Tiny church struggles to survive

[Teegate]

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060823/NEWS01/608230377

As many of you know this is the church on the Tuckerton Road that is pictured in "Forgotten Towns of South Jersey" in the "Tuckerton Road" chapter. The article talks about dwindling parishioners and why that is occurring.

Well, there may be more to the story. BEFORE the present Pastor was there, the Pastor at the time was knocking on doors in Marlton with a member of the congregation trying to increase it's membership. They knocked on my moms door. During the conversation my mom told them she was not interested and the Pastor asked if she went to church each week. She replied she didn't and he leaned in close to the screen and whispered that she was a sinner. Now my mom has problems getting around as it is, and she taught Sunday school for years, so he had no right to "whisper" that through her screen door. Needless to say the door slammed in his face.

I wonder why membership is down? My mom can give us a clue.

Guy

 

[Badfish740]

Nothing worse than the "holier than thous." I can honestly say that I do believe in God, the Devil (The Christian interpretation and the Jersey interpretation), Heaven, and Hell, but organized religion is just too whacky and partisan these days. I was raised Catholic but don't really go anymore. In fact, I heard a news story the other day which I'm sure could be found with some searching...It went along these lines:

An 80 something year old woman had been teaching Sunday school at a Baptist congregation for something like 40 years. She had been a member of the church for over 60 years. Anyway, the church got a new preacher who looked all of about 28 on TV. He FIRED her because he read somewhere in the bible that said its a sin for a woman to teach religion to men.

 

[Boyd]

Anybody who comes to my door peddling anything, whether its a product, a political ideology, or a religion, is going to get a less than friendly reception. If you want to sell me something then send me a letter...

 

[supercilious]

Trying to not mention the acts of the Catholic church for over 1000 years, and to not mention recent history of different christian churches in the United States from obviously the past 300 years, but declining people involved with them is causing them alot of problems. I dont want to make this into a historical thing where just speaking about it could take an hour, but try to narrow it down to a very few things. Suburbs spread out the people, also there was a time going to Sunday church, or whatever day was a time to shoot the shit with everyone because you did not have the luxury of telephones, or even free time to do the same. Church in the last 300 years was less about religion, as more of a social circle, but yes religion was important to many people. The times have changed, people dont go "hey its tuesday, its the day to go to the market for food", or "its Sunday, i cant wait to see so and so to ask if i can borrow this or that", its really self centered family lifestyle now, and this is impacting churches. As the thing for selling people things, some religions might say its wrong to use a toilet, and you should use a hole 5 miles from your house because of something in whatever book, but its the person who is preaching this as their view. That was sort of about what Teegate said, im sure the Pastor or whatever he was, could have been to maybe 1000 houses before your mother, and just had been frustrated, mad, and upset about not even getting 1 of those 1000 to join, and he said some stupid shit(im just giving the guy the benifit of the doubt Tee). There was a short period of time where most religious leaders were all about what group they were in, and what they viewed, but today its alot of people doing it, but not living it. I mean, churches are a mess, and they want membership, but not turning Sunday church into Sunday flea markets. I dont know about the future of churches, i think most of them will die off, and you can go into the pro/con of that, but its obvious they are scavenging now.

 

[MikeBickerson]

It's funny, my little church is doing better than it has in a while. I think it's my paster, he's a good guy, easy going. He's also only the third one we've had since the early 1930s!

 

[Teegate]

It's funny, my little church is doing better than it has in a while. I think it's my paster, he's a good guy, easy going. He's also only the third one we've had since the early 1930s!

I think what you mention tells us quite a bit about what the problem has been with the church in the article. If you do not have a membership than there is only one person to blame. Then again it may have been a series of leaders which I am willing to bet there was.

I hope the present leader is able to change things for the better. It appears he can't make it any worse.

Guy