St. Patrick Presbyterian Church, Epc

I’m sure you can imagine that church staffers have a general idea of what kind of crowd to anticipate on any given Sunday. Factors like civic holidays and weather have a way of establishing predictable patterns in large groups of people. But those arrangements have experienced a bit of a shakeup, especially over the past five or so years. Historically Mothers’ Day would see a bump in worship attendance, as diligent children and husbands honor the wishes of their pious matriarchs. This year? I really don’t know if that’s a thing we can count on anymore. And I don’t think COVID is to blame – it only accelerated something that’s been going on for about 30 years now.  Yesterday I listened to a podcast entitled “Who Are the De-churched in America and Why Did They Leave?” The sociologists leading the discussion begin with a startling piece of data: thirty to fifty million Americans used to go to church but no longer do. Meaning, we are in the middle of the greatest religious affiliation shift in US history. The lar