Religion
Related: About this forumChurch ‘runs out of people’ after 166 years and closes for good
The congregation at Pleasant View Baptist Church wasnt the biggest or best known in the buckle of the Bible Belt. But it was a constant presence until earlier this year, when the doors closed quietly and without ceremony for the last time.
The church just ran out of people, pastor Bob Hendley, who is overseeing the shutdown, told The Dallas Morning News.
http://www.trivalleycentral.com/casa_grande_dispatch/national_news/church-runs-out-of-people-after-years-and-closes-for/article_6ba89ac8-22d6-11e3-9938-0019bb2963f4.html
gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)mr_hat
(3,410 posts)hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)It is the way of things.
Warpy
(111,367 posts)I had a coworker like that. She told me one Sunday night that she just hadn't felt like traveling to the megachurch that morning and had gone to a small neighborhood church instead.
She said it felt like coming home.
I don't think she ever went back to the megachurch.
However, most of them, like people, have life cycles. Eventually they become old and shabby and it's time to die. Still, I think there are probably a lot of adults who went there as children who won't have any place to go home to.
MADem
(135,425 posts)I was out on the west coast recently near that thing, so I swung by to have a look at it.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)Many people, including a lot of young people, are looking for a different kind of church.
This one appears to have been stuck.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)TexasTowelie
(112,492 posts)The Baptist church that I grew up in as a kid had its own peaks and valleys as far as attendance was concerned. Bringing in the Aggie jokes, the puppet ministry, ventriloquist dummies, and canned music drove many members away and it probably scared visitors also.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)Clearly they did not evolve to meet the needs of a changing population.
MyshkinCommaPrince
(611 posts)My stepfather was a Methodist minister. His primary occupation seemed to be endlessly trying to "grow" the church. He used to come home and rant about being caught between a congregation which resisted change and growth and the district superintendent and conference, which demanded that the church increase membership and income. Very little of his time seemed to be dedicated toward faith or religion, good works, charity, helping others, community events, or any of that. Everything seemed to be about the business aspect, trying to increase membership and profits. The church was steadily losing ground, relying increasingly on donations from a few of its older and more affluent members, a group which was slowly dying off or losing money with the bad economy. All of this in a very religious region in a very religious state. He served at three churches during this period when I knew him, and all three had the same basic troubles. The second of the three was doing much worse than the others and apparently shut down not long after my stepfather was transferred to another location.
It seemed to be a common problem, based on things he said over the years. He used to talk about the entire regional conference being in a crisis state because of the widespread problem.
Baitball Blogger
(46,765 posts)Republicans lost their political platform, where they were controlling people through fear tactics.
PDittie
(8,322 posts)and what you wrote is a non sequitur.
Baitball Blogger
(46,765 posts)to take a leap of faith and say that you haven't sat in on many right-wing leaning churches. Politics and churches are inseparable in some locales.
PDittie
(8,322 posts)Church of Christ.
Go ahead and leap again. I'll watch.
Baitball Blogger
(46,765 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)liberal/progressive, even in Texas.
Baitball Blogger
(46,765 posts)You haven't sat in on many right-wing leaning churches where politics and churches are inseparable in some locales.
PDittie
(8,322 posts)As it relates to me, anyway.
Baitball Blogger
(46,765 posts)I live in a Republican city where I could see the political jargon on their billboards during the height to the call for war.
PDittie
(8,322 posts)PDittie
(8,322 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)that doesn't mean all it's congregations are liberal.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)of Christ is almost always in the top 3 or so.
If you google search "most liberal progressive protestant denominations" you will see a lot of material on this subject.
There is historical information as well as information about more recent actions or initiatives.
Again, you may have been part of a congregation outside the norm, but there is definitely a history of liberal action on issues of social justice and civil rights that even goes back to US slavery.
PDittie
(8,322 posts)So there's one distinction.
You probably could have provided research to promote your contention, rather than suggest that I Google.
And for the record, my little church threw rocks at the Baptists for allowing musical accompaniment (we had no piano, no organ and for a choir member in high school, the pitch was so hideous at times I had to leave the sanctuary). They also considered the pope a false God. Apparently the four or five other CoC's I attended during my teenage years were not affiliated with United, either.
So forgive me for contending that your (suggested) Google research does not trump my first-hand experience in multiple congregations over a decade. Bu thanks anyway.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)I was not challenging your experience, just pointing out this denominations history.
Sounds like your sect is radically different that UCC.
No need for the sarcasm, PDittie. My post was not meant to offend you.
PDittie
(8,322 posts)It was just a rather odd exchange, wherein Bait made a claim I found to be a non sequitur, which you came to the defense of (and led him to believe he was accurate) with assertions that were both false (in my experience) and unsupported (by you).
Just one of the more ridiculous, circular conversations I have had on here lately. Pardon me; I probably need to log off again for a month or two.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)Did not mean to confuse the situation.
eShirl
(18,505 posts)There's only three Shakers left. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakers#Modern-day_Shakers
cbayer
(146,218 posts)I hope they do something in that town to recognize the culture once it is gone.
Squinch
(51,025 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)But the Shakers advocate celibacy for everybody. Kind of screws them right there. No kiddie Sunday School in a Shaker church.
This might come from the early Christian celibate churches who adopted the practice because Jesus' pronouncements that he would return soon. If the world is going to be replaced by a new Godly one, why procreate?
Sadly, people have been predicting the parousia for two thousand years, at least.
I am not sure of the Shakers, but I'll bet that they're waiting for the parousia.
dimbear
(6,271 posts)around the year 150 CE. They are remembered today for inventing the New Testament and for the first known written engraved inscription which mentions Jesus.
How different history would be if Marcion had told his flocks to increase.