Insight, Church Decline, and Dishwashing

William Ramier wrote
at 7:32pm
There was an article in the last Anglican Journal, by Canon Harold Munn, that I think hit the nail on the head. I want to share some of that with you here:

He starts off by telling us a story about a little girl who says, "'My mom said she was so tired, and my dad said he couldn't take it anymore, they were washing the dishes, and that's when they yelled at each other. And if I'd done the dishes, it wouldn't have happened. I'll wash the dishes every night. Maybe they'll get back together.' And she is serious." He says that "the church is treated like one more marginal form of entertainment for the few who like that sort of thing, and churchgoing is no longer a social norm."

How do we respond? According to Canon Munn, "like the child, the church responds to the crisis with self-blame. We declare that the precipitous decline of churchgoing is out fault."

What do we do about it? "So we search desperately for a solution that we can implement. We need to be more friendly. We need to be more modern. We need to be less modern. We need guitars. We need an organ. We need a different style of leader. We need to be more radical. We need to be more conservative. We need to re-organize. We need to work twice as hard. Then it will get better and people will flock back. But that's the church's version of hoping that more dishwashing will bring your parents back together."

"The truth is society has moved on to other interests on the weekend."

How insightful. What a great article.