I posted this as a comment somewhere else but it's a large thread and thought it merited its own discussion:
Does the church body have a responsibility to help its members find good employment and/or marriage prospects? I’m just curious. I left church decades ago at the age of 19 or so. It seems to me like the church abandoned young men. Like, looking back, they gave one 16-year old boy a job of picking weeds in the parking lot. No one in that community had a businesses or opportunities to hand to the dozen or so boys in their own “community?” If I founded a church I’d have a room where at the very least the young men could live in bunk beds while they acquire money and figure out their next steps.
I dont think so, at least im not aware of this. The only thing i can think of is along the lines of marriage, My pastor requires you do marriage counseling before. He and his wife counsel you. Matchmaking though? We also have bible studies for specific groups like young men. as far as housing, nothing as far as an official policy. But if a member needed help im sure the church would figure something out.
A good church will support their men and teach them merit based work ethic, teaching them how to be men. A bad church will cater to emotions, feelings based worship, pop-psychologism and "how tos" such as "how to be "happy."" Every one of these is a red flag.
Find a church that teaches verse-by-verse/thought-for-thought/chapter-by-chapter directly from the Bible itself. Calvary Chapel Movement.
Most people in churches barely know each other nowadays. A lot of them will attend mass (some of them entering early or leaving right after communion,) and never talk to anyone nor attend fundraisers or other community events. So if someone started asking for employment opportunities, most parishioners would immediately be distrustful.
As for marriage prospects, if you let slip to some of the higher-ups in the laity, the ones who do all the organizing and administrative work in the church, that you're single, instead of helping you find a marriage prospect they will try to convince you that you were called to the single life and try to get you to help the church like them.
You would be accused of sexual impropriety so fast it would make your head spin.
You’re probably right about the impropriety accusations.
Yeah the disconnectedness of church goers is really weird to me. The only reason I would even go to church rather than watch a recorded service or read the bible alone is for the community, which to me would imply real-world connections and opportunities. But friends are like that too these days, they don’t help you get jobs where they work or help you find good people to date. It’s just an atomized world, I guess.
That's bc they are not being actual churches Mmany current churches put together their Worship Services to make them a "good experience" for attendees. That IS NOT the purpose of going to church. Worshipping God, not man, is the real reason for going to church. This can be observed by your attendance. If you see the emphasis on making everybody feel good, you are in the Wrong Church. There ARE actual churches out here...just have to spend some time online reading their websites. My church is now ab 40% people who have found us online, after waking up to the fact their old churches were not being biblical. May God bless yu as you search