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Monte_RCMS
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nypost.com/2016/09/14/parish-or-perish-how-to-refill-the-pews/
Good article.
excerpt:
Over the summer many churches reported a spike in attendance — the result, it turned out, of an influx of Pokémon Go players.
Now that this phenomenon has started to dissipate and Mewtwo and Pikachu are once again lapsed, religious leaders are back to Square One: In a society where there are so many demands on our time and choices for how to occupy ourselves, what makes people attend a house of worship and, perhaps more importantly, what makes them put down roots in a religious community?
Which raises the question of what exactly Catholics are looking for in parish life. Given that almost 13 percent of Americans are former Catholics, the issue isn’t academic. Catholics who have left the church make up the second-largest religious group in the United States.
Some leaders may be tempted to try a lot of new bells and whistles to bring them back or to attract new followers. But some recent studies suggest that the church would be better off going “back to basics.”
According to a recent Pew study, more than two-thirds of Catholics said the quality of sermons played an important role in their choices of house of worship, and 71 percent said feeling welcomed by church leaders played that role. While many religious communities are worried about playing more contemporary music or building a better website or being more active on social media, the truth is that the people in the pews are looking for a significant spiritual message on Sundays and a community they’ll feel at home in.
Indeed, many Catholics seem to be looking for the kind of neighborhood church that used to be more common.
According to Pew, “for Catholics who have looked for a new congregation, no single factor is more important than location.” More than three-quarters said location was a major factor.
Good article.
excerpt:
Over the summer many churches reported a spike in attendance — the result, it turned out, of an influx of Pokémon Go players.
Now that this phenomenon has started to dissipate and Mewtwo and Pikachu are once again lapsed, religious leaders are back to Square One: In a society where there are so many demands on our time and choices for how to occupy ourselves, what makes people attend a house of worship and, perhaps more importantly, what makes them put down roots in a religious community?
Which raises the question of what exactly Catholics are looking for in parish life. Given that almost 13 percent of Americans are former Catholics, the issue isn’t academic. Catholics who have left the church make up the second-largest religious group in the United States.
Some leaders may be tempted to try a lot of new bells and whistles to bring them back or to attract new followers. But some recent studies suggest that the church would be better off going “back to basics.”
According to a recent Pew study, more than two-thirds of Catholics said the quality of sermons played an important role in their choices of house of worship, and 71 percent said feeling welcomed by church leaders played that role. While many religious communities are worried about playing more contemporary music or building a better website or being more active on social media, the truth is that the people in the pews are looking for a significant spiritual message on Sundays and a community they’ll feel at home in.
Indeed, many Catholics seem to be looking for the kind of neighborhood church that used to be more common.
According to Pew, “for Catholics who have looked for a new congregation, no single factor is more important than location.” More than three-quarters said location was a major factor.