In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss a recent Lifeway Research study which found that despite some disturbing trends in the number of church closures across the United States, 94% of pastors believe their church will still be open in 10 years. Whereas in the 1940s nearly 85% of Americans claimed they belonged to a church, now that number is less than 50%. So what happens to these churches when they close? And what is the outcome for pastors as well as those who considered it their church home?
Episode Links
As Alexis mentioned at the top of the podcast, the decline in Christianity in America has been touched on in more than a handful of past episodes. If you've missed these conversations and would like to go back and listen to them, they include: CCP135: On Women Leaving the Church, CCP105: On Cultural Caricatures of the Christian Faith, CCP100: On Unchristian Christians, CCP94: On the Growing Lack of Confidence in Clergy, CCP32: On a Non-Christian America, and CCP15: On Denominational Decline.
If you are interested in looking at more of the data related to the number of church closings forecasted in the U.S. mentioned in today's conversation, as well as what's being done with houses of worship that have already closed, we'd encourage you to check out these two articles:
Yonat Shimron, “Study: More churches closing than opening,” Religion News Service
Mark Dent, “Can God fix America's housing crisis?" The Hustle
They also discussed how when churches close, it can leave a huge void in the wider community being served by the church. Dr. White mentioned a current case gaining attention where Christian pop artist Amy Grant is fighting to save a church that was founded by her grandfather from a local businessman. You can read more about that in the article by Cameron McWhirter in The Wall Street Journal HERE.
Finally, Dr. White very poignantly ended today's episode by reading a blog that is published annually at Church & Culture. It's titled “The Monday After Easter,” and is a blog written specifically to pastors who may be struggling with an underwhelming turnout on Easter Sunday despite all of their prayer, faith and efforts. If you'd like to read that blog, you can find it HERE.
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