‘Changing world, changing Church’ – Part 1

From February 22 to 26, the Jamaica Baptist Union held its 173rd general assembly. On the opening day, Dr Scott Thumma, professor of sociology of religion at Hartford International University gave the assembly lecture titled ‘Changing World – Changing Church’ inside the Boulevard Baptist Church, along Washington Boulevard in St Andrew.

The essence of his presentation was that while our cultures and social structures are vastly different, in some regards, our spiritual needs have remained similar and just as urgent, and “yet, while these spiritual needs and the God we serve remain constant, the Church itself must continue to adapt and evolve with society, if we are to reach new generations for Christ”, because the world has certainly changed over the past several years, and the COVID-19 pandemic is part of the catalyst for the change. He then went on to discuss a number of the trends that were well established prior to the pandemic, and suggested that the events of the past three years have amplified these trends and sped up the trajectory of these challenges.

He is informed by his new research in the US church context and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Though they are US church patterns, he said he saw these trends being replicated in Europe and Britain, and that there are similar patterns throughout the world, and he “would likely guess in Jamaica, as well”. He discussed four factors: secularising impulses – what is changing; congregational trends; COVID-19; and changing the Church, that underpinned the title of his lecture.

Driven by growing individualism and consumerism, he said, the world is becoming more secular. People are becoming less religious and more spiritual. “People are increasingly finding meaning and spiritual fulfilment outside of religious realities …. These changes have diminished the cultural pressure to raise children in a religious tradition, or to tie morality to a religious identity,” Dr Thumma said.

Therefore, since the mid-1990s, there has been an increase in the number of people who claim to have “no religious identity”. This has risen from approximately five per cent of the US population 35 years ago to over 30 per cent of Americans today. In addition, the younger generation is not getting married at greater rates, having fewer children, and living together out of wedlock. They are showing signs of greater stress, anxiety, and other emotional dysfunctions than previous generations. Also, technology and social media, poverty and crime are “diminishing the social fabric that holds our communities together”.

FAITHFUL CHURCH PARTICIPANTS

A declining youth population means that members and clergy are ageing, and “as the church is increasingly older, it is less appealling for those young folk interested in coming”. It also reflects that the average size of churches in the US “has decreased dramatically in the past 20 years”, and that “regular, faithful church participants are coming less frequently”.

Conversely, in the US since 2000, “the largest churches are getting larger, and increasing percentages of church participants are being concentrated into these largest churches. This concentrates not just people in these biggest churches, but also resources, facilities, interesting and diverse programmes, public attention, and the most attractive context for worship,” Dr Thumma pointed out.

As it relates to the impact of COVID-19 on attendance, some churches adapted, others reinvented themselves, and some stopped meeting or found other ways to get their spiritual needs met. The research shows that most churches in the US are roughly 30 per cent smaller in face-to-face worship than they were in early 2020. Eighty per cent of US churches are ‘hybrid’, and nearly 85 per cent of all congregations used streaming technologies.

At least 40 per cent of congregations have lost members to the virus. In mid-2021, it was estimated that over 300,000 church members died. However, almost all congregations experienced greater needs. And they responded to this with more efforts to meet those needs. At the same time, volunteering in churches decreased from 40 per cent of membership to just 15 per cent.

“So, the situation now is one of overworked pastors, with stressed, burned-out volunteers … . Therefore, in the US context, about 50 per cent of churches are in decline. However, roughly 25 per cent of churches have grown in the past two years,” Dr Thumma revealed.

To the declining churches, Dr Thumma encouraged them to follow the lead of the growing churches, which were “more spiritually vital”, whose pastors were “healthier”, and whose programmes were “more robust”. Churches must make alterations to their approaches if they are to reverse the trends that were apparent prior to 2020,” he said.

From the pandemic research, he found that churches need to experiment with hybrid worship, to start new ministries to reach the needs of younger generations, and to develop an intentional small-group ministry that strengthens the Church community. “It is almost as if every pastor needs to become an entrepreneurial church planter and woo people into fellowship with the re-gathered body of Christ, and seek out new avenues to influence the increasingly secular society around us,” he put forward.

Dr Thumma ended by putting the title of his lecture in perspective. The “changing world” is a fact, whether we accept/recognise it or not. However, the “changing Church” part “is the central conditional question for Christianity, for the Church, for us all at this moment. It is the option on the table, the imperative, the challenge,” Dr Thumma said.