For what it's worth, I tried that a few years ago. It worked for a while. Then I realized that my church relationships were paper thin and that I'd be forgotten the day I stopped coming and/or I started showing that I didn't really believe in what was preached.

Got better connections through improv acting and role-playing game.

YMMV

I can only commend this, but people should be aware that not every church is equally welcoming. But usually every town has at least one that is!

That’s possibly useful on an individual level, but not a solution. If existing institutions didn’t solve loneliness yet they aren’t going to without changing something.

Promoting church attendance might help, but so would any number of group activities the issue is why that stuff is in decline not that stuff not working.

As a kid I went to church with my family and it was full of nice people who wanted to help others and were very kind, lots of my parents friends were and are from church.

Unfortunately, it is gut-wrenching for me to be in church. I feel terrible, because I simply don't believe any of it. To stand there and be phony and pretend to love and believe in Jesus just kills me.

"Just join a group"

The whole point is that they're not doing that, not that they can't or that its really hard to do.

Would be great if you didn't need to believe in a supernatural being.

Unless you grew up surrounded by nonbelievers I'm guessing half a year ago wasn't the first time you've ever been to a church and there's a little more to this anecdote.

No thanks. If you've ever worked somewhere that had Sunday church crowd customers, you'd know to stay away from these people.

Sounds good, but I would have a hard time pretending to take it seriously. I wouldn’t want to lie to them.

The problem with this answer, as with so much about various activities is that it selects for those who can.

> supports the idea that regular church attendance helps reduce loneliness by fostering social connections, support networks, and a sense of community.

Correlation does not establish causation. Regular church attendance dominantly occurs among people who have shared values (clustered around what the church teaches); that doesn't imply that an outsider can just choose to fit in.

This is "lie to join a group" for people who don't believe, and the dishonesty has negative effects on people as well.

[flagged]