Here’s a troubling little statistic for you. It has to do with laughing and clapping during worship in Presbyterian churches. According to a recent survey published by the Research Services of the Presbyterian Church (USA), in 2001 55% of Presbyterian respondents reported laughing and/or clapping during worship. In 2009, just eight years later, the number dropped to 40%. That’s is a 15% drop in laughter and clapping in worship in just eight years.
One reason we are laughing and clapping less in worship might be that the researchers collected their 2009 data during the worst economic crisis we’ve faced since the 1930s. But, there may be another reason as well. In 2001, according to the report, 28% of the respondents belonged to churches that had experienced significant conflict in the past five years that led people to leave their church. By 2009, 41% of the respondents reported belonging to conflicted churches—an increase in conflict of 13% in that same eight-year period.We Presbyterians are evidently fighting more frequently and walking away from each other more often—and that is no laughing matter.
