How to Assimilate the Elderly Into Your Parish:

Abstract

This research is a scientific study of retired persons, to attempt to determine why they drop out of the church upon reaching retirement age. The hypothesis is that a person drops out of active church life because helshe feels alienated within the social system known as the church. Groups were tested in Michigan, Indiana, and Florida. Each group was tested for church attendance, religiosity, alienation and religious experience. Using alienation as the independent variable, it was determined that there was a correlation between alienation and church attendance. These two variables were found to be correlated at the 0.001 level of confidence. Upon further examination it was found that the computed T-Statistic indicated that the correlation was inverse in nature. As alienation increases, church attendance measurably decreases. Due to the fmdings of this research the hypothesis was accepted. Having determined that alienation is a primary cause of decline in church attendance among the elderly, ways in which to decrease alienation and therefore increase church attendance are presented. A primary agent in the process of reducing alienation is psycho-social bonding and ways to increase the bonding process are discussed. Bonding is that process by which a person attaches to, and makes a social connection with another person. The bond that is formed is often difficult to eradicate. Alienation could be described as a state of being bondless within a social system.