Have American "Nones" Rejected the Sunday Service?/ Vince

The research in the book American Grace has been helpful to our discussion here on this blog, and it’s given us the useful term “nones” (those who check “none” as their religious affiliation). After a conversation sometime back with a close friend who is English and planting a church in London, I’m curious about one specific trend-in-question among “nones,” and wondering if any of the amazing, smart people on this blog have any insight, anecdotally or statistically.

My English friend believes that part and parcel to “nones” rejection of religion is rejection of the idea of going to a Sunday service. In planning for his church, he is operating with the assumption that “nones” for the most part won’t go to a Sunday service, so a Sunday service can’t be a church’s front door. Instead, he is trying to think creatively about different ways for his church to have a welcoming front door.

What interests me most is his assumption: by his experience and read on the culture around him, “nones” have rejected the Sunday service. Does that feel true here in the States? On the Northside of Chicago where I am? What about those folks in Cambridge or New York? I don’t know. From what I can tell reading “Blue Ocean Churches,” sounds like the Greater Boston Vineyard’s front door has always been their Sunday service, and if there is any church where “nones” feel at home it’s GBV, right?

One key difference that often comes up when comparing religious trends in England with that of the US is that the move away from religious affiliation in England has been in the context of a legacy of state-religion while the move away from religious affiliation in American has been in the context of a legacy of separation of church and state. Does that play a role here? I don’t really know. Maybe English and American “nones” are just different in this regard? At any rate, I think my friend raises an interesting discussion. Thoughts?

Comments

[steven hamilton]

I think this is a fairly important conversation, at least the conversations I have had around this subject have proven important to our little group who are going to urban Pittsburgh to cultivate a faith community. I recently blogged about my thoughts out of those conversations...

http://verveandverse.blogspot.com/2011/11/pitt-56-church-planter-interrupted.html

...and I have come away with the feeling that we need to expand our ideas and imaginations on "how to plant a church" and how we might seek to cultivate a faith community beyond the "how do we do church better?" question. As I mention, increasingly, we feel like one of the best metaphors for what we hear God calling us to do is the Jesuits. They were the missionaries and, I dunno, sort-of pre-church-planters of the Church back in the day. They would go into a community and set up "The Mission to Santa Cruz" - or be-that-as-it-may Pittsburgh! - and begin doing missional initiatives and compassionate ministry among the least and the lost. Now, did they "do church"? They certainly celebrated the sacraments, and they gathered for prayer and worship, right? But really they didn't focus on "doing church" nor were they Sunday-centric; they focused on mission and fostered a faith community, and let the church grow out of that...and eventually Rome would send an official priest to set up the "doing church" stuff way after it was all ready going on there, just not the emphasis. At least, that's where our little band of subversive missionaries to Pittsburgh is at...

[Ryan Bauers]

We've found this really true in our experience at Hillside Church in Duluth, MN. Granted, we are not in Western Europe or Boston, but the churchgoing percentage in our county is the lowest in our state at 16.9%. Among those who are part of our church who self-identify as previously non-churchgoing, we find that their attendance is about 1 in 4 Sundays at best. Sunday services are competing with late night parties on Saturday and Sunday mornings as a time to sleep in, go rock climbing or watch football.

I agree with Steve in that, moving forward, it would be wise and missional to engage with God and culture and figure out what "attending church" looks like in these settings. For sure, there are values that we can continue to hold to - corporate community building, worship and teaching among them - but we could expand the expression of these to better connect with cultural needs. I love the idea of thinking along these lines.

[Otto]

Rejected is a strong word. Maybe it's not personal, maybe the nones have simply renounced the habit (pun not even intended :)

[Vinceation]

My Catholic background affirms this pun

[Vinceation]

Steve and Ryan, your comments get me thinking that this is as recent a trend as can be discussed. Perhaps even the model of GBV can't speak much to this increasing reality as it was planted, what?, 15 years ago? Has a new generation of "nones" come of age in the past decade and a half that is further than ever from an expectation of regular Sunday service attendance because of "renounced habit" (as Otto termed it) or mere busyness (that definitely plays a role - otherwise interested young people just have too much going on already to add another good thing to their schedules)?
Dave S, I'm laying out the bait... thoughts?

[steven hamilton]

I think that's a great direction for this conversation, because when we wrestle with these 'facts', we are wrestling with the zeitgeists of our time, right? That is, individualism, consumerism, and the emergence of the 'virtual'-nature of connecting as primary for many perople (see trends in how many marriages are now of people whose 'meeting' came mediated through virtual online means, etc.). These larger trends, changes and issues are what we need to grapple with, even as we seek to connect more-and-more people with Jesus and each other...

[Wayde]

I think tradition still hold sway here in Co, people still set aside Sun am for God time. We helped build a 'Biker Church' that did very well with a sat nite rocknroll service, standing room only for every service. This helped a lot of nones replace bar time for God time. But we found that many of them still went to sun am service somewhere else and even split their offering between them and us. No matter how hard we tried to stop this and become their only church we couldn't. We also find that amongst the home church crowd the thing they miss the most is singing the common song, a good monologue, and a couple of hours of positive activity for their kids, just like a sun am service. We feel a great sat nite and a great sun am to be the best idea to provide options for the most people.

[Dan Mitchell]

I love what Wayde said about the Saturday night service. Speaking as a recent "convert," there is a certain amount of trepidation that people can feel about the idea of a Sunday service. I have had conversations with Ryan Bauers about Christianity having a negative image in the United States, due to people like those in the Westborough Baptist Church, and to the media exposure granted by their antics. As someone who wouldn't have stepped willingly into a church three months ago, let me offer this perspective - secular people are scared of churches! "We" (speaking in the past sense) are scared of Christians. Now, for myself, I love my Sunday service. It offers a boost I need every week, and I wouldn't want to skip one because of the things that Wayde mentioned - the monologue, the singing, my kid getting to play with other kids where none of them are likely to step on used needles lying around, all that stuff. It happens that Hillside ONLY has a Sunday service. But I can see a point where I might have been more willing to do church-type things if I had been "enticed" into them in a more secular setting.

And yet. . .

If we want to engage the "Nones," I'm not sure that changing what day of the week we hold service is going to be the fix. The larger problem is that Christianity, as a whole, has gained a bum rap. If people can be shown that Christ (and by extension, Christianity) has real, applicable value in their lives, then they will show up to service no matter the day of the week it is held on.

[steven hamilton]

Dan, I think your observation is brillitanly spot-on, especially in that Church is something more than a Sunday-service, and yet many have flattened church to being just that, in the same way that the "4 spiritual laws" flattened the good news. It's deeper and broader and higher than a morning gathering - however wonderful and deeply significant that gathering can be - and we would do well to explore and imagine other ground that we've perhaps forgotten or merely thought was an "add-on" to a Sunday-service.

[Dave Schmelzer]

Dave S, as per usual, has no deep thoughts on the subject. I'm not sure it's entirely analyzable except by experiment--which itself also won't prove anything, but could be fun on its own terms. It seems to me we have no idea how "nones" would want to be in a God setting; by definition they've removed themselves from that. While 13 1/2 years old, we do semi-frequent surveying, and we're getting more, not less, secular (our last metric asked for people who haven't attended a church before us for 4 years or more; the usual metric is 6 months [which we also look at]). So, for us at least, in recent history, we do get folks who haven't been churchgoers who are willing to come on a Sunday morning or evening. But we're still talking very small numbers on any meaningful scale...as anyone would be, who hadn't led a culture-wide revival among the nones. So, my feeling: go with your gut, try stuff, and report back.

[Ian]

I find this a fascinating topic for discussion as I compare the cultural and social similarities and differences of the US and the UK where I grew up in the Church of England.

IMO the UK and especially England is going through something of an identity crisis as the country searches for a forward-looking and inclusive identity which can take them forward into the 21st Century and beyond. Christianity there has been associated with episodes from the past which conventional social wisdom might wish to leave behind, and a polarisation is developing between those who wish to welcome new cultures and identity at the (apparent) expense of the old, and those who wish to preserve the historic cultural heritage of the country. I am especially curious about what a "centered set" approach to Christian faith might have to say to people who are living in this environment and with this underlying set of cultural assumptions.