A growing number of families would rather spend their increasingly limited free time together than at church, a study by Leadership magazine found.
“The increased emphasis on ‘family time,’ even at the expense of meaningful involvement in church life, is a sign of the times,” reporter Eric Reed wrote for Leadership. “It’s one way Generations X and Y are making up for the hands-off, latch-key childrearing styles that characterized their Boomer parents: heavy investment in the kids, and everything else takes a back seat — including church.”
Leadership surveyed 490 pastors about what is keeping people away from church, and the Christianity Today-owned magazine found that people routinely choose family events over church commitments because they say they’re not finding church to be a relevant enough resource in their time-crunched lifestyles.
More churches are seeing decreased attendance at church events, especially those held on weeknights, because when families feel obligated to participate in sports, music lessons and other extracurricular activities, the only night of the week they have to be together just might be Wednesday, Leadership found.
Another problem families seem to be voicing is that when they arrive at church, they’re split into different age groups and sometimes into gender-segregated classes.
Families often are quicker than churches at realizing no family bonding is going to occur at church when that method is used, the magazine reported. (BP)
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