Church ‘runs out of people’ after 166 years and closes for good

[SecularMotion]

DALLAS — For 166 years, they came to pray and sing, to see loved ones baptized and married, to grieve and console.

The congregation at Pleasant View Baptist Church wasn’t 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]

1. That's happening to a lot of churches

[mr_hat]

2. I hope the community has a replacement of sorts. n/t

[hrmjustin]

3. It Happens. Churchs dies and others are born.

It is the way of things.

[Warpy]

4. Younger folks got sucked in by glitzy megachurches

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]

8. That Crystal Cathedral that the Schuler guy used to preach in was bought by the Catholic Church..

I was out on the west coast recently near that thing, so I swung by to have a look at it.

[cbayer]

5. Evolve or die.

Many people, including a lot of young people, are looking for a different kind of church.

This one appears to have been stuck.

[trotsky]

18. And a lot of young people are leaving religion entirely. n/t

[TexasTowelie]

6. Could it be that the pastor's sermons were boring and irrelevant?

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]

7. The article says that younger families would come once but not return.

Clearly they did not evolve to meet the needs of a changing population.

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

9. Churches apparently struggle to appeal to youth

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]

10. How interesting that churches began to lose their popularity at the same time that

Republicans lost their political platform, where they were controlling people through fear tactics.

[PDittie]

16. I'm an atheist

and what you wrote is a non sequitur.

[Baitball Blogger]

17. If you're an atheist and writing on a Liberal website, I'm going

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]

19. Grew up in rural Texas

Church of Christ.

Go ahead and leap again. I'll watch.

[Baitball Blogger]

20. And you didn't pick up on the political overtures during the Bush years?

[cbayer]

21. Just an aside piece of information - Church of Christ tends to be quite

liberal/progressive, even in Texas.

[Baitball Blogger]

22. Well, that answers my question.

You haven't sat in on many right-wing leaning churches where politics and churches are inseparable in some locales.

[PDittie]

24. Nope. You're still mistaken.

As it relates to me, anyway.

[Baitball Blogger]

28. I agree that my position does not apply to Liberal minded churches.

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]

30. Please see response #29.

[PDittie]

23. Was not my experience at all

[cbayer]

25. Interesting. It really is considered one of the most liberal denominations out there, but

that doesn't mean all it's congregations are liberal.

[PDittie]

26. By whom?

[cbayer]

27. There are quite a few articles about which denomination is the most liberal, and the United Church

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]

29. My congregation was not affiliated with UCoC

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]

31. If your church was not affiliated with UCC, then it is a whole different animal.

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]

32. No offense taken.

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]

33. Sorry about that. I did not realize that there were two separate groups here.

Did not mean to confuse the situation.

[eShirl]

11. How about an entire sect nearly run out of people

There's only three Shakers left. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakers#Modern-day_Shakers

[cbayer]

12. OMG! I had no idea.

I hope they do something in that town to recognize the culture once it is gone.

[Squinch]

13. Well... prohibiting sex is a tad shortsighted for any church.

[longship]

14. Celibacy for the clergy is one thing.

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]

15. The same fate overtook the Marcionites, which as we all remember were the main sort of Christians

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.