</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Dotsie:
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Evie, you and I have been struggling with church issues for quite some time. Did you visit this other church because you are shopping for a new church home? And if you jump ship from your old one, will you feel guilty for not sticking around?

I'm curious...if your church is traditional, do you have many young members? </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">We were in the city for the day, and had to be there quite early, so I decided it would be good to worship at a different church. I say "different" and yet I stuck to "Anglican" <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> but our church seems so bent lately on removing all that is Anglican about it, that I wanted to see what another Anglican church was like.

"Jumping ship" - the church I attend now is not the denomination or church I was raised in, baptized in, married in or had my 2 children baptised in. I left that church when my kids were little, and for several years attended no church at all. To make a long story short, for the past five years I have been attending this one, and have come to love much about the Anglican (Episcopilian in the US) denomination.

It's not really a question of jumping ship anymore. I feel I've been there, done that and I'm not sure it will solve the problem. Plus, my son is quite settled in this church and his faith is what it's all about for me right now, and the only reason I keep hanging on. My oldest son has no use for church (incidentally, his church attendance would not increase with a contemporary church either - he just has no use for it)

And, we live in a very, very small town. The majority of the church going population is Catholic. The other denominations have a scattered attendance, and all are struggling.

There are just only so many people and so many churches to go around. I have a hard time rationilizing the concept of these "seeker-friendly" services with how many people are out there <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> It's like our church has auditorium-size dreams in a sardine can-size town.

Our church is primarily filled with "gray heads", and a small youth/family attendance. Sure it would be great to have more youth attending and I fully support programs for youth - in fact, I help out with our youth missions team which for a small group has done some great works.

But, I still believe a church can blend both contemporary and traditional, and that we shouldn't give one all away for another.

If the economic situation in our community doesn't improve, and with many families moving away to find work - all that will be left in this town are the "gray heads" - what will be there for them?

I've always been a young person with old values, and have never really fit in to my age group - so maybe I'm not giving the best perspective on this.

I've enjoyed reading the posts of those in the "contemporary" camp, gives me some objective look at what's out there.