Every once in a while I experience an epiphany in reading a book. One of my more profound ones occurred a few years ago but continues to loom large in my thinking and work. It came as I read Robert Putnam’s book entitled, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2001, Putnam). Putnam, a professor of sociology at Harvard, described in great statistical detail the gradual deterioration during the last two generations of social relationships in the US. It is both fascinating and depressing reading because it describes the loss of relationships and accompanying social capital we are all experiencing in our personal and public lives.

The “bowling alone” title and image is derived from one telling statistical comparison he made in the book. He cited research from the American Bowling Congress indicating that between 1980 and 1993, the number of individuals who bowl in the US increased by 10 percent. During that same time frame however, participation in league bowling declined by 40 percent! We have in effect, become a society that bowls alone rather than with other people. Putnam has documented American’s growing detachment from participation in all forms of community life—from voting, to joining clubs, or even socializing regularly with friends and neighbors. According to Putnam, the bonds of community life have broken down and we are increasingly paying a price. The decline in social capital according to Putnam, threatens our safety in communities, our democracy, educational performance, and even our very health and well-being. It also threatens the very fabric of our faith communities.

The second chapter of the Book of Acts describes what most of us would consider an ideal faith community:

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:44-47, NIV).

In my work with congregations across the United States, I rarely find a congregation that looks or acts much like the one in Acts 2. In most cases I find fellow congregation members often barely know the names of those outside a small circle of friends in the congregation. Rarely do significant relationships extend beyond age, demographic or generational barriers. Senior adults know (some) other senior adults, teenagers know (some) other teenagers, parents with small children know a few other parents with small children, and so on. Most congregations more closely resemble what might be called “a collection of familiar strangers” than they do places of deep community and relationship.

The result of this loss of community is having profound effects. It makes congregational members into competitors instead of collaborators when it comes to creating budgets. Lack of familiarity and deep relationships makes it easy to disregard or even demonize those with whom we disagree. In short, faith communities are beginning to resemble the polarized, divided, antagonistic communities outside the church or synagogue.

The main weakness of Putnam’s excellent book is his prescription for curing our lack-of-community illness. In theory, people of faith ought to be better equipped than anyone else to remedy this situation. In reality, most of us lead fragmented, overcommitted and overscheduled lives that leave little time for even participating in a faith community much less creating deep relationships. There is an opportunity for people of faith to lead the way in reconnecting our Humpty-Dumpty community life. The question is, will we make the time to do it?

 Reference

Putnam, R. D. (2001). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY : Simon & Schuster.

Chris Gambill, August 2011