I am not religious and have no desire to start being now but sometimes I just want the community people get with church. I am craving connection with the community and feel it’s very healthy for families and neighbors as well. The United States is seriously lacking in third spaces and communities. It’s leading to a serious loneliness epidemic… Just wondering if there is anything that can fill that need for non-religious folks?
Church seems to fill the hobby need and has some of the same core aspects
Honestly replacement really could be as simple as finding a group that fits your hobbies (I’m in a writing group for example)
Alternatively volunteer, it checks a lot of the same boxes (sense of community, trying to make things better) with none of the religious bits (assuming you find an agnostic organization)
Church is definitely easier to keep managed than the other options. I thought I finally found a hobby group of people I enjoyed hanging out with, but after a couple weeks everyone just stopped talking to each other. We even have a Discord group and the last message was sent in mid-December.
I’ve also struggled to find much for volunteer work that gets me connected to people I’d want to be around. Seems like the only people doing volunteer stuff are people 10+ years younger than me, usually young girls, which just makes me feel uncomfortable being the only guy in his 30s.