Church Involvement

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peebo
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
P

Peebo

Guest
I just finished reading a Pew Research Center survey released Nov.16 in the November edition of a Catholic newspaper on church involvement of Christians of different denominations…listed below from the news article
All Christians 30%
Evangelical Protestant 43%
Historically black Protestant 41%
Mainline Protestant 20%
Orthodox 20%
Catholic 16%
Now I understand why our church doesn’t start to fill up until 5 minutes before mass and the car park is empty 5 minutes after mass:D
 
J_Peterson said:
Here is an article to keep it within the rules. This also breaks it down by high, medium, and low involvement.

pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/16/church-involvement-varies-widely-among-u-s-christians/

Personally I find very little in my Parish to get me involved. I am a bit more involved with a church in Boston but my home parish is for Sunday mass only. Perhaps when I start a family I’ll be more involved.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the website…it doesn’t look good for Catholics for sure…our Parish has 3 new priests…while our other priest has retired he was a good priest non the less…but like the saying goes…“a new broom sweeps clean”…there have been a number of changes since the new Pastor took over…they all are “on fire” for God and really are pushing for more people to become involved in the various church ministries and programs…retreats etc…
 
J_Peterson said:
Here is an article to keep it within the rules. This also breaks it down by high, medium, and low involvement.

pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/16/church-involvement-varies-widely-among-u-s-christians/

Personally I find very little in my Parish to get me involved. I am a bit more involved with a church in Boston but my home parish is for Sunday mass only. Perhaps when I start a family I’ll be more involved.
Click to expand...
We were discussing this in another thread. It’s really not that surprising when you think about it. Most of the churches that scored high on involvement either strongly hint more involvement is needed to the point of ostracism, to be full members on a level Catholics and Mainline Protestants don’t. Or even more so they’re structured to require more involvement like the Mormons and JW.

If you had to tithe 10% and volunteer regularly to receive communion or confession in a Catholic Church you’d lose a ton of congregants, but you can bet those involvement numbers would skyrocket.
 
Padres1969 said:
We were discussing this in another thread. It’s really not that surprising when you think about it. Most of the churches that scored high on involvement either strongly hint more involvement is needed to the point of ostracism, to be full members on a level Catholics and Mainline Protestants don’t. Or even more so they’re structured to require more involvement like the Mormons and JW.

If you had to tithe 10% and volunteer regularly to receive communion or confession in a Catholic Church you’d lose a ton of congregants, but you can bet those involvement numbers would skyrocket.
Click to expand...
As a former Pentecostal I would have to say that most if not all Pentecostals have a deep love for Jesus Christ and are only to willing to be involved in all sorts of church activities…weekly bible study…voluntary charity or missionary works…seminars…evangelization…there was never any pressure…as I said earlier people were only to willing to be involved because of their love for Jesus
 
Lack of involvement in church activities does not mean a lack of love for Jesus. I used to volunteer a lot - I no longer volunteer at all.
 
Peebo said:
As a former Pentecostal I would have to say that most if not all Pentecostals have a deep love for Jesus Christ and are only to willing to be involved in all sorts of church activities…weekly bible study…voluntary charity or missionary works…seminars…evangelization…there was never any pressure…as I said earlier people were only to willing to be involved because of their love for Jesus
Click to expand...
You highlight another aspect of why some churches have more involvement however. The structure of the faith. Catholicism, and many of it’s somewhat closely related protestant cousins in form if not theology, are somewhat passive religions. To be fully involved you don’t actually have to be all that involved. You can love Jesus with all your heart, but attending mass is still a fairly passive experience if you look at it from the outside. Whereas in the many of the more “active” traditions as you mention worship is more involved and active. It involves more active participation, evangelization, bible study groups. Things like that aren’t “additional activities” more precise term but closer to core activities of the faith.
 
I think the idea of participation can be interpreted in different ways. For instance, you could be extremely active in Church if you attend daily Mass as well as on Sundays; Or spend many hours a week in the Adoration chapel; or volunteering in the church’s food pantry or ministries.

It’s all relative and one can participate in numerous ways. Not just by being members of certain groups/ministries in your parish.

In the religious life, there are missionaries who help the poor and needy; and then there are contemplative orders deep in prayer day and night. Both fulfill the mission of the Church – sacrificing oneself for souls for the love of God.

Peace.

+JMJ+
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top