Loosing their Religion

[Earth Wind and Fire]

I can't really speak for the USA except to say that one person with whom I exchange emails occasionally is appalled at Christian support for Trump. She has actually stopped attending church because of sermons in support of the man. I have no idea to what extent her view is replicated throughout America, but I don't suppose that she is entirely alone.
The situation in Britain is rather exciting. Young people are becoming very interested in Christianity. I can give you several examples of this if anyone is interested. Youngsters are anxious and depressed and are looking for something meaningful. Many older people too are seeking.
So while the larger denominations are falling off a cliff number-wise, independent, Bible-preaching churches are growing fast. My own church only had around 20 people attending weekly before Lockdown; now we have around 60, and two weeks ago we had 78. We really struggled to fit everybody in! Attending the annual conference of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, I found that most other churches in the fellowship are also growing. Maybe revival is closer than we think!

Hmmm, frankly I am appalled by our politics on both sides of government and wish for a third party with real conservative integrity and moral standing but that’s me and probably my outdated ideals of right & wrong. Ultimately, it’s in Gods hands but much prayer is needed.

 

[Scarlett O.]

Hmmm, frankly I am appalled by our politics on both sides of government and wish for a third party with real conservative integrity and moral standing but that’s me and probably my outdated ideals of right & wrong. Ultimately, it’s in Gods hands but much prayer is needed.

Dear brother, I am so with you on this!!

 

[JonC]

Losing their religion: why US churches are on the decline

As the US adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches are closing each year – probably accelerated by Covid

www.theguardian.com

I can only speak for the NE part of USA, churches are by and large shrinking and closing their doors and I really don’t see younger generations having an interest. So what’s next?

A couple of things could be the issue:

1. Younger generations have been groomed to abandon religion
2. Churches have abandoned their First Love

What I have seen is also a factor. Churches have become dogmatic traditiinalists and unbiblical in the faith that they hold. Younger generations are not persuaded by traditions that they recognize as irrelevant. These include Arminianism, Calvinism, theories of the Atonement, and eschatologocal positions.

Younger generations not only want a faith but they want a faith that works. I've seen very active youth groups (College students) who reach out to the community, who fellowship in Chriat, who teach Scripture, who devoted themselves to God's Word, and who organize and ho on mission trips. They have a heart for God. BUT they don't have a heart for the theological systems men have developed and men use to identify their sects.

 

[JesusFan]

A couple of things could be the issue:

1. Younger generations have been groomed to abandon religion
2. Churches have abandoned their First Love

What I have seen is also a factor. Churches have become dogmatic traditiinalists and unbiblical in the faith that they hold. Younger generations are not persuaded by traditions that they recognize as irrelevant. These include Arminianism, Calvinism, theories of the Atonement, and eschatologocal positions.

Younger generations not only want a faith but they want a faith that works. I've seen very active youth groups (College students) who reach out to the community, who fellowship in Chriat, who teach Scripture, who devoted themselves to God's Word, and who organize and ho on mission trips. They have a heart for God. BUT they don't have a heart for the theological systems men have developed and men use to identify their sects.

Add to the mix emergent churches, and deconstructionmovement, that ends up redefining essentials of the faith and really denying them

 

[Walter]

Thank you…how are you guys doing. Merry Christmas to you & your family.

A very Merry Christmas to you and your family also. My wife continues with the infusions with mixed results. She is doing better than she was this time last year though. We mention your wife each morning in our prayers. God's got this!

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

A very Merry Christmas to you and your family also. My wife continues with the infusions with mixed results. She is doing better than she was this time last year though. We mention your wife each morning in our prayers. God's got this!

Thank you….please remember deacons granddaughter in your prayers as well…she is just a little girl and she has gone through so much. Please Lord, let 2025 be a year of healing for all.

Happy new year to you both, your in our prayers.

 

[ParticularWife]

Losing their religion: why US churches are on the decline

As the US adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches are closing each year – probably accelerated by Covid

www.theguardian.com

I can only speak for the NE part of USA, churches are by and large shrinking and closing their doors and I really don’t see younger generations having an interest. So what’s next?

I don't think that most people will be saved (at least not at present), anyway, so I don't expect to be a majority in the strict sense. Most of the losses are occurring in theologically liberal churches, because these people (practically, if not confessionally) don't have discipline, doctrine or the Gospel. There's no reason to go to a fake church, or to go to church if you don't believe the Gospel. Why would a bunch of atheists and communists want to go to church, anyway?
Many highly conservative churches are expanding, and if the churches that don't teach the gospel disappear, good riddance. They serve no purpose except to deceive with fake gospels.
While many mainline Protestant churches have seen a decline in membership, conservative and evangelical churches have continued to grow. Evangelical Protestant churches in America grew by 2 million from 2007 to 2014.
Turns out Machen was right.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

I don't think that most people will be saved (at least not at present), anyway, so I don't expect to be a majority in the strict sense. Most of the losses are occurring in theologically liberal churches, because these people (practically, if not confessionally) don't have discipline, doctrine or the Gospel. There's no reason to go to a fake church, or to go to church if you don't believe the Gospel. Why would a bunch of atheists and communists want to go to church, anyway?
Many highly conservative churches are expanding, and if the churches that don't teach the gospel disappear, good riddance. They serve no purpose except to deceive with fake gospels.
While many mainline Protestant churches have seen a decline in membership, conservative and evangelical churches have continued to grow. Evangelical Protestant churches in America grew by 2 million from 2007 to 2014.
Turns out Machen was right.

I’m not a particularly evangelical oriented person…. I consider myself a Primitive Baptist however there are no PB churches in New Jersey where I live….i am trying to find a dying Baptist church in need of a spiritual infusion … there is a PB church Florida who has offered to help. It’s my desire to re-establish true Christian environment in my home community….you have no idea how much of a void this area of the country has become and to me the Primitive Baptists have been the most loving & God honoring people I’ve been blessed to know.

 

[ParticularWife]

I’m not a particularly evangelical oriented person…. I consider myself a Primitive Baptist however there are no PB churches in New Jersey where I live….i am trying to find a dying Baptist church in need of a spiritual infusion … there is a PB church Florida who has offered to help. It’s my desire to re-establish true Christian environment in my home community….you have no idea how much of a void this area of the country has become and to me the Primitive Baptists have been the most loving & God honoring people I’ve been blessed to know.

It seems different here. Mainline churches are basically dead. I live in an area infested by pseudochristian cults and self help seminars disguised as churches, which care more about leftist politics or getting rich than the Bible. Despite/because of that, there are also number of strongly Bible centered churches. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church I attend has probably doubled in size since 2015.
Within a reasonable drive of me there are at least fourteen Primitive Baptist, Independent Fundamental Baptist, Particular Baptist, OPC, Protestant Reformed Church in America, and RCUS churches.
On the east coast maybe it's because they're more tied in to mainline churches, but it west people have been starting up new, little churches since the 19th century. Washington mainline churches are imploding, but conservative churches are all over the place.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

It seems different here. Mainline churches are basically dead. I live in an area infested by pseudochristian cults and self help seminars disguised as churches, which care more about leftist politics or getting rich than the Bible. Despite/because of that, there are also number of strongly Bible centered churches. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church I attend has probably doubled in size since 2015.
Within a reasonable drive of me there are at least fourteen Primitive Baptist, Independent Fundamental Baptist, Particular Baptist, OPC, Protestant Reformed Church in America, and RCUS churches.
On the east coast maybe it's because they're more tied in to mainline churches, but it west people have been starting up new, little churches since the 19th century. Washington mainline churches are imploding, but conservative churches are all over the place.

I have a son and two grandchildren living in Florida currently. I’m concerned that his female partner don’t have a church home, maybe because I want my grandkids to know God. But I don’t impose my values on them… if something happens I believe the Holy Spirit. Anyway they are planning on a move to Bend Oregan so I will never have an influence on them. So I don’t know if the new community will influence them positively or negatively.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

James Montgomery Boice in Philadelphia and his book, The Doctrines of Grace and before that George Whitfield and his sermon Method of Grace, influenced me greatly in my Christian walk. Then there is John Gill, what a Christian. And up here in my day there was still the Dutch Reformed that my wife was raised in. And when I really began my journey of discovery, it was the Primitive Baptists who provided understanding
& comfort…they still do. The youth have no anchoring, no belonging, no regenerational deliverance Inorder to see clearly so they hang on to tangeable worldy things like jobs, careers, their children, their possessions etc. Then there is no real Christ that sacrificed His life for them… that doesn’t get recognized and frankly there are few today that can articulate that, not sufficiently…and I think they can’t because Gods spirit isn’t in dwelt in their message therefore they stand inept in their delivery.

 

[Martin Marprelate]

First of all, a very Happy New Year to all on this forum.
I think maybe things are not bad enough in the USA yet for people to seek God. The apostasy in Britain has been going on for years, and people are becoming thoroughly depressed and anxious. All they hear on the news is that the economy is flatlining, crime is increasing (especially the violent kind) and the world is coming to an end because of climate change so we need to spend tens of billions of pounds we don't have to make almost no difference. Our youngsters are self-harming and wondering if changing their gender might help.
But the mainline churches have nothing to offer; most of them are self-help organizations that have abolished the concept of sin and teach that Jesus was this really nice guy who lived a long time ago and did some good stuff.

So youngsters are seeking something solid and meaningful. Some of you know that I'm a member of Good News for Everyone! the successor to the Gideons in the UK. I and some colleagues had a stand at the 'Student Fair' at a nearby Agricultural College. I was thinking that we would be surrounded by militant adolescent atheists telling us that Christianity is homophobic, but there was none of that. We were almost swamped by eager enquirers. We gave away 275 copies of the New Testament, Psalms and proverbs, several full Bibles and several hundred tracts. The students were really interested and had lots of questions to ask.

We also attended a strange annual event in a nearby town called Ottery St. Mary. Men pick up flaming barrels, put them on their backs and run through crowded streets. The Ottery St Mary Carnival Tar Barrels | How no one gets killed I have no idea! Anyway, in 2023, we put up a stand in the garden of a church that opened onto one of the main roads, and offered toasted marshmallows to any one who came, and then offered them a NT.
That year, we were there from 6pm to 10pm and gave out 76 NTs which we thought was pretty good. In 2024, by 8-30, we had given out 135 NTs, and 30-odd Gospels of Luke, not to mention 250 marshmallows. We were completely cleaned out! We could have given out another 50 NTs if we'd had them. A lot of our visitors were either Sixth Formers at the local school or Exeter University students. There is a real hunger for God.

I want to take issue with whoever it was who said that Young people don't want doctrine. On the contrary, they are seeking rules to live by, and while they don't want religion that's stuck in the 17th Century, if the truths of that century are put to them in a fresh way in modern English, they will accept them. We now have 6 or 7 teenagers in our church, and we give them a catechism question and answer each week to ground them in their faith as they come to it, and we have the first of them being baptized this month, and another one asking about it. We also have a dozen or more younger children, where two years ago we had no one in the church under 50. Soli gloria Deo!

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

You should realize that the USA is a big place with lots of different communities all developing themselves in different ways, generally to accommodate their lifestyles. Any doctrine we adhere to should be, needs to be embellished by scripture and be eternal in the individuals practice. Coming from a Catholic background I was forced to accept Catholic dogma and doctrine, that was the way it was and probably is even today…and there are allot of Catholics out there. When I broke off my relationship with the RCC, I began searching out religions in an attempt to have some system to believe in … and there are allot of them out there as well.. I even took instruction from a Rabbi, because I was going to marry a Jewish woman and considered converting…that would have been easy and there was considerable money involved in it. But then I didn’t want to be the Jewgoy (the second class banana to those people)… BAD INVESTMENT!

Then I married a woman who convinced me to be a Presbyterian….bla bla bla, that didn’t work out. And on and on. I learned many doctrines from each church I went to and even had my kid brother that was a pastor chase me with his Bible and promise of salvation, I felt that that was really pathetic… just say you believe, just say you believe. Nobody wants to be perused like that…that they sent my brother after me was both insulting and really pathetic.

Until my drive home from taking extra college courses in a snow storm. I was given a set of CD’s recorded by some Presbyterians in New Jersey. OK I’m driving home, going home so I didn’t kill my self and I’m listening to the series of recordings one by one…the first recording was The conversion of st. Augustine and half way thru it I eject it and throw it into the back seat, Igrab another and load it in, Here I Stand by Martin Luther, and no I throw that in the back seat. Then I load Pilgrims Progress and I hate story telling so I file that. Now I have only Jon Edwards and a guy I never heard of, a George Whitfield character. OK let’s try the unheard guy over Edwards since I’m in no mood in a snowstorm to hear fire & brimstone nonsence. So in goes Whitfield and that my regeneration story. See it really wasn’t Whitfield …it was the Holy Ghost admonishing me to never recognizing the Sacrifices that were done on my behalf by Christ and that opened my eyes and I feel life the Grinch growing a heart & a conscience that day. Bottom line, I’m convinced that that’s what we all need, a change of perspective, a metamorphosis, a holy call from God to wake up, grow up and recognize the sacrifice Christ made for us. And that’s life changing.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Here is one good reason churches are in decline!

Coming out with the new Book of Discipline | UMNews.org

The Rev. Dr. Rebekah Miles, a veteran General Conference delegate, writes about what the removal of the Discipline’s longtime anti-gay stance means for The United Methodist Church and for her personally.

www.umnews.org

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Al Molers opinion of the United Methodists - Google Search

 

[Martin Marprelate]

Further to my last post, I have just read in a UK evangelical newspaper that sales of the Bible in the USA have increased considerably since Lockdown. In 2019, 9.7 million Bibles were sold in America. In 2023, that had increased to 14.2 million, and by the end of October last year, it was already 13.7 million.
Maybe there's something more going on than we realise.

 

[ParticularWife]

Further to my last post, I have just read in a UK evangelical newspaper that sales of the Bible in the USA have increased considerably since Lockdown. In 2019, 9.7 million Bibles were sold in America. In 2023, that had increased to 14.2 million, and by the end of October last year, it was already 13.7 million.
Maybe there's something more going on than we realise.

The only churches in America that are growing are conservative churches. But, overall, Christian numbers are in decline.

 

[Martin Marprelate]

The only churches in America that are growing are conservative churches. But, overall, Christian numbers are in decline.

Indeed. That is true also in Britain. But is that not actually a hopeful sign? People are finding that they receive no hope from the bigger denominations, which have no Gospel to offer. So they are reading the Bible for themselves and looking out churches where the Bible is taught.

 

[ParticularWife]

Indeed. That is true also in Britain. But is that not actually a hopeful sign? People are finding that they receive no hope from the bigger denominations, which have no Gospel to offer. So they are reading the Bible for themselves and looking out churches where the Bible is taught.

To be rather cynical, secular people are also not getting married and murdering their babies, so they're going to be physically replaced by Fundies, third world Catholics, and Muslims, anyway. Sin often has a way of destroying those who practice it.

 

[Martin Marprelate]

To be rather cynical, secular people are also not getting married and murdering their babies, so they're going to be physically replaced by Fundies, third world Catholics, and Muslims, anyway. Sin often has a way of destroying those who practice it.

You're not wrong, but I think there's more to it than that.
Within the FIEC (fiec.org.uk ), the large majority of churches are growing rapidly. There are generally three reasons for this:

1) There has been an influx of legal immigrants from various African Commonwealth countries (e.g. Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Nigeria) to work in the Care industry. Most of these are Christian, and to my surprise seem to prefer conservative churches to charismatic ones.
2) People are leaving liberal churches (Church of England, Methodist, Baptist Union) to find somewhere that they will hear the Gospel and proper Bible teaching.
3) People with no church background seeking hope in the face of increasing lawlessness, fear and hopelessness.

I think this is all rather hopeful.