Present sociologists imply three significant theories to study Christianity on the modern days
Introduction
According to the study, it is clear that people going to church are perceived to have an agenda of going for spiritual nourishment. It’s believed that the majority of church-going individual all ways pay attention to the word of God they get from the preachers. The irony of the experience the study indicates that there are a lot of sociological issues that encompass the typical way that takes place in a church. The research has shown that there is little attention that people attending the church pay to preachers. Social life has overturned the really and perceived belief that people usually follow church proceedings attentively.
On my study, there is a clear indication that people mostly are overtaken by the social world while the sermon is in progress. The aspect of people using their phones to ready what is trending and not and not concentrating to listen to the teachings in a way that social life has overturned the spiritual life in the church. The observation of watching people focus on them and not paying attention to the pastor to get and understand the type of clothes worn is a social aspect that I studied which shows fewer people go to church to listen to the word of God. The activities that go on in church are dynamic, and it is essential to study the dynamic that students pay attention to teaches is necessary to determine the way students concentrate while they are in church and their concentration while in class. It’s observed that students pay more attention while in school when the teacher is teaching, unlike the way they behave while in church. When they are in church, they keep looking all over at the time the preacher is preaching and even speak with others while in church. In sociology, this is different as students when in school follow keenly to the lecturer and concentrate more even takes note unlike in church that they do not also carry notebooks they depend on the handouts they are given. Yet they do not receive a chance to read them. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Literature Review
Sociologists understand religion has an organized and collect set of beliefs, character and norms, put together on the social needs and values. Waardenburg, (2017), on his capacity, views Christianity as a unified system of beliefs and actions related to the sacred thing. He urges that religion takes place in societies that have a separation between the healthy life and the holy life and this set religion to be dynamic as it varies on the beliefs of each community. He continues to illustrate that faith brings people together and promotes social control in the societies which put religion to be viewed in terms of the social issue which teaches people on Christian matters.
According to Heilman,(2017) he viewed religion as a matter of social change. He studied the effects of religion on economic activities and sociology perspective. He noted that the highest number of successful business leaders were protestant societies. On this view, religion is studied as dynamic as it originates from one believes of people to another. He observed that Protestantism encourages the pursuit of material output by motivating Christians to work hard to get profits and minimizes spending this is concerning our study that many Christians are possessed with a social life that they value social life like having cars and drive themselves to churn. People pay attention to looking on them, which is a social issue as to why people go to church and pay less attention to preachers.
Wiebe,(2019), he studied religion in social perspective. He gives the view that faith demonstrates the social aspect of life; it deals with the social stratification of a society and how it keeps inequality and perpetuates the status quo. According to his study, Christianity was away an increase of working-class, which on this view, we term religion to be a social issue in connection to the study.
Present sociologists imply three significant theories to study Christianity on the modern days;
Functionalism
According to this theory, it contends that religion controls many functions in society. Faith goes together with the existence of the social values and beliefs, which in the study it shows devotion to be social. Detected from this view, religion serves many reasons; for example, having a place of social interaction and social control. Religion explains the spiritual world and spiritual forces. The essential function of worship from this theory is the chances it brings for the social interaction of groups. It gives social support connection and provides a place to converge others who run the same values and a venue to look for help in moments of need. Since religion is spread to the majority of people concepts in the society, it promotes social control, (Beauchaine, 2019).
Conflict Theory
This theory considers religion as an education process that helps to keep patterns of social inequality. According to this approach, the doctrine has been applied to keep the Christians rights. This theory also indicates that those in power. In a Christian organization, most of the times dictate activities on their follows on the issues to be done (Oesterdiekhoff, 2016).
Symbolic Interactionism
(Denzin, 2016), this theory studies interactions and experiences that are not sacred in a society which is perceived to be holy. The symbols studied in this theory are essential to detect what they mean. This theory indicates that religion is dynamic in the sense that the symbols studied vary from each other.
C Methods
Why the numbers of Christian attending church as a decline in the US?
Research questions
- What has caused people to stop going to church?
- How many main people were on the church on 10th October 2019?
- In terms of sex which is the minority people attending the church in terms of sex?
The number of people on the recent days have declined, due to some reasons that after a research it was discovered that the issues of the economy had affected the number of church-going individuals. Most individuals prefer going to work than church due to increasing expenses of living, so people work extra days to get more money to feed their families.
Some preacher’s misuse the word of God and deliver irrelevant preaching’s that has led to people avoiding church services a survey that was contacted it was found that a church with a capacity of 1500 members on that Sunday there were only 600 members in the church. The researcher decided to sit near the entrance door in the middle and managed to disclose that only the recorded number attended church on that day. Majority of those attending church are female than male at a percentage of 70% compared to 30% that of men.
The effect of clueless has also lowered the number of church-going people especially young since some people are thought to be attending church are mistaken and they believe they are sinners by listening to rocky music this has made many youths to avoid church going.
Increased hypocrisy in chugs as many people, especially leaders, do not do what they preach while out of the church. So churches restrict those drinking alcohol to attend services hence have lowered the number of people going to church.
Why is school encouraging people to go to church?
There is a large number of schools which encourages religion. Most users in the US have lessons that they teach school children about Christianity. There are over 5000 schools that have been founded by churches that indicate that school and church go together. School children should be more aware of the importance of the church. Having religious subjects in school has helped the school grow more spiritual.
Data and Findings on why people go to church, and they do not pay attention?
The main reason as to why people go to church is that it’s good to go to church every moment. The ideas are that social support is a reason why people go to church, some churches such as the evangelical churches people look for others. They go to church altogether and share the meals with friends and the sick one they spend time together talking mainly to those who are unhappy. They spread God message to those who are having some difficulties and pray for them to encourage them of God protection. Despite them going to church they get distracted by social media and some uses their phones while in church and they end up not concentrating in the church events and those carrying out the program are sometimes left with no audience to respond to them when people start concentrating on their phones.
Excellent support is another reason for people going to church, the majority of Christians struggle in life with some difficulties, and they would want to change. They go to church to be prayed for to recovery from their health problems. Despite been in church, some lose concentration and even go sleepy while in the church due to health problems of just so decide to sleep, especially if the sermon is not interactive.
People also go to just since it’s a commandment from God. One of the ways to keep honour this commandment is to go to church every Sunday or Saturday and even Friday depending on the day our worship. We are strengthened whenever we are around God. Also though people go to church as the commandment say they find themselves not paying attention to the sermon some even talk with their families or friends as the preacher is delivering the word of God. Not paying attention while in the church is breaking God commands, and this is the reason why sociologist may differ with the view of Christianity if we associate it to the conflict theory.
According to Wach (2019), he argued that people go to church due to the fact religion is a social glue that keeps societies together. His idea was that religion is a unifying factor that brings together people to one detonation.
Wach, (2019), had written about rational choice within religion. This theory follows the idea that people practice the belief that serves their needs; hence, they end up going to church. Christian Smith had dealt with the American evangelism and, mainly focused on the social and not theological aspects of Christianity.some sociologists traded on American Christianity to explain why people go to church. He states that America is God chosen nation people go to church due to them being a chosen nation. America is also known for its improved technology. At our first study, we got to understand how social media has influenced the majority of those not to pay attention this is because when a preacher is preaching people in the church are busy going through the social media hence not paying attention to church service.
The issues of church classification influence the way people go to church as this enables people to choose the religion they want to go. Rituals of this type give guidance of all members of the societies in which they are found and the faith they believe in. According to sociologists it that the majority of people in the world are Christians; hence every Sunday the number of people going to church is at higher level 78% of world population contributes to this increase.
Age also determines the attention of people in the church as the elderly pupation those over 70 year comfortably sleep while in the church due to their age. According to the study, it indicates that the majority of people do not even follow the preaching as they get tired quickly and sleeps hence not paying attention while in church. The other reason that originates from the study is that extended services also make people tired and even dizzy in churches or get into social media due to the issue of getting bored and tired.
My find in the field also shows that people prefer to sit with their friends or families while in church or the people they know. The issue of some seats been vacant on some row where those attending charge goes to sit close to the people they know shows clearly that people go to church to sit with their friends. As the service is going on, they talk to one another; this is the result of people not paying attention while in church.
On my finding is that the morning service is mostly consisting of older people. My observation indicated that those who mostly were on the church that day were above the age of 60. Just after one song, they start to sit an indication that they are tired which is a genuine issue that people above 60 years get bored, and even some started sleeping as the service goes on.
On my 3.1 findings, I notice that there are many females in church than the ration of male it was at a percentage of 70% and 30% respectively. The habit of people still talking to each other still maintained the same atmosphere indication that most people do not pay attention to church service by goes there to meet there friends to speak together. Female is the one who was walking a lot in church and talking to people was my finding in this field. The pastor first had to pray and welcome people to church before the ban takes to stage for a song. I find that at the time of people singing, no one speaks to anybody, and they only wave their hands to say hi to their friends.
Discussion
My finding of maintaining that society is dynamic is supported by conflict perspective theory that maintains that that society is held together by people by power. It’s active in the sense that the church services are divided into sections. The morning service mostly consisted of an ageing population, unlike the mid-day service that there are less older people. The division of the service consists of Mandarin, which was the mid-morning service while Cantonese was the morning section. The mandarin section had more people compared to the Cantonese service that only had few people. The dynamic operation of the church from morning service to mid-morning service, this is shown on the way of presentation which in the morning section the team of singers who walked to the stage was significant compared to only 4 people in the mid-morning that the walk to stage and sing together with the other people in standing back.
The religion is also an educational exercise concerning the conflict theory view. The theory elaborates that religion is used for education exercise and following my finding, people indeed go to church, and they are taught religion matters. From the morning service to the mid-morning service, some pastors preach to the congregation. At the mid-morning, there was bible class that there was one pastor who spoken in Mandarin while there was a translator who interpreted it in Cantonese. The teachings on the first readings were about perseverance for the first few minutes people pay attention to the lessons, but after some time they started engaging in the social life that they were on their phones.
The functionalist perspective indicated the religion is a society that brings people together. It contains a belief that people believe in which is the same as the finding on the research. The theory set religion as a place of interaction where people go to meet and interact with each other. On my research, I found that many people go to church to meet there friends and they interact together. I could see people coming in groups and sit close to people they know, and I could see them talking to one another at the time the sermon was going on. This talking in the church has shown that the church is a place of interaction between people and even after church, people could go in groups and talk to their friends. The way pastors in church preaching to the congregation and sharing of the bible study session possess the interaction process that this theory illustrates that church is a place of interaction. I attended a bible study session. I could see people, especially in mid-morning session collaborating with people, especially those leading the service in praise song the other congregation could sing together this illustrate interaction in church.
The functionalist perspective also views the church as a family that brings people together. On my finding, it supports this statement my feeling while in the church was more like a family. People enjoyed feeling to be together in the same congregation and share the same sermon and interact with each person in the church. After the service, the people could play together, and in my view, I saw this as the real meaning of church been seeing as a family. I found that they are using the church to bring people together, and this motivates people to go to church as they knew that the person they connect to should be good people.
Conclusion
According to the research, it is clear that people go to church with a different perspective, and the social life has shaped the religion believes. At the past, we used to think that people go to church and pay attention to the service since this atmosphere that we expect Christian to pay attention, but there is the influence of social work the technology has ruined this belief. My observation is that social media influence the majority of the students that they use their phones while in church, and they do not pay attention to the service. My contribution to the literature is that there should be an interactive session between the preachers and those receiving the work
References
Waardenburg, J. (2017). Classical Approaches to the Study of Religion: Aims, Methods, and Theories of Research. Introduction and Anthology. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Wach, J. (2019). Sociology of religion. Routledge.
Beauchaine, T. P., & Haines, N. (2019). Functionalist and constructionist perspectives on emotion dysregulation. In The Oxford Handbook of Emotion Dysregulation.
Wiebe, D. (2019). Theory in the Study of Religion. In The Science of Religion: A Defence (pp. 63-92). BRILL.
Oesterdiekhoff, G. W. (2016). Sociological Functionalism or Developmental Psychology as a Theoretical Foundation to Ethnology? Radcliffe-Brown’s Analysis of the Andaman Islanders’ Religious Beliefs Revised. International Journal of Anthropology, 31.
Denzin, N. K. (2016). Symbolic interactionism. The international encyclopedia of communication theory and philosophy, 1-12.
Heilman, S. C. (2017). Synagogue life: A study in symbolic interaction. Routledge.