If church membership or even attendance is not required for salvation and eternity in Heaven, is it really necessary? More and more people are opting out of church connection according to recent statistics. Let’s look at the generational trends in church participation and whether it makes any difference.
Almost every church denomination has experienced a significant decline in church attendance as a result of COVID-19. Apparently, when most churches were closed for months in 2020, many worshippers became comfortable with online services and church connections. When services resumed at church facilities, some chose to continue watching from home. Others simply got out of the habit and never returned to regular attendance. However, long before COVID, church membership and attendance were steadily declining.
Waning interest in the church seems to be a generational thing. Among baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964, 58% are members of a local church. Just 50% of Generation X people born from 1965 to 1980 belong to a church. Millennials from the 1981 to 1996 years have only 36% declaring church membership. Finally, fewer than 35% of Generation Z people rising out of 1997 to 2012 are identifying with churches as they reach adulthood.
In 2014, 3700 protestant churches in America closed, but 4000 new churches were established for a net gain of 300. But in 2019, 4500 churches closed, while only 3,000 opened with a net loss of 1500 churches. Our country has seen a steady loss in numbers of churches, church members, and church attendance since 2019.
There is a direct correlation between the decline of the church and the corruption and savagery of our nation and world. Many are decrying our condition while contributing to it by making church a minimal priority. Our society will not improve unless we turn back to honoring God and His church.
Although church is decreasing in importance to Americans, it is just as important as it ever was to God. His establishment, expectation, and empowerment of the church is crystal clear in His Word. In the Old Testament, He chose to relate to His people through gatherings at the tabernacle and the temple. Jesus’s very first recorded encounter with others as a teacher was in the temple (Luke 2). Later, he often taught in the synagogues. Hebrews 10:25 says, “…not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another–and all the more as you see the Day (time of His coming again) approaching.” God’s plan for living out the Christian life through worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission is meant to be done together as a church. To reject the church is to reject God’s process for His work on this earth and association among His people.
Most of the New Testament is about starting, operating, and growing churches for the fulfillment of Jesus’s teachings. Those first-century churches had problems like churches today, because all their members were flawed as members are today. Yet, the church was and still is the Lord’s only concept for following Him. Christianity is not a private or individual faith. According to the Bible, it is a community of faith shared and lived with others. If you have become slack in your attendance and support of your local church, I encourage you to accept God’s invitation to join Him and His guests at His house this week.
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