Journalist’s new book spotlights setbacks facing American Christianity

Bob Smietana’s ‘Reorganized Religion’ discusses the decline of the church and what to do about it

Attendance was sparse at a Thanksgiving Eve service last year in downtown Little Rock. In 2020, the number of Americans who said they belong to a house of worship fell below 50% for the first time since it began its surveys, Gallup reported.
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Frank E. Lockwood)
Attendance was sparse at a Thanksgiving Eve service last year in downtown Little Rock. In 2020, the number of Americans who said they belong to a house of worship fell below 50% for the first time since it began its surveys, Gallup reported. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Frank E. Lockwood)


American Christianity is divided and dwindling and there aren't any obvious, easy ways to fix what is broken, journalist Bob Smietana suggests in "Reorganized Religion: The Reshaping of the American Church and Why it Matters."

Publisher's Weekly has called it "a must-read for anyone invested in the fate of the American church" and "a superb examination of the future of Christian institutions."

Paraphrasing from a science-fiction book titled "Old Man's War," Smietana compares the decay of religious institutions to the decline that sometimes accompanies aging.

"It's not that one thing goes wrong after another. It's that everything goes wrong all at the same time," he said. "That is American religion right now."

For houses of worship, covid-19 has been a kick in the teeth. But it's the latest in a series of setbacks that has left many denominations reeling.

"Everything has changed all at the same time," said Smietana, whose book was released Tuesday.

The red-blue division is one problem. So is an aging Christian population and declining birth rates. Younger people, on average, attend less often and give less generously, and they are less likely to embrace traditional views on human sexuality. They also have more options on Sunday mornings.

For many, the onslaught has been overwhelming.

"If it was just political polarization, if it was just demographic change, if it was just changing social norms, if it was just changing technology, if it were just changing economics, maybe people could adapt. But right now, it's all those things," Smietana said.

For congregations, the setbacks can feel personal, he noted.

That's particularly true for those grappling with what Springtide Research executive director Josh Packard calls the Hamlet Problem, Smietana said.

Like the brooding Shakespearean character, "Those congregations and their leaders think they're the star. They think that what happens to them ... is determined largely on the decisions they make and everything is a spiritual problem," Smietana said.

As a result, setbacks feel like personal failures rather than unavoidable challenges.

In reality, "you're not the star of the show. You're in a larger drama, you're bit players, and the drama is going on around you and you will be affected by all those other factors," he said.

When a challenge arises, "You have to adapt to it. It doesn't mean it's your fault," he said. "You didn't cause those things, but you have to deal with them."

ABOUT SMIETANA

Smietana, a national reporter for Religion News Service, is a keen observer of American faith and a Christian himself.

He worked as a senior news editor for Christianity Today, the leading evangelical monthly, and as a senior writer for Facts & Trends, a quarterly published by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.

For a time, he was also a religion reporter at the (Nashville) Tennessean.

Sometimes, being on the "Godbeat," as it is called, can be hazardous to one's faith. William Lobdell, the award-winning Los Angeles Times religion reporter, entered the job as a Bible-quoting evangelical and exited as an atheist, after years of covering sex abuse lawsuits and money-centered prosperity gospel preachers.

Nearly a quarter-century after he started covering religion, Smietana is neither an apologist nor an apostate.

"Faith harms and heals. It pulls us apart and binds us together. It builds cathedrals and burns down cities. It gives life and brings death," he writes.

"Asking if religion is good is like asking if music is good. Or food. Or politics. Or baseball or works of art or science or any other human endeavor. Religion is human. And it matters," he adds.

Smietana emphasizes the sense of community that a house of worship can provide.

In his own life, he recalls how members of Grace Covenant Church, a small congregation on Chicago's north side, welcomed him and his wife when life was hard and their marriage strained.

He also shares how his faith community helped him deal with the sudden death of his brother, providing meals so he wouldn't have to cook and frequent-flier miles to help his family make it to the funeral.

"What happened to my family happens every day in churches and faith communities of all kinds," he wrote. "Despite all its flaws -- and they are legion -- organized religion can be a source for good in the world. That good work is in danger right now."

RELIGIOUS DECLINE

For several decades, mainline denominations were losing members while evangelical churches were growing.

These days, nearly all Protestant groups are in numerical decline.

Church attendance nose-dived early in the covid-19 public health emergency. In most places, in-person attendance remains far below pre-pandemic numbers.

In a chapter titled "They Don't Love Us Anymore," he interviews some of the people who stopped going to church in March 2020 and never returned. For many, he said, church is no longer "a natural part of the rhythm of their lives."

In "Reorganized Religion," Smietana argues that the decline of organized religion "will affect us all, no matter who we are or what we believe."

The sense of community and belonging that comes with membership in many religious organizations is important and hard to replicate, he suggests.

CHANGING WITH THE TIMES

He maintains that organized religion "can and should be saved," and gives examples of congregations that have managed to thrive in challenging times.

In one instance, a dying Seattle congregation church, started in 1953 by Swedish immigrants, voted "to sacrificially give themselves" to a newer, younger and more diverse congregation known as Quest, Smietana writes.

The post-merger church has thrived, with average attendance of 753 in 2019.

Today, it is helping two former Arkansas residents to launch a multi-ethnic congregation in Pasadena, Calif., called The Church We Hope For.

In Smyrna, Tenn., a dying predominantly white Episcopal church embraced a group of refugees from Burma. (Burma is often called Myanmar, a name that military authorities adopted in 1989. Some nations, such as the United States and Britain, have refused to adopt the name change.) Today, the hymns are sung in one of the Karen languages commonly spoken in portions of that Asian nation.

As the nation becomes more diverse, churches that recognize these demographic changes and embrace them are more likely to succeed, he suggests.

Toward the end of the book, Smietana warns against the dangers of division, quoting a Klingon verse from the gospel according to Star Trek: "Only a fool fights in a burning house."

Unity is helpful, he notes, but isn't always enough.

SMALL CONGREGATIONS STRUGGLE

While megachurches are booming, tens of thousands of smaller congregations are struggling to stay alive.

Since joining the Godbeat in 1999, he has watched the numbers steadily drop.

"The average-sized church when I started ... reporting on religion, was 137 [weekly attendees] and now it's 65," Smietana said, citing data from the 2020 Faith Communities Today survey.

Near the end of his book, he praises Grace Covenant Church -- and others like it -- who have been a source of hope and healing over the years.

"I want to say to them that their labor is not in vain," he said.

Unfortunately, Grace Covenant Church won't be around when the book comes out in paperback. The congregation voted last month to close its doors and held its final service Sunday.

Smietana was present to say farewell.


  photo  Religion reporter Bob Smietana has witnessed the decline of U.S. churches since the turn of the 21st century. “The average-sized church when I started … was 137 [weekly attendees] and now it’s 65,” he said, citing data from the 2020 Faith Communities Today survey. (Courtesy photo)
 
 


  photo  On a Sunday afternoon in the midst of a pandemic, Pulaski Heights Presbyterian Church in Little Rock still attracted dozens of worshippers for an October ordination service. Nationwide, attendance at most houses of worship is down from pre-covid-19 levels. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Frank E. Lockwood)
 
 


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