Church, Repurposing

ON SUNDAY WE HAD a total of seven people in the building, only two of whom, myself and a ninety one year old German lady, were actual voluntary congregants. The other five were either clerical officials, or the wife of the minister. And, hell, actually, I have an official function; I ring the bell. Unless, of course, the teenagers show up, which is seldom. I believe it was the smallest turnout in the nearly one year I have been attending. The minister said that if there had been one fewer people, he would have called the whole thing off, and slept in. Thus proceeds the great decline, not only in attendance at "my" church, but at churches all across America. According to a recent survey, one in three Americans self identifies as a regular church goer. That incluses me, although I wasn't interviewed. I've been a member of minorities all my life, in terms of religion, politics, opinions, things like that, but I never in my wildest imagination would have predicted that not only would American church attendance decrease so much so fact, but that I, of all people, would be a member of a church going American minority. I listened to a radio documentary about churches whose congregation has shrunk so much that their church building was no longer appropriate to the membership, but was instead way too big. Keeping large church buildings maintainted, with full utilities, was becoming inreasingly expensive for shrinking congregations, and solutions were being sought. Many of them are quite creative and innovative. A large church in Colorado decided to establish a section with living quarters, a sort of temporary refuge for the homeless. Poignantly, ironically beautiful, the thought that a dying church,a dying religion, as it fades away, uses its remaining life energy to give the kind of love and help unto others that Jesus Christ clearly instructed us all to do. Maybe the church will gradually evolve into a full time homeless shelter, with both public and private funding, as America enters a goldn new post Trump age of compassion, in which homeless shelters all across the fruited plain render unto society a vast outpouring of assistance to those in need, working themselves out of their jobs as homelessness vanishes from the American cultural panaroma. Another recent survey indicates taht about sixty two percent of the American people identify themselves as "Christian", the lowest number in recorded American history, but that the decline seems to have, at least for the moment, leveled off. A fervant Christian about my age assured me that at her church, there is a solid, good sized block of younger people in attendance. All well and good, but, as a general rule, every generation in America, from the lost generation to the kids currently in high school, whatever they are called, has been less religious than its predecessor. So, as they say, we shall see. What seems to be needed in today's Christian church is another of those huge revivals, such as the ones which took place in the seventeen forties, the first "Great Awakening", and again in the eighteen forties, the second Great Awakening. Ever since the advent of the "Majoral Majority" more than forty years ago, such a massive revival has lurked, but never truly manifested throughout society. Maybe ts too late. Maybe science has sufficiently replaced religion in human culture so as to illuminate the human mind, and religion, having done its service, can now, finally, stop awakening, and slide peacefully, gracefully, into its final slumber.