The Unchurched Among Us

MANIFESTO

It's that time of year when my church tries to recruit people to serve on its myriad committees. For a variety of reasons, this hasn't been an easy task.

Primary among them, I think, is the fact that there just aren't a lot of people available. For more than a decade, attendance and membership have been dropping—even when we had a strong permanent pastor.

Recently, Ross Douthat blogged about the weakness of mainstream Protestantism, opining that the only Christian strongholds remaining are the Church of Rome and evangelical Christians. In my view, this is especially unfortunate as the Church of Rome still can't shake off its pederast reputation, and evangelical Christians are about as close-minded a group as can be imagined. Clearly, many unchurched don't find such institutions appealing.

It'd be nice if the UCC and other moribund denominations could get rid of their cowardice (E.g., they couldn't renounce the Rev. Jeremiah Wright fast enough.) and actually sound like they believe in something, but I don't see that happening any time soon. Unfortunately, the unchurched among us will remain that way until there's something for them to get excited about.