Keeping the faith

From Philadelphia-

From extra pews to coffee lounges, area congregations work toward worship spaces that emphasize community, even as declining enrollment forces other churches to close.

As area church leaders tend their growing flocks, they require room for Bible study and choir practice - and sometimes, for cozy lounges with couches and coffee bars.

It's not about worshipping in Starbucks. Instead, pastors seek to reassure new members who are uncomfortable with traditional churches and offer common ground to those returning after years away from organized religion.

Ryan Regina, co-owner of the Voorhees, N.J.-based church construction company Big Sky Enterprises, said pastors tell him that "I can make an announcement from the pulpit that this Saturday . . . we're going to feed the homeless, but it's more powerful if people ask each other (in the church cafe), 'Hey, are you going out to help on Saturday?' "

These are no small stakes in a nation where 44 percent of the faithful no longer worship in the churches they grew up in, according to the 2009 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life's "Faith in Flux" report.

In a related national trend, mainstream denominations such as the Presbyterian Church and the Episcopal Church continue to lose members, as they have for years, according to the National Council of Churches' 2011 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches.

More here-

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/courier_times_news/keeping-the-faith/article_cae25d0e-9ef7-5738-9d58-734585f32202.html