Maggie's Farm

The word "slave" comes from "Slav,'' referring to the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe and Russia. Much of the history of that area is one of constantly being attacked by Muslim raiders who captured people to become slaves in Muslim countries.

People who study this stuff would tell you that that the "neighborhood church" was the model of the Fifties, and totally failed. Back then, when everyone went to church, the thought was each suburb should have denominational churches for each denomination, plus the local Catholic parish, each church accommodating perhaps 300-400 people. So the American landscape is dotted with small churches, Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopalian, Congregational, often almost next to each other, most of which are empty, closed or closing.

Why? First, the neighborhoods aged out or declined economically with resulting flight, so the local population going to church there no longer existed. Second, no effort was made to recruit new attenders to the churches, so the neighborhood churches essentially became small social clubs which sent out the message, either intentionally or unintentionally, that they weren't welcoming to newcomers. Three, the economics of trying to support a small church, with increasing building expenses, maintenance, salaries, etc. no longer worked. Four, most of these churches were designed with inadequate parking, assuming that people came from nearby or could easily find parking on the street. Families would all come together in one car. Lack of parking has been the cause of death for many churches, since most people today are not willing to go somewhere if they cannot be assured of promply finding a parking space. Five, the small neighborhood church presumes a Christian culture, where you can have a single pastor/counselor who can handle Sunday services and spend the rest of the week engaging in genteel exercises such as women's teas, Bible studies in the pastor's study, etc. All the families come every Sunday and every family tithes. Those days are long gone, with families torn apart, drugs, crime and violence becoming more and more the norm. The pastors more and more are on the "front lines" of an increasingly hostile society. Small fractionated denominational churches are no longer a model that can work in such circumstances.

And this is all before you get to the liberalism and cynicism of the Sixties to the present which have driven so many people from the mainline denominations.

Now, the model is to create larger non-denominational churches which can support more pastors, programs and teaching/counseling, and site them where they are easily accessible by car and with sufficient parking, usually near an intersection of freeways or main routes. More of a drive, but the fact is people who go to the those churches want to be there and hopefully will be engaged. That's a big difference from going to your local "neighborhood" church these days, and seeing 10 people in the congregation, all in their eighties or older, with their hired caregivers sitting behind them.

I remember my own church, which in the early Sixties used to be full every Sunday, with everyone in suit and tie or a nice dress. Now if they can get 20 on a Sunday that's a good day. I haven't set foot there since sometime in the Nineties, although the real reason I left was because they no longer believed in the authority of Scripture.

It was good for us partly because we were the last ones left standing. We lost men, but other than Pearl Harbor and a few random submarine shellings of California and some fighting in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska Territory, we suffered almost no damage in the war, unlike most of the other combatants who were devastated to some extent or other. And we had an economic plant revved up and ready to go because of manufacturing for the war effort, instead of having to rebuild destroyed factories from scratch like many of the other combatants.