It's a start.

If churches practiced what they preach young people would go. The old that are supposed to lead by example are actively showing they can't.

We might be a bit ahead here in Germany. A lot of churches around me have been closed or repurposed some years ago. Including the one where I grew up.

I think some of the contributing factors are how church never modernizes or listens to the people. Despite Christianity claiming to be about people or some kind of community of people. And where I'm at, they just massively cut funding to youth projects. So no wonder they're struggling with succession. They're still catering to old people, who will go to heaven sometime soon-ish and they might leave donations in their last will. But there's no replacement for their followers becoming extinct, since they don't have anything of value to offer to younger people. And they're now actively throwing them overboard because young people's spaces and concerns are just (financial) ballast.

So... I think this is largely self-inflicted. I mean they could make an effort to offer something of value. Something that contributes to people's lives in the 21st century. Or relates to their real-world wants and needs. But they don't do any of that.

Next up thousands of youtuber videos of converting churches to houses

Don't threaten me with a good time.

From the article: "There are recent signs that the gradual decline in church attendance has leveled off. For the first time in 25 years, the number of people attending in-person worship in the US has increased."

The article also says that about 100 million people (30%) attend a weekly service in the US nowadays. They talk about the heyday of the mid 20th century where 50% of Americans attended a weekly service. The population of the US in 1950 was 150 million. So that's 25 million more people attending church today.

So why are all the smaller churches closing? The article (and possibly the PBS doc) fails to place some of the blame on the congregation capture of mega churches and how politics has driven people into these behemoths. I know that is what's happening where I live in the South. They have a large sanctuary and expand that with an enormous online presence. How else can we have more Church goers and less churches?

Smaller churches with smaller congregations provide necessary support and community for people. Mega churches are money machines with political agendas. The documentary wants me to mourn the loss of community, fine, but it's the Christians that are doing it to themselves. I'm not shedding any tears.

God finally answered one of my prayers!

No doubt Trumpism draws people to mega churches spouting even more hateful rhetoric than traditional ones, so I would not necessarily count this as a win.

Covert to mosques to own the performative Christians

Liberal denominations — the ones that are consistent in their regard for beatitudes and calls to care for the poor, sick, isolated and stranger — have been on the ropes for some time. There was a lot of migration from liberal faiths into the atheist movement and secular community groups. And a lot fewer people went to church.

This would be likely a mass exodus from mainline and fundamentalist groups and yes, it's fueled by the rise of white Christian nationalism and the association of MAGA and Trump with Christianity. Young people are seeing WCN as exemplary of what to expect in any Christian ministry, and want nothing to do with it.

Curiously, the He Gets Us movement utilized Jesus' call to compassion only as a marketing tool, but was promoting WCN ministries who stand against those ideas, so it onlt taught its rarget audience to distrust Christian media.

Hmmm, fewer religious people. Yet somehow I guess the few remaining will still be able to lead us into White Christian Nationality.

I also wonder if they are accounting for the number of people who attend online. Fewer, people in church doesn't necessarily mean fewer believers. Just fewer churches.

I admit I didn't read it. Was that a sin?

Best news I have heard in 2 years.

Thank you Jesus!

In your last hour you might pray for something to save you. Maybe. But all religions are just not based on truth that is scientific. I'll see you all in hell one day.

But there are downsides too. /j

Edit: woosh, I'm all for closing churches because people aren't stupid enough to go there any more, yay! So I think it is a good thing. Hence the joke "there are downsides too".