the church community and inviting of others.
Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller counseled periods of withdrawal from a society “whose members are in various states of ‘distraction’ and ‘imbecility,’ returning only after ‘the renovating fountains’ of individuality have risen up.”
Preach on that!
What a delightful experience to read of the conversation between two “old boys of summer!” It warmed my heart and resonated with me, as I, also, am in the same company. I was raised on baseball diamonds,”Hot Stove” dialogues, baseball scores and standings.
With respect to “saving” the church, I offer two insights. The first comes from Richard Rohr: “Jesus never once talked about attending church services, but he talked constantly about healing the sick and feeding the hungry.” The other comes from Wayne Dyer: “I don’t think Jesus was teaching Christianity; Jesus was teaching kindness, love, concern and peace. What I tell people is don’t be Christian, be Christlike.” Both sources provide some clues. If the church is not relevant to basic human needs, it will whither and die. If the focus is not on “churchgoing”, but on walking a path of personal and collective kindness, compassion and justice, it has a chance to survive and maybe even thrive.
Smart phones to the younger ones take up too much time to be side tracked by something like church. Church was the “Community” but now social media is the community. Also too much material things and big boy toys that need to be used on the weekends as the priority
Our little methodist Church received a preacher from the islands several years ago pre-Covid. His messages were long and impassioned, and the congregation complained loudly about how long the services were. He stated that in the past serving various congregations and cities that when people had had enough, they would get up and leave, others came late and stayed and it all worked out. This did not go over very well in our small upstate New York Methodist church. When Covid hit he retired, and we received another pastor, and then less than two years later we received another one. The last two have been very mindful of their time “limits”. So much so some have complained. I am very active in the church and i see the budget. I appreciate the question which church are we working to save? It is becoming harder and harder for a small congregation to keep the doors open on the physical church and yet I feel we don’t do enough in our community for the people who need the help of the church. What’s the priority? The building or the people? Why are we there? Most of the money goes to the pastor , the District and the physical plant. The majority of the missions we support are funded through in kind or small church funded monetary donations. It is topsy-turvy.
So much to ponder deeply on… I resonate with some of the ideas set forth here:
Spirit found in nature, in the trees – you don’t have to go to church to connect to God.
Church that meets the needs of those attending – faith, marking the stages of life ( birth, becoming an adult, marriage, death…) learning from history & the Good Books, a sense of community and connection.
I was fortunate as a teen to be advised to attend other churches & faith communities, to learn & see for myself what others thot, believed and did.
We all will seek the truth, independently, and investigate, and that which rings true to our soul & being will be our inner guide – sometimes leading to an outer guide – in the form of a church, a faith leader, or way of life that meets that need to make sense of life, and our purpose & part in this wondrous, mysterious, exquisite world… we all make a difference…thank you – food for thot.
An act of God should do it