Faith Works 3-23-19

Faith Works 3-23-19

Jeff Gill

 

The DeChurchification of almost everything

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It was when I looked up some information about an event venue that it hit me.

 

"The wedding ceremony must take place at the event center for us to host the reception."

 

It wasn't a local location, but I can see it coming. And I get their point.

 

If the wedding is happening in a church, and you as an event center have the caterer and the DJ and the other parts of the program of the day, and especially if you're an event center that hosts multiple occasions per weekend, you lose control if the ceremony is somewhere else. If the organist or photographer or minister holds things up for any reason, there you sit.

 

And let's be blunt. That's where the major money is being spent. They hold those deposits, those investments, and they hold really most of the cards in the game of "Your Special Day" so why not just play the Ace of Spades.

 

"The wedding ceremony must take place at the event center for us to host the reception."

 

In my own ministry, I see it more often. And not just with weddings. Funerals are not what they once were, even in regards to funeral homes and memorial services. When I came into the pulpit at the church I serve, I didn't make a big deal out of it, but I made sure that people knew funerals at the church were not only okay, but we could make some aspects of the service easier and frankly more affordable for them. We saw an uptick in the number of funerals happening in the church.

 

But at the same time, the increase of cremation, in no small part because of costs, has meant that the time tables and sequence and yes, locations of services have changed. In general, most of my colleagues report fewer memorial services at church; for funeral homes, fewer of them involve clergy. If you haven't been to a funeral recently, you might not realize it, but the nature and leadership of memorial services has changed greatly over the last decade or so.

 

And an increasing number of people specify no memorial service at all; or the family chooses not to have one. Some of this is because there's no religious affiliation, some has to do with cost (or perceived cost). But it's an increasing reality, and even death notices in the paper aren't always placed.

 

There's really nothing I can add to the discussion around Sundays in general or the mornings in particular as "sacred time." Nope. All sorts of events, from youth sports to more and more public events are verging into Sunday morning. Preachers and church leaders can call for commitment to attendance in worship all we want, but the pressures are huge and not often resisted – other than by choosing not to participate at all, a protest which doesn't register much in this world – to not only do practices and games on Sundays, but for grandparents and other family members to be gone to attend. I've heard the arguments about scholarships and paying for college and I hope you'll forgive my skeptical eyebrow on that, but the fact is that more churches are trying to figure out how to add worship services more than trying to herd parents and children into their single Sunday am offering.

 

So while some churches have had Wednesday night services for some time, and certainly many Catholic parishes have held "vigil masses" on Saturday evening for almost as long, the experience of "church" continues to spread out across the week, into different time slots. And smaller congregations who have trouble sustaining a single service are seeing major impacts to attendance (and giving) due to these increased absences.

 

And then there's charitable giving. Faith based organizations from the local church to mission agencies were, for decades and even centuries, the overwhelming center of what it meant to "give generously." Now every retail outlet asks "would you like to donate to…" or cash register solicitations at restaurants or GoFundMes on social media. Churches and even a central community United Way find that their donor base is now spreading their giving out across a very broad landscape, where personal appeals and direct donations are swamping the old model of a pledge or collection plate way of giving. Church was where you gave, and learned about giving; now, it's online and suggested almost every time you post . . . and am I cynical about the 2 or 3 or 5% they're taking off the top?

 

You can guess… or you can read more next week on "dechurchification" and where I think it's going.

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he's been gathering notes for a series on dechurchification for some time. Throw him more examples at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.