Church Decline “Unprecedented”

In an article in “Theology Today,” Dean R. Hoge, a member of the Sociology Department of the Catholic University of America, writes about the decline of the churches. “The recent downturns in membership in many denominations are unprecedented in American history, indicating that something basic is happening in the churches and American society,” he says. “Whatever is causing present-day membership loss in mainline Protestantism is something new, and it was not present in American society in the 1940s and 1950s.”

Going into the matter further, he states: “From church data and nationwide survey data, it became clear that the decline in membership is . . . disproportionately a phenomenon of youth and young adults. In short, young adults are not coming into the churches in as fast a rate as in the 1950s. . . . The problem is a deep one, and it will continue.”

Could it be that the churches are not giving young people the kind of spiritual food and guidance from God’s Word, the Bible, that they need in these critical times?