A church opportunity called "The Epidemic of Loneliness"

Church visitation programs are about as cutting edge as fire.  While not a betting man I would be willing to wager a large sum of money, if I had one, that this year no major conference will be developed around a church wide visitation program.  Church visitation is not part of the church landscape anymore.  That may or may not be a good thing.  For most of its life, the church has been a community of shared faith, values and caring.  Church visitation programs were at their best a way of propagating and reinforcing those values.   Sadly there is little to replace calling programs.  In our increasingly individualistic society we have lost our connectedness and the idea of a caring community is something unheard of for many people.

American individualism has its strength, but it is bad for faith.  It can help develop a great work ethic and build wealth.  It can give courage in difficult times as when a person is out numbered or no one believes in his ideals.  But the self-sufficient individual will never mature in their faith. 

Emily White, a successful, attractive writer for the Daily Mail uses the term Loneliness Epidemic to describe what is happening as we become detached from each other.  In her own experience with loneliness, she tells of going shopping, not because of a need to make a purchase, but so that she could talk to the cashier.  Her loneliness was so intense and she became so angry at being so lonely she raged in her kitchen throwing the chairs against the wall.  Loneliness is not just the bane of young, attractive, gifted writers.  Everyone whose name appears on the rolls of your church has the potential to suffer from loneliness.

Many in our culture suffer from self-induced loneliness.  We have found that electronic companionship is much easier to deal with than human company.  Humans are troublesome, hurtful and exasperating.  Being in a relationship, even a good one, can tax us.  Electronic companionship is easy; we can turn it on and off at will.  It will not make demands of us that we can’t alter with a button on the remote.  We have control over content and mood-like a slave that does our every bidding- electronic companionship will not challenge us.  It is easy.  Because the human animal is lazy, it is more apt to watch reruns of Cheers, Andy Griffin, or Friends than to do the hard work of being in a relationship.    

With our autonomy we are losing community phrases and are replacing the community words with words of individualism.  The picture of the lonely individual huddled in a basement playing video games and having no one to relate to and lacking the ability to relate is no myth; it is a growing crisis.  We have protected our personal space to the point that many people are in a prison of their own space and are afraid to get out or to go into public. 

We, as a culture, have mistaken good, physical health with well being.  We are keenly aware that a person who is in a hospital bed with cancer is in need of emotional support.  We know that they will need companionship, touch, laughter and love.  We tend to think that if a person is physically healthy they are fine and can be left alone.  Interestingly, only 10% of suicides are related to chronic illness.  Just because a person is physically well doesn’t mean that they are not in desperate need of loving contact. 

Alone in life with only the most vague and general connections to others we become like Yvette Vickers. Yvette was an actress with such great films as “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches” to her credit.  She was well known in the narrow genre of 50’s sci-fi, space monster films, and had many fans.  But she was utterly disconnected in any personal way.

To be continued...