Following a recent study which looked at religion in America, several local church leaders met for a round table discussion to express their views about how Pickens County compares to the changing religious landscape across the country and how churches here are meeting the needs of their parishioners.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently published a report stating more than a quarter of American adults have left the faith of their childhood in favor of another religion – or no religion at all.
The report says, “if change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, around 44% of American adults have switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition at all.”
According to discussion with pastors and religious leaders here, that sharply contrasts with what they see happening within our county.
"In our church, and I think every church has its own personality, we see a great proportion of our children remain at our church and who are still there as adults," said the Rev. Ben Langley, who recently retired from serving as pastor at Mount Zion Baptist Church.
Langley said Mount Zion has grown over the past six years by 8 to 12 percent each year in membership and attendance. Mount Zion was established 35 years ago.
The Rev. Charles Walker, former pastor of Jasper's First Baptist Church, said he feels children who are brought up in church will remain church-goers but may seek out a different church from their childhood.
"People are going to go to the church that will meet their needs, and those needs may change over time," Walker said.
Walker pointed out there are approximately 29 denominations here, but the most predominant is the Baptist faith, boasting eight different types of churches.
"I came here in 1960, and there were around 8,500 people in the county, and the majority of those were country Baptists, but that is changing today," Walker said.
“Baptists have always reached out to have people baptized,” he said, “and our churches over the years have divided
Continued on page 19A
and multiplied. We have gone into a variety of churches. The two strongest churches will be the Southern Baptist group and the World Baptist Fellowship. Both of these organizations are very organized, and they want their churches to be very organized.”
In America, Protestants make up 51 percent of the population, a figure that is diminishing, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's recent report.
The report says that “the Protestant population is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, encompassing hundreds of different denominations loosely grouped around three fairly distinct religious traditions - evangelical Protestant churches (26.3% of the overall adult population), mainline Protestant churches (18.1%) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9%).”
Southern states, according to the report, have a higher concentration of Protestantism than other places around the country. In the South, a full 71% of church-goers are members of the Protestant faith. According to the report, 23% are members of evangelical Protestant churches, 29% are members of mainline Protestant churches and 19% attend historically black Protestant churches.
There are about half as many Catholics in the United States as Protestants, the study found.
Across the nation, the Pew Forum report found, 16% of adults are unaffiliated with any religious tradition––more than double the number who said they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Of those, 1.6% said they are atheist. Another 2.4% are agnostic. Among adults ages 18-29, one-in-four said they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.
In contrast to the national report, area leaders say they find children stay with the religion of their childhood, many with the same church but some seeking different churches within the same religion.
"All my time has been spent with youth and teen ministry," said Steve Lowe, director of the Joy House, a Christian place for teens where they are counseled and led into Christianity. "I found in the early ‘90’s when I started that kids are hungry for the truth."
Lowe said many teens he has worked with have stayed with their religion––one going on to become a preacher, one serving as a missionary and others still active in church life.
"I think the whole problem is the breakdown of the family," Lowe said. "With 50 percent of marriages ending in divorce, that has a huge impact on the breakdown of family and kids."
Others agreed, saying a successful church ministers to the entire family and helps individuals find their own personal relationship with God and Christ.
"You just can't have a children's ministry or a ministry for the elderly," Langley said. "We try to meet everyone's needs at Mount Zion. One of the problems in Pickens County is that a lot of the churches had nothing for the children, teenagers or young adults. The church that ministers to the entire family is a church that will grow. When you make it a family affair, those children are more likely to stay in church than those who are just sporadic in attendance. I think that's really the key."
Everyone agreed that one of the greatest problems in America today, especially as it pertains to religion, is the high divorce rate and the disintegration of the family and the values they typically foster.
"To me it really is a blessing to see young people in church," said Georgia Marie Cagle, a member of the First Baptist Church of Jasper. "The core of what we see as problems today is the fact that we have had a gradual decline.
“It's been slow, but little by little, we've just said that this is OK and that is OK. When I was growing up, it was not OK. The church has suffered because of the decline of parenting. The community has suffered, and the schools have suffered. We have fallen short. We can plan all the programs in the world, but we have got to have better parenting."
In the case of divorce, many of the leaders interviewed said when parents get divorced they are torn between wanting to teach their children and wanting to please children by being lenient. Churches that “turn members out” when they are divorced do a disservice to those families, especially the children, group members said.
Walker said, "In the country churches, the moment you get a divorce you are turned out of the church. When they turn that mama and daddy out, they are turning their children out as well. They will never go to church."
Others agreed, saying many churches fail to help families in promoting and teaching proper parenting. Children who see their parents kicked off church rolls for getting divorced are wounded and alienated from the church, group members asserted.
"It's all biblical," said Langley. "I feel like because in some churches they got to the point they were more interested in being politically correct and not offending anyone. One church will never satisfy everyone. I believe the whole Bible ought to be taught, and a great part of that is how to raise children, how to be a parent. Discipline is something. In order for children to absorb self-discipline it has to be exercised."
Lowe said 80 percent of the teens he ministers to at the Joy House come from divorced homes.
People leave churches for other reasons as well, the group said, including not understanding what their church believes.
"Many people leave church because you are not allowed to ask questions about what the beliefs are," said the Rev. Mary Johnson, Rector of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Family. "We need to teach people that God is not out of bounds. We may not always have answers to specific questions, but those questions should be encouraged, and they may be asked."
Lowe, a member of Talking Rock Baptist Church, said his church has changed somewhat over the years. His own personal experience growing up was of not understanding much about the Bible’s true teachings.
"When I came to Christ when I was young, there was no teaching about what it meant," Lowe said. "When I turned 17, God brought a couple into the church, and they gave me a passion, and I learned then what it meant to follow God. I found out what the truth was.
“It wasn't based on experience. I learned what the Bible taught and said. We're more of a New Testament church now. There's something for everybody. The teaching there is biblically based. That wasn't part of my experience growing up. The problem around here is there's Biblical ignorance. People don't know what the Bible says and how to apply it."
Langley agreed, saying he teaches a class four times a year at Mount Zion detailing what the church believes and why.
"I tell them it's as important to know why you believe something as it is to know you believe it," he said. "A lot of teaching in this area is not biblically based. It's based on 'Uncle John said it's like this'.
“As young people grow, they come to the place in life where they are more willing to listen, and they are no longer satisfied with being told, 'Well this is just what we believe'. I have young adults in my church whose parents grew up in country Baptist churches, and these people are very active and strong Christians, and many times we'll be discussing something from the Bible, and they'll say they've never heard that as a child."
Lowe said he feels to truly draw people and children to a life devoted to Christ, one needs to first show it in their own life.
"There's a lot of religion around here, but what kids are looking for is reality in a relationship with God," he said. "If you're real in your relationship with God, and it affects your day to day living, that's what they need to see. When Jesus walked around, he made a difference in people's lives. People want to know that you care before they want to know what you know. They want to have a real relationship with God."
Johnson said there are people so infectious about their attitude about God that you just want to be around them and learn.
"Every cell of their being is gratitude to God. If we can make that kind of a central part of what we're doing as Christian leaders, people will be drawn to that," she said.
Cagle said one problem she sees is that many people are cut off from major religions.
“All they know is pop religion,” she said. “The church has not found a way to contact and connect with these people. Fewer people know what they believe and why they believe it, and many are largely ignorant of basic Christian beliefs. Like Jesus, we need to give them a chance on their own turf.”
Johnson pointed out that Jesus was timely in the change he put forth, and churches need to do the same.
"Nothing's going to change about the message from John 3:16," she said. "That sin messes up lives is not going to change. People need to know there's a fix for things.
“We ought to be more generous people, kinder people, people who are more fun to be around. God gives us a way to change things for the next generation. We can teach our children and grandchildren correctly in the ways of God. Even very small kids can learn. The church can really be an anchor for kids."
Who attends church?
Perhaps the largest group of church attendees in the county is the 50 and older group, baby boomers who grew up here or moved in. Walker estimated that 60 percent of the congregation at the First Baptist Church is over 50, and Juanita Tatum, director of children’s programs at Jasper United Methodist Church, said her church has similar numbers.
Jasper First Baptist has a membership of 821 and the Jasper United Methodist Church has approximately 850 members.
Tatum said she sees children who grow up in the church leave for some time after high school or college and then return a few years later to rear their own children in church.
Langley said Mount Zion differs from those two churches with around 60 percent of its parishioners under 50. Mount Zion, Langley said, has 150-175 children attend Wednesday evening activities and between 400-450 people who participate in Sunday services where three children's churches are offered. Lowe said Talking Rock First Baptist has around 20 percent of its members who are 50 and older and around 30 percent who are 30 and under. Lowe said a typical Sunday morning brings 100 to 120 people to that church.
Although she didn't cite specific numbers, Rev. Johnson said the Episcopal Church is seeing a movement towards a younger congregation. Her church now offers two Sunday school classes and a nursery. Their next growth area, she said, will be for kids above sixth grade.
|
|
