More evidence of our cosmic ignorance: 1-23/24-16
Unpacking Lamar Hunt Jr.'s faith: 1-26-16

When rural churches disappear: 1-25-16

The shrinking of Mainline Protestant churches is, by now, an old story -- dating at least to the 1960s. And most of the attention to this phenomenon goes to urban areas -- especially old, large downtown churches that have emptied out as the post-war move to the suburbs gained steam.

Rural-churchBut the picture is more complicated than that. Rural America is experiencing difficult losses because of this trend, too.

This intriguing story focuses on churches across rural Iowa. (Rural Iowa sounds redundant, doesn't it?)

As the story reports, "According to the Association of Religious Data Archives, between 1990 and 2010, Iowa lost over 500 congregations. Contributing to this statistic is the fact that, between 2000 and 2010, 10 percent fewer people identified within a community of faith. . .And with this shift, the very nature of Iowa is changing."

I have friends -- a pastor and his wife -- who served churches in Iowa for quite a long time. When I passed this story on to them, the wife offered some interesting thoughts that sort of personalize the story.

For a time, they lived in Lenox, Iowa, and she mentioned that experience in her note back to me:

"The experience in Lenox was truly wonderful. Very friendly, helpful people. Lots of neighboring going on. Each church in town had an annual fundraiser meal and everybody supported each other’s event. Working together on those big meals really brought women together. Of course, men helped, too, in various ways. At the Catholic Church’s meal it was the men who grilled all those half chickens. And whenever folks needed help digging out of a big snow or needed a chainsaw to remove tree limbs downed by ice or help cleaning up after a tornado, everyone who could helped in some way. And, it was not uncommon for farmers to help plant/harvest on a farm when its owner was not able to do so. This article brought back lots of memories for me."

The challenge for rural churches is to find ways to engage their communities as members of them become less religious. Rural residents, including those in small town scattered across the Great Plains, have all kinds of needs that faith communities can and should help meet. But it won't happen by resisting change and simply complaining that things aren't like they used to be.

(The photo here today came from this Pinterest page.)

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POPE FRANCIS SAYS NO TO GAY MARRIAGE

I've been critical of the Anglican Communion here and here for punishing the Episcopal Church over policies relating to LGBTQ folks. Now it's time to be equally critical of the Catholic Church for similar reasons. Pope Francis just spoke out against same-sex marriage the other day as Italy decides whether to recognize such unions. As with the Anglican Communion, the Catholic Church one day almost certainly will change its mind about this, but it won't happen soon.

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