Experts project an estimated 100,000 churches in the US will close or be repurposed over the next decade.
Many churches will be unable to escape this “tsunami” of closings — a grim trajectory one pastor described as, “Every year the pews are getting emptier and the collection plates getting lighter.”
They didn’t follow their own texts (apparently this Jesús guy is too liberal). Were too selfish and cowardice to call out their own for literal monstrous acts. Judged and played god for political gains. Protected the powerful at the expense of the weak. All while crying victimhood and intentionally trying to bring about armageddon.
Action meet consequence. No one wants to be in a canabalistic death cult except fascists and they aren’t going to give you money. They are going to rob you.
If only I was confident enough in America to believe it was the Christian Nationalists tending towards closing down.
Maybe don’t let a crazy regime appropriate your religion for their use to dominate the world?
In Amsterdam, there’s a very nice old church that has been converted to a leather club.
Near my house in England, there’s a big church hall that was sold off by the church and is now still a community center, but with a couple professional offices in part of the building. The building now seems far less derelict (the church hadn’t been giving it the level of maintenance it needed) and it’s being used much more as a result.
The problem is america doesn’t have nice churches
I don’t think The Church was a church before, but maybe you’re talking about a different one?
is it a nice leather club?
The guys standing outside were definitely sporting plenty of leather. They looked like they were having a good time. It’s not my scene so I can’t vouch for what goes on inside. I also don’t know if the leather thing was a one-night-a-week theme or if it’s always on.
Anyway, I just looked it up. It’s called Club Church and, appropriately enough, it’s on Kerkstraat (Church Street) in the city center. If you ever drop in, please come back to share your experiences.
Less churches = less pastors (especially youth pastors) = less children being raped. At least i hope that’s how the math works out.
If the rapists are still at large, they’ll find other opportunities. That’s unlikely to improve the statistics.
Except at churches the parents bring the children to the rapists, often don’t believe the children, and the entire organization will then protect the rapists and ostracize the victims and their family.
So certainly less cushy and safe hunting grounds.
Always time to become a Scout Leader!
I would say “good”, but I’m sure this will somehow not affect megachurches
Yea this was my first thought.
Anecdotally, in my area (rural, 25ish miles from a mid city) many of the old-school but liberal-ish protestant denominations seem to be withering… Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist etc.
The storefront Baptists are doing just okay, and the metal-shed-building mega or wannabe mega are booming. New Life etc
This is not a particularly great trend imo.
The ongoing schism in the Episcopal church, also not great.
It’ll probably increase attendance at (and payments to) the megachurches as the smaller community churches close and people who can’t face life without a church look for a new place to go.
Waow church capitalism
I keep thinking about all that property and buildings already there and people being hungry for third spaces and how I could start some kind of movement that was like open source for software but something for third spaces and done as non-profit.
Something that could host things like makerspaces, quilting groups, book exchanges, swap meets, reading clubs, game day/nights, still rent out for meetups and even weddings/wakes, things like that.
Seems to me that people are dying for third spaces that don’t involve having to cough up money just to be somewhere that is not home, school, or work.
And many people don’t want to be involved in a church per se.
I mean, churches already can do this.
Instead of being the boring place you have to go on Sunday, they’d do what you’re talking about.
Who wants fellowship in the most uncomfortable setting there is?
Cool it with all the pious bullshit, unpucker ye olde asshole and maybe some people might drop in. I cannot think of a more obsolete entity than the current church. Boring, stodgy, judgy, unpleasant. Big fucking surprise nobody is interested.
I think it’d be incredibly hard to have them revamp things from the inside. Suppose a pastor/minister/preacher wants to do something like that and subtract the “branding” of churches being really boring, stodgy, and often problematic (pedos)? Might be really tough to pull that off, and they’d still be a church in the end. I think most people would still nope out.
I’m thinking of using the same locations and turning them into some kind of super community center. Maybe even combine it with low-cost daycare and being a nexus of after-school activities. It’s mostly just a pipe dream, but honestly, I think the right kind of effort/people doing this could have this sweep the nation, under some kind of commonly-recognized naming/branding.
Especially after social media, Covid lockups, AI psychosis, etc…I really do think people of all ages have a real thirst for a physical third place where everyone could find their thing and just be in meatspace with others.
I always see Meetups that lose their location due a business closing or moving or no longer having an employee from the Meetup working there, etc. This could be another way something like this could fill the gap - offer that space for rent at deep discounts such that Meetups could afford it. Add in things like food drives and pantries and bingo nights, etc… to round out the calendar so there is always something to do, and it won’t seem to be some anemic thing of the past.
Scamming too much out of communities on the weekdays to keep bringing in that sweet weekend scam money too.
Finally some good news
Agreed, except this is mostly going to be small community churches and not the predatory megachurches that are much more problematic.
Yes and no. Small churches still produce large numbers of folks who disbelieve in science and medicine.
As more people abandon organized religion, perhaps more of them will decide science is peachy. Maybe. Possibly.
perhaps more of them will decide science is peachy. Maybe. Possibly.
I wish I could share your optimism, but I’ve seen the closing of smaller and generally more liberal churches in my area lead to a percentage of their congregation migrating to a much less accepting megachurch.
It’s frustrating.
perhaps more of them will decide science is peachy
And they’ll get their “science” from quacks like RFK Jr’s cronies. If they could be conned by fundies, they’re going to be marks for any other snake-oil salesmen they come into contact with, though there might be a vanishingly small percentage of them who learn from their experience and stop being such flagrant suckers.
Vacant churches will convert to AI data centers. If they are building the AI God futurists worship (jk they are narcissist and only worship themselves) wat more suitable place to build it but in a church?
Plus imagine the tax breaks.
Turn them into homeless shelters or community centers so they can actually help the people!!!
Shouldn’t they have already been these things? Im no Bible pro but I feel like Jesus would have wanted that.
You would think right…
One of the many failures that have led them down this path.
sieze OLSTEENS OPULENT church and turn it into a shelter.
That thing could house so many people but he wouldn’t even open it up for a hurricane. Barf.
uplifting news!
Younger folk see the grift.
A lot of older folks, too. A lot of people used to go to church for the social aspects, but today, everything is about grifting more and more money, and people get tired of constantly being tapped for money.
Also, a lot of people don’t like their church ordering them to vote for evil pedophile traitors, or they’ll go to Hell. The first time my pastor told me that I had to vote for Trump, would have been the last time he ever saw me.
But that didn’t happen to me, because I know better than to welcome Zombie Cannibal Death Cults into my life.
IIRC, it’s mostly that mega-churches are taking over.
It’s the smaller (ostensibly) community focused ones that are dying.
The might be getting the larger share of a dwindling pool overall. The percentage of Americans that are xtian has gone down a lot.
From early 90s being ~90% to ~63% around 2022, anyway. That’s quite a tidal shift.
The bigger the grift the closer to god - or something like that
Hell yeah
is this still true of the mega churches?
Repurpose them as community centers
Probably not
