Worship has been described as "the primary work of the congregation." It is certainly critical in the life and ministry of the church. Worship is the one activity that involves the entire congregation. It is our primary contact with our community. When people are looking for a church they start by attending worship. And often it is worship that becomes the deciding factor in determining whether or not a person will continue a relationship with a church. Most people consider worship to be the primary motivation and encouragement for the life of faith.
At First Presbyterian worship is a vibrant blend of worship styles, music, the dramatic and visual arts, and participatory engagement of the congregation. Our aim is to capture the energy and spiritual quality of contemporary worship while embracing the richness of traditional worship.
Worship design and content are highly regarded at First Presbyterian. Staff resources are devoted to the careful planning of each service. We began 2025 with the annual worship theme: “Rooted in Faith, Growing in Grace”. A monthly theme is selected to support that theme. Recent themes include:
A Message From Pastor RJ Leek
10/06/26
A ONE-PAGE BRIEFING · FOR STUDY, DISCUSSION, AND ACTION
THE LONELINESS EPIDEMIC
How Isolation Is Harming Every Generation — and What Has Changed Since the Phone and COVID
WHY LONELINESS IS DANGEROUS
Loneliness is not mere sadness. The U.S. Surgeon General (2023) called it a public-health epidemic. About half of American adults report measurable
loneliness; Cigna’s 2025 study classified 57% as lonely. Isolation raises risk of premature death on a scale comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day —
greater than obesity or inactivity. Documented risks include +29% heart disease, +32% stroke, +50% dementia in older adults, more than double the risk
of depression, plus anxiety, weaker immunity, and lower civic engagement. Young men 15–34 in the U.S. report more daily loneliness than young women
(Gallup).
HOW IT HITS EACH GENERATION — AND THE CHIEF CAUSES
Generation % Lonely* Chief drivers of loneliness in this cohort
Gen Z (≈18–27) 67% Grew up on smartphones; COVID hit during formative years; weak in-person social practice; comparison culture;
delayed dating/marriage; many close ties are screen-only.
Millennials (≈28–43) 65% Later marriage and children; high housing/debt costs; work + screens crowding out friends; fewer neighborhood ties;
pandemic years of remote life.
Gen X (≈44–59) 60% “Sandwich” years (teens + aging parents); shrinking friend circles; work stress; AARP finds 45–59s now lonelier than
those 60+.
Boomers (≈60–78) 44% Retirement, widowhood, empty nest, adult children living far away; mobility and health limits. Lower reported
loneliness than the young, but isolation still raises dementia and death risk.
*Cigna / Evernorth Loneliness in America 2025. Other polls use different questions; the age gradient is the same: the young are loneliest.
COMMUNITY AFTER COVID
The pandemic did not start the slide; it accelerated it.
• Time with friends in person: about 60 minutes/day in 2003 → 20 minutes/day
in 2020. Ages 15–24 saw a ~70% drop.
• Close friends: 49% of Americans had 3 or fewer in 2021, vs. 27% in 1990.
• Formal volunteering: 23.2% in 2021, rebound to 28.3% (2022–23) — still below
pre-COVID. Hours per volunteer fell (about 97 → 70).
• Church: median in-person attendance crashed to 45 in 2021, recovered to 70
by 2025 (pre-COVID ~65; it was 137 in 2000). Gallup 2025: 57% seldom or never
attend worship; 31% weekly.
Habits of gathering — clubs, neighbors, pews, potlucks — did not snap back to
2019 levels for many people.
THE CELL PHONE
The iPhone arrived in 2007; smartphones became majority devices around 2012
— the same window when teen hanging-out and mental-health measures turned
sharply worse.
Phones did not create loneliness, but they displace the thing that heals it:
unhurried, face-to-face presence. Two-plus hours a day on social media is linked
with roughly double the odds of feeling isolated. Conversations that once
happened on porches, in youth groups, and after church now compete with a
device designed to never let you look up.
Gen Z is the most digitally native generation — and the loneliest. Connection
on a screen is not the same as belonging in a room.
WHO IS NOT MARRIED — TODAY VS. THE 1950s–60s
Marriage has long been America’s most common daily source of companionship. Its delay and decline leave more people without that built-in bond. Young men remain
slightly more likely than young women to be single. Analysts estimate as many as 1 in 3 of today’s young adults may reach midlife never having married — vs. single-digit
shares at age 45 in 1960.
Measure 1950s–1960 America Today (≈2024–25)
Adults not currently married 28% (1960) 50% (2024)
Never-married adults (all ages) 15% (1960) 32% (2024)
Ages 18–29 unmarried 41% (1960) 84% (2024)
Ages 30–39 unmarried 15% (1960) 48% (2024)
Median age at first marriage Men 22.5 / Women 20.1 (1956 low) Men 30.8 / Women 28.4 (2025)
Ever-married by age 25 ~75% of men, ~85% of women (late 1960s) ~20% of men, ~23% of women