Decline And Decline Of The Early Church Attendance

The process by which Scripture has been preserved and compiled is one whose history is worth noting. The early church had many opportunities to share the Good News of Christ via word of mouth, but from the time of Christ’s resurrection until the mid-second century, there had not been a single culmination of writings considered to be essential for the purposes of

In the Introduction section of the book, The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Israel Galindo states that a congregation is a “corporate relationship organization” (3) and is not an organization. He points out that the hidden life of a congregation would depict the “nature” of a congregation. This further identifies the relationships and faith of the congregation. According to him, the universal principles are followed by the congregations so that “systemic relationships” can work. The leaders learn the roles that they have within the people who are the congregation. The journal will focus on Dr. Fowler’s question “what is the purpose of this gathering we call the church?”

Towards the end of the Middle Ages and into the duration of the Renaissance, the Medieval Church’s social and political power dwindled. Centuries prior the Catholic Church gained a surplus of control, largely due to the stability it maintained during the chaotic breakdown of the Western Roman Empire . Yet toward the end of the Middle Ages the Church set in motion factors that would ultimately lead to its downfall as the definitive figure of authority. However, despite political and social controversy surrounding the church, the institutions it established cleared a path for a new way of thinking, shaping society in an enduring way.

A church whose pastor and others in leadership have failed to put in place a proactive plan for discipleship for Believers is usually a “growing” church — growing stagnant, growing cold, growing spiritually immature Christians, and eventually, many growing closed. Patte said, “There is much at stake in accepting or rejecting the challenge of discipleship…” When a pastor or a church makes a conscious decision to make discipleship of Believers a primary focus in their

These surveys show that church leaders have a great challenge ahead of them in order to prevent people from leaving church. They have to be more effective and have to think of creative ways to retain people in the churches.

In Chapter 1, Bibby claims there are two reasons for the decline of weekly churchgoers. The first reason was because of a shift in immigration patterns, and secondly was the change of mindset of religion led by the baby boomer generation (p. 14). In the immigration patterns area, Bibby explains that Protestant religion has been losing its so-called immigration pipeline (immigrants from other countries whom are Protestant coming over), therefore number of newcomers has declined. In reference to the baby boomer generation, described in Chapter 2, Bibby explains it simply: “by the 1970s the number of active members who were dying out numbered the people who were taking their places” (p.15). As pipeline was going down, birth rates were too, and then with rise of baby boomers stakes were even higher for decline in religion. Baby boomers in the 60s brought with it four cultural trends: From Dominance to Diversity, From Obligation to Gratification, deference to discernment, and from homes to careers (p. 18-28). All four of these trends helped to significantly reshape religion. The aftermath on a positive note,

In the past couple of decades the rise in non-denominational churches has been increasing greatly and are said to be the second largest group of Protestants (Moore, 2011). It is said that most that break off and become apart of this fast growing belief come from a protestant upbringing. The study shows that more people are determining on where to worship by how they like the nursery, if the worship music is good, is it close to home, rather than I am a Catholic I need to go to a Catholic Church. As of 2010, four percent of Americans fall into this non-denominational group (Thumma, 2010).

The decline in religion across America is most likely related to the increase inIndividualism, among many Americans in the 21st century. “The decline in religions practice has gone down 29% from the Silent generation to the younger Millennial” (Decline of mainline Protestantism and Catholicism). Many argue that culture influences, portioning to college and other environments, would be the greatest factor in the big question as to why Americas on a religious decline. However Individualism seems to be the greatest contributing factor. Individualism highlights selfish motives, only caring about ones self, and laziness. All things that religious believes takes away from a individual.

Simple things like going to work and school and just pure laziness have overtaken the importance of going to religious services. According to the website Oxford Research Encyclopedia it said, “In the post–World War II era, religious contexts supported the emergence of the modern Civil Rights movement.” This explains that after the war religion was very prompt in a family of this period and it lead to a Civil Rights movement which would ultimately end segregation. Now according to a study on 8th grade students they said that only 35% of the students go to religious services frequently and the rest of the students either go sometimes, on holidays, or not at all. This evidence proves how students and families used to go to religious services much more in the 1950’s than they do now.

The author discovered four major factors that church growth in the North American Division tremendously. First factor is empowering servant leadership. In this section, the leaders work hard and they are willing to make sacrifice in the purpose to see a growing church. The second one is passionate and authentic spirituality they believe that it is spirituality that is the source of passion of passion and power behind their effectiveness. The third point is about how their members are committed to get involved in different activity. Some churches they not growing because they expect their pastors to do all the duties of the church. The fourth factor about a growing church is God exalting worship. Worship is one of key factor for church growth.

By The Middle Ages, one understands a relatively long historical period extending from the end of the Roman Empire to the 1500's. The conquest of The Roman Empire by Germanic tribes, and synthesis of Germanic and Roman ways of life formed the civilization which we call medieval (medieval-from Latin words; medium (middle) and aevum (age)). Medieval civilization was greatly influenced by the Muslims in Spain and The Middle East, and by Byzantine Empire and Christians in Southeast Europe.

Over the past years of my life I have seen many changes, some for the good and others not as good. Change can be demanding and also crucial. The early believers would encounter this. One can see that significant change happened, when reading through the gospels and the book of acts it is obvious to the reader that the believers who followed Jesus would never be the same again.

A sentiment common to almost any organization is that the one fact that remains constant is change. As society changes, and human understanding grows, any organization that maintains a static posture, assures its demise. Churches and Christian organizations are no exception. The gospel may remain the same, but the method for communicating it must speak to the audience to assure understanding. The Christian leader must be prepared to meet this challenge by incorporating an effective model for change into his theology of leadership in order to keep the ministry relevant and effective. Searching for such a change agent can prove to be challenging as well. To aid in this search, four

Pope Francis was encountered with a church experiencing loss of client involvement, reduction in attendance, and in some marketplaces adverse business development. There

In his book, Sustainable Youth Ministry, DeVries discusses the ways in which many youth ministries fail and the ways that the church can battle such things. His discussion on climate control reminded me that, without the right culture of growth, ministry can become stagnant and focused on the wrong things. In addition, I felt DeVries topic on emotional health truly complimented Fields discussion on checking the hearts motives. Together, both DeVries and Fields revealed to me the importance of taking care of ones spiritual health in the process of trying to cultivate the spiritual health of others. Finally, DeVries tips on how to handle church politics helped me understand how to deal with something that I, honestly, had never before considered