Doing church: leaving the family behind?

Jonathan Carswell  |  Features
Date posted:  1 Oct 2005
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I’m not a fan of the phrase ‘doing church’, but, for want of a better phrase, can I ask how you ‘do’ church?

There appears to be a new trend, especially in cities, for churches to be structured around ‘congregations’ rather than the church family. Many churches have decided to run a Sunday service designed exclusively for one age group or another; whether for students, young people, or, as I saw recently, just for those of Asian origin.

Those not included in the prime target audience are discouraged from coming, or told to look elsewhere. For example, a friend of mine attended a church while at university where adults and families have been strongly discouraged from attending the evening student service. Likewise, he was told not to attend the morning service as that is for families and not for him. To encourage this, the evening sermon was an exact replica of the mornings.

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