because protestants are told to love God and hate religion. Ironically, many are left wondering why their churches are bleeding members.......
Yeah, see this is where I get a little vexed with my Catholic (Roman, Anglican and Eastern Orthodox) brethren. I've seen a number of these high church articles, but all churches are bleeding members, Roman Catholics withstanding right alongside the Protestants. Some legitimate arguments can be made that people shuffle around in traditions and maybe find a better way, but that doesn't mean its the magic bullet.
I really think we've got to get beyond the finger pointing and worship style wars because while we are arguing over this, the feet are still quite literally walking out the doors, whether those doors are corporate looking or date back to the 19th century.
I agree. We stop going to church because we're living a compromised lifestyle and we're living a compromised lifestyle because we're not going to church. It's a circular paradox. People are tempted to think church is unnecessary, but it's not possible to have any relationship with God without also having a relationship with God's holy church. (
Matt 5:24) But perhaps the most relevant lesson in the Parable of the Prodigal Son is that those who have been living apart from God don't come home to scolding, they come home to welcoming arms and rejoicing. If people could just understand that God wants us to come to him just as we are, it would make a big difference.
Agreed.
It becomes a vicious cycle. As I've aged, I've realized how much Christians absolutely need to be in community. God has chosen to bring people to him through other people, so why do we think this stops right after we first become Christians? If one is involved with the body, then those moments of doubt can be broached with the support of a community - pastors and laypersons alike.
And yes, I don't know if this is a RC issue too, but we tend to skip over the second half of the prodigal son parable. The other brother is angry and resentful because his reckless brother is received unconditionally after he's squandered the family wealth:
Luke 15:28-32
“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
The parable ends here, and to me that is a literary device Jesus employed to place us in the position of the older brother. What is our reaction when a prodigal is restored? The church universal has to be ready to receive the son or daughter, as well.
This falling away, for lack of a better illustrative term, is something that the church needs to counter. I think it's on us to be ready. I think it also relies not on programs to get them back, but for the church members themselves to maintain faithful witness.
It seems to me, in my experience with these folks, that there is always either a hurt (or hurts) caused by the church body (one story I know is the church gave a man a real, real hard time for smoking cigarettes when he was younger, constantly dogging him about it) or a simple gradual slide of becoming disconnected from church.