Reply to If you were a regular church-goer before the pandemic, how do you feel about returning to church?

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "If you were a regular church-goer before the pandemic, how do you feel about returning to church?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our (very tiny) church has been back in person a few months now. A lot of people haven’t returned to in person at all. It’s a weird space to be between restrictions and normalcy. Our habits of social distancing are hard to break, but there’s also this excitement of normalcy. We are looking forward to our small groups resuming in person and social events. A lot of new people have been coming but mostly people who moved to the area during covid. We just dropped the mask requirement (the building we rent required us to stay masked). I think there’s a sense of joy to be back and be with people rather than a feeling of obligation. People come back to church now because they missed it, not so much because of guilt. I think you’ll see a bigger influx back in the fall. [/quote]

I predict that the sense of joy at being together will wane and that church attendance will drop in the fall.   We shall see.[/quote]

Traditionally there are three times a year when people will check out or return to church—New Year’s (resolutions), Easter, and back to school season. If you ever see a new church launching they are nearly all launching around one of those times. I’m not sure we’ll see an influx of non-believers exploring church, but people who are hesitant to go back may be motivated by one of those three times. But you’re right, we shall see![/quote]

I went to a neighborhood Catholic church once at Easter.  It was packed and the priest sarcastically remarked on the crowd in his sermon.  I and my fellow lapsed Catholic friend left during communion.[/quote]

I think every pastor in ever church tosses that line into Christmas and Easter services. The pandemic made our family realize that we don't like our new pastor much and that church was turning into an obligation. We aren't going back. I expect our particular church to go under, really a terrible time to have a long term beloved pastor retire compounded by a bad fit replacement which lead to an almost equally loved associate pastor fleeing. That plus the pandemic closing services and giving people a break from routine is going to be too much. Some of our friends have started attending other churches, but a lot have just started to enjoy Sunday mornings  [/quote]

Many pastors do toss that in. It’s more of a joking way to say hey, if you like us during Christmas and Easter, we are here all the time.

Also, when a beloved and longtime pastor retires or passes away, the new pastor is usually younger and less experienced, and it seems odd to older people that this young person is the pastor. Or something like that. People are used to and have grown to love their pastor and the new guy doesn’t fit the bill. When our pastor died, he was replaced by a very young man that many in our church didn’t click with. A few people left, but most stayed. It seems strange to 60/70/80 year olds that a 20 something is instructing them. There was a movement w/i the church to not vote to keep him, but the older and more influential parishioners contacted those who were unhappy and urged them to vote to keep the new pastor. I don’t know their reasoning, but he ended up staying.

My favorite pastor of all time was a younger man that had a lovely wife and 4 kids. He really was a caring man, and it seemed he was the perfect fit. Our longtime pastor had died. The new pastor came in and even the elderly contingent of female widows were happy with the new guy. Unfortunately, his wife had an affair with a male parishioner and ended up leaving her husband and abandoned her 4 young kids in the process. Although the pastor stayed the course, the hierarchy within the church decided to move him and the kids to a different church because of the issue. It was probably deeply humiliating and hurtful to this poor man. To his immense credit, he never lost a step publicly in his duties to his church or publicly wavered in his faith.

One good thing about church is you can choose. My deeply deeply traditional southern Baptist aunt occasionally attends church at a specific United Methodist church because she loves their pastor’s sermons. She says he is her favorite pastor, and even though she will never leave the church she has attended for 6 decades, some Sundays she wants to hear the UM pastor.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics