The Church’s Hour

Salvation Army headquarters, London (photo mine)

Like many American boys who grew up in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, I belonged to the Boy Scouts. I wasn’t devoted to the organization, and I didn’t attain the rank of Eagle Scout. After several years I dropped out. I simply lacked motivation to stick with it.

I didn’t relish working hard at anything back then.

I also attended our local YMCA summer camp. I can still remember many of the songs we sang, which were pretty goofy, including “Zoom Golly-Golly-Golly” (whatever that means). I remember some of the leaders, too, as cool and kind as they were. But I also remember one counselor who bordered on abusive, especially in the way he mocked berated campers. A week in his cabin was quite enough. I never returned.

I attended church every Sunday, too, and began wearing a sport coat and tie by the time I reached the 5th or 6th grade. Church membership was as expected back then as saying the Pledge of Allegiance during school assemblies and singing the National Anthem at sporting events. It was the respectable thing to do. It is any surprise that “In God We Trust” was printed on the dollar bill in 1957 and “under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954?

I mention these experiences for a reason. Times have changed. Most social institutions in the USA have suffered massive decline over the past 50 years. The Boy Scouts is a good example. It has half the participants of its peak period in the 1970s. The YMCA is still going strong, especially as a workout facility, and it shows signs of vitality in offering programs to underserved populations in America, which is true of the Salvation Army, too. But their original and historic Christian mission has all but disappeared.

Service organizations have suffered a similar decline, pretty much across the board. The membership of Rotary was more than 400,000 in 1995; it’s 330,000 today, with only 10% of the members under 40. The Masons have lost three million members since the 1950s. Membership in the Elks has declined by 50% since 1980, the Shriners by 50% since 1990.

Recreational clubs have fared no better. Bowling and softball leagues, once the domain of churches and labor unions, have all suffered huge losses. Niche clubs—like biking and climbing—have largely replaced them, appealing to a narrower swath of the population.

Harvard sociologist Robert Putman has marshalled a great deal of social scientific data in his book Upswing to prove that America has been suffering a “social depression” since the late 1970s, which has contributed to the emotional, mental, and physical maladies afflicting so many Americans today.

Meanwhile, the fastest growing “religious” group in America is the “nones,” which comprises those who claim no religious affiliation at all (they check the box “none of the above” in religious surveys). This group has outstripped all the others (white mainline Protestant, evangelical Protestant, black Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish, and “other” religions), climbing to just under 30% of the general population.

Meanwhile, the number of self-identified Christians in America is dropping. Churches therefore can’t rely as much for growth on “religious switchers”—disaffected Christians who jump from one church to another. The pool is slowly drying up. Instead, churches have to reach the truly “unaffiliated” if they want to grow, which poses a much greater challenge.

I am sobered by these numbers.

But I am not pessimistic.

First, because the gospel is as powerful today as it was when Peter preached that first sermon on the day of Pentecost some 2000 years ago, nor has the need for that gospel diminished. Second, because churches in America have an opportunity in light of the decline of these social institutions to meet all kinds of human needs. Third, because the loss of nominal church members might help create a smaller, stronger, and leaner work force of serious disciples.

Putnam argues that the circumstances we face today—wide disparity between rich and poor, urban poverty, social depression, loneliness, alienation, government dysfunction—parallels what America faced during the Gilded Age of the 1890s. The situation back then seemed dire. But Christian leaders and churches responded with a burst of creativity on many fronts: the Social Gospel Movement, the founding of new institutions like the Boy Scouts, the growth of institutions like the Salvation Army and YMCA, the development of dynamic city churches, and the urban revivalism of Dwight L. Moody.

Never mind which of these you would gravitate toward. It was the combination of these efforts that contributed to the common good of society, the growth of the church, and the renewal of the nation.

The church stands on the threshold of a similar kind of awakening. The need and opportunity is certainly there, and the church faces little competition.

The church’s problem is the church itself, which often sabotages itself. The church is often its own worst enemy.

But I still stand by this conviction: it is the church’s hour.