Perhaps our headline is a bit of a misleading question. In a country where churches are seen in almost every community, one can hardly say Christianity is dead.
A better question might be, “is Christianity dying?”
The general impression many people have might be “Yes”. We hear news of various churches closing their doors,1 and are aware of decreasing church attendance.2
Some people may be entirely indifferent to reports like these, but at least some students of society and culture note that parallel declines are observable in many volunteer ‘non-religious’ community organizations.
It is not just churches that are losing members. Fewer Canadians now belong to Boy Scouts, labour unions, political parties or service clubs such as Kiwanis or Rotary. Robert Putnam analyzed this North American trend in his book Bowling Alone. There has been not just a privatization of religion but a fragmentation of society.”3
Historian Gary Bowler of the University of Manitoba is cited discussing these declines in an article concerning the presence of social virtues such as “forgiveness, generosity, kindness and honesty”. He suggests there is a link between the decline of church attendance and social decline in general.
“There are gaping holes where the church used to be,” particularly in the inner city and suburbia, he said. The problem is not just the disappearance of churches, but also the disappearance of boy scouts and service clubs which used to teach the same values because “the leaders were the kinds of people who went to churches.”
There are no ready replacements for values training in other areas of our culture, as Bowler further notes:
It is difficult to see the media replacing the churches as a teacher of positive values, said Bowler, because contemporary music in particular often teaches values that are directly opposite to virtue. Television “seldom challenges traditional virtues but often subverts them,” by portraying fathers as “helpless boobs” for instance. Even in schools, said Bowler, “much of the day is used in promoting values that Christians are uncomfortable with.”
What should we make of all this? How does it apply to me, here in Victoria, BC?
Here in BC, according to statistics, church attendance is even lower than the national average. As a local pastor, talking to people in our town, I have found a widespread dismissal of the church, religion, or anything remotely considered “spiritual”. “It’s not relevant” seems to be the general consensus.
What have you observed? How many people do you know who actually attend a church on a regular basis? Look at your neighbourhood on a Sunday morning… Is there any movement in the driveways? How many people do you see up and about and heading to church? I suspect the numbers are very few, if any.
What kind of society will emerge from increasing fragmentation and a decline in values that produce volunteers for kids sports, scouting, cadets and other organizations? Do you think these are positive developments?
The solution, I should hasten to add, is not simply that our citizens decide to get up and go to church. Church attendance in and of itself is no magic activity that produces positive social values by itself. On the contrary, what we need is spiritual change that produces the values that show themselves in church attendance and in the other kinds of activities that promote community involvement and mutual support.
That will mean that individuals in our town are going to have to unplug the constant barrage of negative influence coming from the modern media, including music, television, and video games. They are going to have to make some serious assessments of their own spiritual condition. They are going to have to find answers in a sure moral authority that can transform their lives. Where should they look?
The Bible! And a Bible-preaching local church! Join a Bible study to investigate what the Bible has to say about the human condition. Find out how it really does apply to your individual life.
— Pastor Don
- see, for example, this notice of a church closing in Saskatoon, or a Montreal United Church blog that reports “Like most mainstream Protestant denominations, the United Church of Canada has seen dramatic drops in membership. There are now 3,400 United Church congregations; since 1996, the Church has lost about 460 parishes. The Church reports a membership of 558,000, down 21% since 1996.” [↩]
- see this StatsCan report, among others [↩]
- From The State of the Canadian Church – Part 1: A Nation of Believers? [↩]
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