I think you'd be fascinated by what's going on in the Orthodox church in the US right now. It fits your model to a large degree.
The things you're talking about are in motion already. People are flooding into our parishes. They are mostly young single men, and families with young children. This has all happened in the last two years.
Some brave soul just released a study on it-- the first attempt I've seen, however modest, to get a sense of the numbers, for this thing that blindsided us.
The study is dry reading, as studies are. But on the parish level this thing is intense. It's way more than just people finding Jesus. I try to get out and talk to the new people as they show up, and we suddenly have a statistically improbable number of homeschooling families, people who want to get into small-scale homesteading, people who are already into small-scale homesteading, and I'm starting to think that with just a very little push, we have enough families to put together a natural foods bulk-buying club. This is at a parish that, three years ago, had run through the standard church lifecycle of founding families--->ten good years--->founders aging and dying and their kids going off to college--->shrinking attendance with few children, mostly retirees. Everything's changed now. We didn't do any outreach to make that happen. These people are finding us completely on their own, and they are eager to make the parish-level tribe thing happen, consciously or not. Again: our *church* isn't doing anything different. A community of like-minded people with similar goals is suddenly coalescing around it. Is God calling them home? Are they being driven under our roof by outside forces? Both?
I'm skeptical of the idea that the electronic sphere can provide for people's esoteric needs.
One advantage I can see, going forward, is that a church already has a cohesive regional structure, that is easier to build community around, than starting from scratch.
I've seen sudden and radical increases in church attendance in the last few years. People are realizing that materialism doesn't work and the Church is the last bastion of real spiritual truth. Eastern Orthodox and a few Protestant factions and the LDS are the ones primarily receiving new recruits. A lot of people are dropping the idea that the material form of the United States is sufficient to operate a society.
From what I hear, conservative Catholic parishes are also seeing this explosive growth.
But I've been putting out feelers everywhere I can think of to get a sense of just how big and how widespread the phenomenon is, and what I'm hearing back suggests it may extend even to fraternal lodges. All sorts of dusty old fuddy-duddy institutions seem to be experiencing a revival these days.
I'm not part of that influx-- I've been here since before it was cool. So I'm itching to know *why* it's happening, what's driving it.
I swear all we need is one Thiel or Musk to be genuinely Dissident Right and the plethora of organic ideas in this space would catapult into the mainstream.
We are so close to getting something working here... we need funding of some type. Minuscule podcasts and publishers like me just aren't enough to build a new culture.
Differentiation by fashion is a good reinforcer of the clan/successful subculture. Amish and Hasidic Jews come to mind.
An interesting point that I'll think about.
Food rituals is another. Jews, Orthodox, and, until recently, Catholics used this for cultural identity.
I think you'd be fascinated by what's going on in the Orthodox church in the US right now. It fits your model to a large degree.
The things you're talking about are in motion already. People are flooding into our parishes. They are mostly young single men, and families with young children. This has all happened in the last two years.
Some brave soul just released a study on it-- the first attempt I've seen, however modest, to get a sense of the numbers, for this thing that blindsided us.
https://orthodoxtimes.com/increase-in-orthodox-conversions-in-the-usa-from-2022-to-2023/
The study is dry reading, as studies are. But on the parish level this thing is intense. It's way more than just people finding Jesus. I try to get out and talk to the new people as they show up, and we suddenly have a statistically improbable number of homeschooling families, people who want to get into small-scale homesteading, people who are already into small-scale homesteading, and I'm starting to think that with just a very little push, we have enough families to put together a natural foods bulk-buying club. This is at a parish that, three years ago, had run through the standard church lifecycle of founding families--->ten good years--->founders aging and dying and their kids going off to college--->shrinking attendance with few children, mostly retirees. Everything's changed now. We didn't do any outreach to make that happen. These people are finding us completely on their own, and they are eager to make the parish-level tribe thing happen, consciously or not. Again: our *church* isn't doing anything different. A community of like-minded people with similar goals is suddenly coalescing around it. Is God calling them home? Are they being driven under our roof by outside forces? Both?
I'm skeptical of the idea that the electronic sphere can provide for people's esoteric needs.
One advantage I can see, going forward, is that a church already has a cohesive regional structure, that is easier to build community around, than starting from scratch.
I've seen sudden and radical increases in church attendance in the last few years. People are realizing that materialism doesn't work and the Church is the last bastion of real spiritual truth. Eastern Orthodox and a few Protestant factions and the LDS are the ones primarily receiving new recruits. A lot of people are dropping the idea that the material form of the United States is sufficient to operate a society.
From what I hear, conservative Catholic parishes are also seeing this explosive growth.
But I've been putting out feelers everywhere I can think of to get a sense of just how big and how widespread the phenomenon is, and what I'm hearing back suggests it may extend even to fraternal lodges. All sorts of dusty old fuddy-duddy institutions seem to be experiencing a revival these days.
I'm not part of that influx-- I've been here since before it was cool. So I'm itching to know *why* it's happening, what's driving it.
I'll write an article on it, I am part of the influx. I should look into some of these fuddy duddy fraternities too.
Yeah?
Have you already written up your personal reasons for turning to the church? I'd love to read that one.
I swear all we need is one Thiel or Musk to be genuinely Dissident Right and the plethora of organic ideas in this space would catapult into the mainstream.
That is a matter of praxis as well, of course.
We are so close to getting something working here... we need funding of some type. Minuscule podcasts and publishers like me just aren't enough to build a new culture.