Faith leaders looking to fill their pews face stiff competition for the attention of church members with lures ranging from ballgames and ideal surf conditions to a demanding list of chores or even a leisurely brunch.

With church attendance at an all-time low across the nation, according to the Public Religion Research Institute and the Pew Research Center, religion scholar and author Diana Butler Bass says the time has come to take church to where people are.

This week Bass served as scholar-in-residence at the Parish of St. Clement in Makiki.

During one of her talks at the Episcopalian parish, Bass said that over the past few decades in the United States, "we’ve seen staggering figures of religious decline; 1 in 5 consider themselves unaffiliated with any religion," or spiritual but not religious, agnostic or atheistic. She and others in her field admit being "shocked at the enormous dislocation of religious identity, especially among younger Americans."

"We’re literally living in a huge period of shift and change and dealing with a cultural deck that’s stacked against us. So, if you have children who aren’t attending church, it’s not your fault. It should take a huge burden of guilt off your shoulders," Bass said, eliciting laughter from the churchgoers gathered for her Sunday talk.

Bass said every denomination is asking the same question: "What are we doing wrong?" And many faith leaders have responded by attempting to fix the internal glitches — redesigning parish governing bodies or hiring new organists, for example — in hopes that everything will fall into place, she said.

Bass contended that such fixes fall short of addressing the full scope of the problem. "I think we have a theological problem," she said.

Bass said she had an epiphany a few years ago on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks while attending a memorial at a church in Virginia, where she lives. She became so upset with the guest speaker’s message that she walked out onto the street. A nearby festival drew her attention, and that’s where she maintains she found the Holy Spirit’s presence and vitality.

"All of a sudden I understood what people who had left the church felt, why so many people don’t want to be in church anymore — understood it on a deeply moral level. People are asking the question, Where is God? … God had somehow left the (church) building."

Pointing above her head, Bass said, "We still have churches that are functioning as if God lives up here and that the essential question that people are worried about is going to hell, and that’s no longer true. The essential understanding is that God is with us, but people are far less worried about going to hell than they are worried about us creating a hell on earth."

To be an effective church in the 21st century means changing "the theological structure of the universe whereby God has come off God’s throne and decided to live with us," she said.

As an example of faith on the street, Bass pointed to the recent violence that surfaced in Baltimore during protests after the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody.

"The faith leaders in Baltimore left their building and joined (protesters) on the street, and it was their presence on the street that began to bring peace and change the entire situation."

"I actually think what really needs to happen is the church needs to get out in the world all the time," Bass said. "So it’s not really about bringing people in the building. … In churches people learn things, but they should never be isolated in the church; the church should have porous boundaries."

Taking the church to wherever people assemble is the message in Bass’ latest book, "Grounded: Reconnecting the Kingdom of Heaven With Our Life on Earth." Bass is a national commentator on the societal changes affecting the contemporary church and spiritual practice, and has written several books on the topic, including "Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening."

During Sunday’s talk at St. Clement, she said writing her new book, which will be released in October by HarperCollins Publishers, brought her to a crossroads in her own faith.

"This whole journey for me has been a theological revolution in my own soul. It’s almost a confession or conversion narrative of a person born in the last days of a vertical God," she said with a laugh.

"That’s how I think about it," Bass said, adding that she now "finds herself living with God on the street."

She continued, "For the Jesus story to make sense in this new world, we’re going to have to figure out how to tell the story anew and how to invite people to hear our story on the street."