It has taken little more than one generation for American Protestantism to lose control of Sunday morning.
For more than a century, states tried to buttress religion by imposing “blue laws” regulating commerce on Sunday. For most Americans those laws implemented a cultural consensus that one day a week needed to be kept free from commerce and set aside for religion. Such laws began to unravel fifty years ago, as exceptions proliferated, store owners insisted on seven days of revenue to justify seven days of rent, especially in highcost malls, and large sporting events like professional football and auto racing claimed Sunday. Without anyone intending a slap in Christianity’s face, churches lost their sole claim to Sunday morning. Sunday church also lost ground to new patterns of leisure time. Youth athletics, for example, forced families to choose between church and soccer. Young professionals working six days a week saw Sunday as either their one day to sleep in or a quiet time for more billable hours. None of this was overtly anti-religion. But it certainly broke the habit of Sunday churchgoing and forced churches to compete for constituents’ time. Church leaders working to navigate these changing social conditions have had to master two skills. Or, conversely, church leaders who refused to master two new skills have seen their enterprises wither away, until their only active constituents are older adults for whom one hour on Sunday is plenty. First new skill: they have learned to read the marketplace, dispassionately observing where people’s loyalties lie, what their schedules dictate, and which needs will compel them to seek out the faith community. When I talk to pastors who are planting new congregations or redeveloping older ones, they are following new playbooks that emphasize flexible scheduling, activities and groups serving niche needs, community building beyond Sunday morning coffee, as well as richer offerings on Sunday. Second, nimble church leaders have learned to compete. At many congregations, production values at worship rival those of a rock concert. High-profile clergy present high-impact messages on huge screens in multiple locations. They use Internet tools such as e-mail marketing to promote the congregation’s “brand.” They offer coffee shops and food to create a total experience.
This shift has been hard on clergy who were trained to be humble parsons, not entrepreneurs or rock stars, and to preside over a paradigm supported by habit, not a highstakes competition. The shift has been hard on older constituents, too. The new religious marketplace just feels wrong to them — too “entertainment-oriented,” too much “people-pleasing,” too much focus on the clergy, not to mention inconvenient. It calls for planning and implementation skills that they might not possess, and for a fresh look at budgeting. Newer constituents don’t miss the “blue laws” era at all. If they go to church on Sunday, it’s a choice, not a habit, and it happens because the congregation has read their needs. They attend worship because preaching, music, liturgy, and fellowship are tuned to their yearnings. As a result, while mainline churches have “lost” Sunday morning as their guaranteed preserve, they have gained Sunday as a time when people bring high expectations and enthusiasm to church. Church leaders must work in new ways to respond to those expectations, but they enjoy the satisfaction of serving people who are thrilled to be there and not just perpetuating stale habit. TOM EHRICH is a writer, church consultant, and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project (churchwellness.com). His Web site is (morningwalkmedia.com.)
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