Churches close. Old churches don’t always fit the needs of modern life. Sometimes it’s just the pews from the blonde-finish-wood 1950′s church that need to go, getting replaced by some comfortable seating. Sometimes it’s better just to build a whole new church building.

Sometimes, if a new congregatation-buyer can swing it, the old church will be preserved as a quaint chapel while the congregation worships in an attached, new, comfortable, practical worship space. Young couples like to get married in the old church, and parents might like to schedule a baptism there, but that’s all it’s used for.

What’s replacing the churches in Holland? Is it no church or new church? (The number of believers is shrinking, but what is the future for believers?) In the U.S., de-churching continues in mainstream protestant and Catholic churches, but membership is growing in non-denominational churches.

90% of Americans believe in God. http://www.gallup.com/poll/147887/Americans-Continue-Believe-God.aspx Here is a paper summarizing who believes what, where, etc. — http://www.pitzer.edu/academics/faculty/zuckerman/Ath-Chap-under-7000.pdf

If anyone wants to take the pulse of contemporary Christian experience in Spain, put aside the journalism about religious life and book a flight to Seville to experience Holy Week, starting on Palm Sunday and ending on Easter. Religion is what believers do, not only what they say in response to surveys. (The reign of the Virgin is by no means over, whatever that may mean in the big sweep of Christianity.)

Charles Hugh Smith, “Of Two Minds,” is a smart observer. I like his recent analysis of the corrosive effects of the “Savior State,” which replaces (unsustainable as its efforts will be) the traditional and important work of churches: http://www.oftwominds.com/blogdec11/why-im-hopeful12-11.html

e.g.,

“The social capital and “return on investment” earned from investing time and energy in community and other social networks has been replaced by a check from the Savior State–a transfer payment that surely beats the troublesome work of investing in community in terms of risk and return. The net result of the Savior State dominating society and the economy is the rise of a pathological mindset of entitlement and resentment–the two are simply two sides of the same coin. You cannot separate them. Once self-reliance has been lost, so too has self-confidence been lost, and the Savior State dependent–individual and corporation alike–soon distrusts their ability to function in an open market. This is a truly sad, self-destructive state of affairs, and deeply, tragically ironic. The calls for “help” quickly lead to dependence on the Savior State, and that dependence quickly breeds complicity and silence in the face of repression and predation by the State and its corporate partners.
In a very real sense, citizens relinquish their citizenship along with their self-reliance and self-worth once they accept dependence on the State.”

Two predictions for the new year: The Savior State will continue to run up unsustainable debt. The Spirit will blow where it listeth.

Many thanks to Mr. Fernandez and the Belmont Club for a remarkable 2011, and best wishes for 2012!