October 23, 2000

CHURCH HOPPING:
Have faith, will travel
___By Amanda Phifer
___FaithWorks Magazine
___JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP)--If "bloom where you're planted" epitomized church life in the 1970s, today's slogan is "you better shop around."
___Each year, one out of every seven adults changes churches, according to the Barna Research Group. And one of six attends two or more churches on a rotating basis.
___Americans are a religious people, and church remains an important aspect of life for tens of millions of Americans. However, there is less concern about "brand loyalty" to churches than there used to be, said George Barna, founder of the research group. "Although Americans do not change churches as regularly as they change the brand of gasoline they use, church loyalty is a modern casualty."
___Though pervasive, "church hopping" is a trend that in some ways defies explanation. Few churches and denominations keep track of how long members stay or why they leave. Little research has been done into what motivates church loyalty.
___One common explanation is consumer mentality. If one church lacks a desirable trait or service, today's churchgoer will look elsewhere.
___"Religion and spirituality have become just another product in the broader marketplace of goods and services," American Demographics magazine observed in April 1999.
______Adults will flit from one church to another the way they hunt for Christmas bargains: Which church has the best childcare? Which church has my favorite style of music? Which church has the strongest recreation program? Which church is the friendliest?
___In a society where there is always another option, even religion is for sale.
___Perhaps that explains the "Church Shopping Guide" offered online by Atonement Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wisconsin. The "guide" suggests a series of questions the church shopper should ask: Is this church a theater or a temple? A gymnasium or a hospital?
___Also out there on the vast Web is Nicole. Unhappy in her Catholic parish, she went to an Internet chat room for church-shopping advice. Todd advised her to explore some other parishes. Malcolm joined the e-mail discussion: "It is all too easy to flit from parish to parish seeking some particular atmosphere, way of doing things, etc. The mass then gets treated more as entertainment than something in which we participate."
___It's not always a search for the best show, though.
___"Sometimes people are just looking for a good fit, and they can't find it," said San Francisco-area resident Brad Sargent. "You find this church helps you grow spiritually but doesn't have an outlet for you to serve in. So you keep looking."
___Sargent describes himself as "bi-churchal."
___"I go to one church where I can grow spiritually, participate in a Gen-Xer worship service and serve to make a global impact. I go to another, new church on Sunday evening to contribute to my local community through service there. Why should my attendance be an either/or? Why can't it be both/and? This fulfills me. I don't think church hopping has to be a negative."
___The choice of a church used to be a simpler matter. Most people stuck to one denomination, often predetermined by family background, ethnicity or geography. Now blurred doctrinal lines and an option-driven consumer culture have changed the equation. Hopping churches has become a way of life.
___Most churches are unprepared for the new ground rules. They watch in bewilderment as their membership rolls turn over or even decline.
___Co-pastor Grant Teagarden and the other folks just starting Living Hope Church in Santa Clara, Calif., hope they have the solution--a little something for everyone.
___"For those from a liturgical background, we'd like to set up a room where you can come before the service and have communion and liturgy. For those who just need quiet and prayer, we'd have a room where the prayer team can pray for you and you can meditate. We'd like to have a service where all the members of the family can worship together, without having to be separated."
___Lifestyle changes also complicate the picture. The average working couple logs 717 more office hours a year than they did in 1969.
___James Atherton, pastor of the seeker-oriented church The Bridge, located in downtown San Francisco, deals with the expanding influence of work with Silicon Valley's "dot-com" entrepreneurs.
___"Their take is, 'I'm going to work 24/7 for the next 10 years, totally give up my life, and retire a millionaire at 35 or 40,'" Atherton said. "And they take a mattress to the office. It leaves little time to attend a church, much less stick with one."
___For a person who hasn't settled into one church, it's easier to take that day off without feeling guilty. Likewise, attending church sporadically keeps many people from getting deeply involved anywhere.
___Other church hoppers say their membership shifts with their spiritual development.
___"Your needs change," said Reggie McNeal, a leadership-development specialist from South Carolina. "You attend this church partly because the children's ministry is very good. But children grow up into teenagers, and maybe this church doesn't have a strong youth ministry, and so you look for a church that does."
___It happened to Jo from Columbia, S.C. After several years at a downtown Presbyterian church with a "warm and wonderful pastor" and a "fantastic children's ministry," she took her two children across town to a different Presbyterian church. They were teenagers now, and there was little for them at the downtown church.
___About four years later, they transferred again, this time to the Baptist church across the street from the Presbyterian one. Her children had graduated from high school and there was a new pastor at the Baptist church. Jo's needs had changed.
___So who exactly is church hopping? Is it just the Gen-Xers who flit from church to church? Is it just the market-shaping baby boomers?
___Church consultant Lyle Schaller writes about those generational differences: "The loyal member born before 1940 is upset and baffled when a longtime member becomes dissatisfied and quietly departs to worship with a different congregation in that same community. The younger member, who was reared in a culture overflowing with choices, shrugs off that departure as normal and completely acceptable."
___While each generation has a different take on loyalty, church hopping is about more than generational differences.
___"It's a values issue more than a generational one," said Brad Sargent, who studies and teaches on ministry in the postmodern era. While some church hopping is a result of consumerism, particularly among boomers, "postmoderns, whatever their age, do it more for spiritual reasons."
___Futurist Cassidy Dale agrees. "I think often when people church hop, they're looking for spiritual hooks. They want to be drawn in deeper. They're looking for spiritual depth."
___"The postmodern church-hopper is looking for spiritual meat," said Dale, a research consultant in Washington, D.C. "They want a church with a unique calling and identity, one that will go with them on an adventurous spiritual journey."
___He pauses, then drops the bomb. "Many churches don't offer this."
___While many church leaders lament the cultural changes that have made us a nation of church hoppers, others are more accepting.
___"I cannot in good faith judge the church hopper," confessed consultant Jim Simpson of Columbia, S.C. "God may be working in their lives. He may be using their church hopping. If they're honestly looking for the beef, why berate them? I wish we had enough substance that we were worthy of being hopped to."

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