The faithful are restless, a new study of Protestant churchgoers suggests.

They're switching from church to church, powered by a mix of dissatisfaction and yearning, according to the study by LifeWay Research. The organization is part of the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination.

Most of the switchers who changed their house of worship without making a residential move (58%) say their old church failed to engage their faith, or put their talents to work, or it seemed hypocritical or judgmental.

But 42% of the people say they switched because another church offered more appealing doctrines and preaching or the preacher and church members' faith seemed more "authentic."

Cathy Lee Grossman has the story in USA Today.

Boom in Christianity Reshapes Methodists

Rachel Zoll, Associated Press

The United Methodist Church is the latest Protestant group caught in the shifting currents of world Christianity. While the American denomination is shrinking at home, its congregations in the developing world are growing explosively.

Over the last decade, the number of United Methodists outside the U.S. more than tripled. The denomination's largest district is now in the West African nation of Ivory Coast. At the next national church assembly, the 2008 General Conference in Texas, overseas delegates will have more say than ever in the church's future—as many as 30 percent could come from abroad.

Read more »

There is a reformation going on and it is good, according to a post on Future Politics, which focuses on the progressive youth movement. The writer commends "the dedication shown by the Episcopal Church to Jesus’ teachings about including the outcast is at the forefront of this reformation, split,and reevaluation. And if - if - we can hand these guys a mic when the “news” hits about the split, it could reconfigure how a lot of people view christianity. Move the goalposts, dammit!"

The post, which also appears here, has a really fine and colorful summary of both the differences between the Episcopal Church and other churches, but also differences within the Anglican Communion.

His analysis is that the church is splitting between those who fear those who have "cooties" and those who will welcome anyone.

The writer says that the questions being debated now in the Church will either pave the way for millenials to find a spiritual home or cause them to stay away when these issues begin to matter more to them.

A cradle Anglican from Canada writes on the church and its message for those looking for a place to worship and finding a spiritual home:

"Traditional churches like the Anglican Church can't afford not to
change with the times. Lots of people my age and younger aren't cradle
Anglicans or cradle Baptists, or what have you. Even if they are, they
join their unaffiliated peers and go church-shopping, comparing
different service and churches until they find one where they fill (sic)
fulfilled and comfortable. Does the Anglican Church really want to
start turning people away because it's hung up on tradition and rules?

But that's really a practical concern. More pressing is the question
Cruikshank posed rhetorically: Do we want to treat people as human or
sub-human? "

Read it all HERE

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Excerpts from: "The Life of an Afro-Anglican by Earl Clinton Williams, Jr." on Bishop Marc Andrus' blog, on contemplation and living for justice.

Being born and brought up in the Episcopal Church has been an interesting thing to experience. Most of my friends through school did not attend the Episcopal Church, and when I would tell them what church I did attend, they would ask what Episcopal meant. I remember working at a camp in the Pocono Mountains and being asked that question by another counselor. He responded by saying "Oh, you go to one of those quiet churches." All that I could do was to smile and say that I did. I think that it was at that point in my life in which I noticed that most of the Episcopalians that I knew were white. Sure two of my best friends and most of my mother's family were Episcopalians, and were black, but I really didn't know many other Black Episcopalians.

When I moved to Oakland in 1980, I figured that since I had made a change in where I lived, I might as well change the church denomination that I attended. After being here for a little over a month and attending other church denominations, I awoke one Sunday morning needing to go to an Episcopal service. I asked my aunt, whose house I was living in at the time, where the closest Episcopal Church was. We looked in the phonebook and found two that were close by. She drove me over to the first one, but I just didn't like the color that the church was painted, so we drove over to the second one, and she asked me if I wanted to go to that one or back to the first one. I looked at the clock and saw that service was about to start, and said that I would go to that one. Now I wasn't thrilled with the looks of this church either from the outside, but it had a better paint job. When I walked through the doors, I knew that I was home. My searches for a new denomination lead me back to the one that I was already in.

Like I did in with the congregations, I wonder what this diocese really has to offer and I to offer as a person of color? Why should I put the effort in to do things on the Diocesan level when I know that when I walk on the ground and in the buildings of the Episcopal Diocese at California & Taylor that I will only see a couple of pictures of people of color, and I had to look hard for those? It bothers me at times to go onto the property and the only people of color that I see working anywhere there are "Indians" and not "Chiefs". It bothers me that we have one of the finest seminaries in the world and the best School for Deacons in the world, but the vocations of being either a Priest or Deacon really isn't presented to the youth of color as viable careers.

As I have sat in commission meetings not too long ago, I have come to realize that those of us who are Afro-Anglicans really don't know each other, or get involved here. I know that some of it has to do with the lack of color in DioHouse, but I think that if we get involved that we could make a difference on who is inside there. Yes I want for the Bishop to hire the best-qualified people for jobs regardless of their color, but it would be great to walk into that place and know that we of color have some voices inside those walls. We of color would then feel as though we really matter to the diocese.

I'm going to continue this joyful ride in this diocese with the belief that this diocese will help in fulfilling the dream of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many other great Black leaders. I believe that some day some day we will not think about trying to become multicultural and multiethnic, but a place where when we build new churches that they will be that way naturally. I want for their to be a time and the norm that when the National General Convention meets that when resolutions come from this diocese, they don't get discussed in committees, but go straight to both Houses and are fully supported by all, for people will know that they have come from a diocese that works together regardless of the color of our skin.

The diocese has begun to change in that it does listen to the voices of those not within the now one Afrocentric congregation. Now we just need to get Afro-Anglicans and other people of color involved at all levels of the diocese. We need to get our Clergy of Color to be visible to the youth of color so that our youth realize that becoming a Cleric of Color is a viable career.

I call upon the diocese to find visible place on the grounds of Grace Cathedral to place pictures of current clergy and laity of color, so that all will see that this is not a diocese or church of nothing but Europeans, but that we are diverse.

I call upon the Clergy and Laity of color within this diocese to get involved with the different Ethnic Commissions, and to be visible at different events not only at the diocesan level, but also at events held at other congregations.

It's going to take more than just the office to make changes and us visible. We must also go out and do what it takes to make the world know that we are an inclusive to all regardless of our color.

Read the rest here.

The Washington Post has a write-up on religion's increasing visibility in a virtual environment with millions of users:

In Second Life, the online virtual universe that is attracting 3.7 million users, you can light virtual candles for Shabbat, teleport to a Buddhist temple or consult the oracle for some divine guidance.

Second Life is a three-dimensional, online game produced by San Francisco-based Linden Lab in which participants create a virtual world, buy and sell land and products and interact in all the usual ways.

Now religion has a growing presence there, too, users say, and religious diversity and participation have skyrocketed since last June, when basic membership to Second Life became free.

The whole article is here.

Helen at the SL Anglican Cathedral

A Christian community for those who call themselves: Anglicans, Episcopalians or members of the Church of England, Episcopal Church or any of the other bodies of believers who share the Anglican heritage.

During the past couple of months, Mark Brown (known as Arkin Ariantho in SL, and CEO of The Bible Society in New Zealand) has spearheaded a campaign to secure land for and build an Anglican Cathedral in SL, which has a real economy. The Cathedral is located at Epiphany Island and you can see pictures at Brown's Flickr site, here.

Users of Second Life can visit the Cathedral here (and look me up, as Vahnia Gregory). For more information on Second Life, including the technical requirements needed to run the software, visit here.

And stay tuned for possible developments with the Episcopal Cafe in Second Life.

It has long been conventional wisdom that the increased education results in reduced adherance to faith. A new study by several sociologists at the University of Texas suggests that this conventional wisdom is wrong. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which tracked more than 10,000 Americans from adolescence through young adulthood from 1994 to 1995 and from 2001 to 2002, the researchers found that students who attend and graduate from college are more likely than others to hold on to their faith.

As Inside Higher Ed reports:

Whether the source is God and Man at Yale or any number of more recent studies, the conflict between a college education and the faith that students bring to campus (secular campuses at least) is well accepted. The more you pursue a higher education, the more likely you are to abandon your faith — at least that’s what conventional wisdom holds.

“Actually we’ve just been wrong about this for quite a while,” said Mark D. Regnerus, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and one of the authors of a new study that suggests students who attend and graduate from college are more likely than others to hold on to their faith.

It’s not that colleges necessarily encourage faith, he said, but for all the talk about how intellectuals are out to destroy students’ relationships to their religions and God, the main obstacles to such relationships have to do with maturing and how young people spend their time. “Some kids were bound to lose [their faith] anyway and they do,” Regnerus said. But the evidence suggests that college isn’t responsible.
. . .
The data were mined for trends on three factors of religious activity: attendance at religious services, relative importance of religion, and disaffiliation from religion. A substantial majority of young adults report a decline in attendance at religious services, while a minority report that religion has become less important and that they have completely dropped their religion. But the greatest drops come from those who are not in college.

Those who did not attend college had the highest level of reduced religious activity: they had a 76.2% decline in attending services, a 23.7% decline in a reported mportance of religion in their lives, and a 20.3% disaffiliation from religion altogether. In contrast, while those who earned at least a college degree had significant reductions in religious activity, it was much less than other groups: they had a 59.2% decline in attending services, a 15% decline in a reported importance of religion in their lives, and a 15% disaffiliation from religion altogether.

The lead author of the study, Mark D. Regnerus, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas, offered some speculations as why this would be the case:

Regnerus said that what the study suggests — and his personal experience confirms — is that while there are plenty of non-religious professors around, they aren’t trying to discourage any students from practicing their faith. “Of course there are some who are hostile to religion. But they don’t teach that. They teach their discipline,” Regnerus said. The attitude, he added, is: “Whatever I think about evangelicals, when I go to teach quantum physics, I teach quantum physics.”

More broadly, so many students are in pre-professional programs, Regnerus said, that they are focused on practical matters much more than on wondering whether God exists. As a Christian who earned his undergraduate degree at Trinity Christian College, Regnerus said he spent a lot of time talking about philosophical issues in college, but that’s not the norm for many undergrads these days. (Christian colleges in recent years have experienced a boom, in part from students who don’t want to become secular, or whose parents don’t want them to become secular, and Regnerus said his study doesn’t contradict that belief. Because there is a decline in religious connection during the college years — looking at religious and secular institutions together — those at religious colleges are less likely to experience that decline.)

Behavioral factors, he said, are a better way than college status to predict whether young adults will become less religious. Those who don’t have sex before marriage are also those who don’t experience as much of a drop in religious connection. Those who have smoked pot experience more of a drop. Those who increase alcohol consumption during their young adulthood experience more of a drop in religious connection.

Read the full Inside Higher Ed article here.

What lessons does this study offer the Episcopal Church? Isn't the real story here the fact that all young people have a large drop off in attending religious services and the importance of religion in their lives? Does this suggest that this is a group that the church is failing to reach?

Let's face it, the age demographic of the Episcopal Church skews heavily to the older part of the age range, and we have not done nearly as well as we should in atracting the twentysomething crowd. Bishop Kirk Smith of the Diocese of Arizona would like this to change, and he is taking lessons from the "Emerging Church" movement. Here is Bishop Smith's email report to his Diocese about a visit to a storefront Emerging Church in Phoenix Arizona:

[W]e decided that instead of just reading about it, we would talk to some people actually involved. So we invited two members of a nearby storefront church called "One Place" to be with us for the morning.

Mark and Kevin are the co-pastors of this group of about 75 young people. Both are in their middle twenties, and both sport elaborate tattoos (except they are bible verses in both Greek and Hebrew!). They started this downtown community because they had been to the "First Friday" gatherings which attract several thousand young people to the downtown area to experience art and music, and they felt that God was calling them to be present here. They and a small group refurbished an old warehouse, and the church was born. Although they both have some theological education, neither one takes a salary, and they support themselves through various day jobs.

My group was very impressed. Here was a group of 20 year olds-a group largely absent from our ranks-living out their Christian faith in a deeply committed way. We were impressed by their theological depth (their favorite theologians were N.T. Wright, Dietrich Bonhoffer and Henri Nouwen), their commitment (many had moved into the city as a sign of solidarity with the poor), but above all with their willingness to accept people wherever they might be on their spiritual walk. Moreover, we were particularly impressed with their willingness to let God set their agenda, instead of trying to control their own future-"This is what we feel we need to be about now, in this way-but God may have different things in store for us." They spoke a lot about "doing church" rather than "going to church."

After they had left us, we compiled a list of the qualities that impressed us: Faithfulness, authenticity, a willingness to practice what they preached, a true hospitality and inclusiveness, a trustfulness in God that allowed them to experiment rather than to enforce rules or dogmas, and a prayerful humility that turned control over to God.

After we made the list, we realized that this could also be a description of our own congregations at their best! We had much in common (well, except maybe for the tattoos and the rock music), and our goals were the same. As one of the pastors said to me as he was leaving-"We don't have any magic answers-we are just doing our best to live a Christian life."

Their visit gave me hope. The Holy Spirit is always at work in the world in new and unexpected ways. When It is hampered by institutional structures that are moribund, fearful, and caught up in power issues, it will find a new place to work. We should never forget that.

When I was reading the Book of Acts last week, I was reminded from where our visitors took their name: "And when the day of Pentecost had come, they [the disciples] were all together in one place." (Acts 2. 1). We look forward to learning and working with this new "emergent" group of young Christians. May we always be together in that "one place," united in the Spirit and the work of the Kingdom.

This was an exciting visit. The church is close to the Cathedral in Phoenix, and the Dean of the Cathedral is eager make a stronger connection with the One Place church. Are there similar storefront churches in your area that are part of the emerging church movement? Has the Episcopal Church made an outreach to these churches in your area?

God has returned to Europe. So reports The Wall Street Journal. The question is, why? The WSJ offers up the supply-side theory, and the facts appear to fit.

The supply-side theory says that church membership will be strong where the competition is strong and churches are competing for numbers. Old Europe (to coin a phrase) had monopoly churches, churches established and funded by the state without regard to their performance. In contrast, everyone knows that Americans are much more religious the Europeans. The common explanation is that Americans are different. That's the demand-side explanation; that Americans are exceptional. The supply-side explanation is institutional: separation of church and state. Ironically, in choosing not to have established churches the authors of the Constitution created an environment in which religiousity was strong.

The Wall Street Journal article paints a familiar but still striking picture of religion in the Old Europe:

"The state undermined the church from within," says Stefan Swärd, a leader of Sweden's small but growing evangelical movement.

Consider the scene on a recent Sunday at Stockholm's Hedvig Eleonara Church, a parish of the Church of Sweden, a Lutheran institution that until 2000 was an official organ of the Swedish state. Fewer than 40 people, nearly all elderly, gathered in pews beneath a magnificent 18th-century dome. Seven were church employees. The church seats over 1,000.

Hedvig Eleonara has three full-time salaried priests and gets over $2 million each year though a state levy. Annika Sandström, head of its governing board, says she doesn't believe in God and took the post "on the one condition that no one expects me to go each Sunday." The church scrapped Sunday school last fall because only five children attended.

Just a few blocks away, Passion Church, an eight-month-old evangelical outfit, fizzed with fervor. Nearly 100 young Swedes rocked to a high-decibel band: "It's like adrenaline running through my blood," they sang in English. "We're talking about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus."

One factor now spurring religious competition in Europe is the availability of state money that traditionally flowed almost entirely to established churches. It still does, but the process is more open.

In Italy, the state used to pay the salaries of Catholic priests, but in 1984 it began letting taxpayers choose which religious groups get financial support. The proceeds of a new "religious tax" of 0.8% are now divided, according to taxpayer preference, among the Catholic Church, four non-Catholic churches, the Jewish community and a state religious and humanitarian fund.

The result is an annual beauty contest ahead of a June income-tax deadline, as churches try to lure taxpayer money with advertising campaigns. Catholics get the lion's share -- 87% of nearly $1.2 billion in 2004, the last year for which figures are available. But according to a 2005 study by Italian lawyer Massimo Introvigne and Mr. Stark, the system "reminds Italians every year that there is a religious economy."

Sweden has also overhauled church financing. In 2000, the government gave up formal control of the Church of Sweden. With great fanfare it replaced what had been a church "tax" with an annual "fee," still collected by tax authorities, levied on Church of Sweden members.

For the first time, taxpayers were told what they owed in cash -- instead of being given just a percentage figure, which is typically under 1% of household income. Church of Sweden membership dropped abruptly, and the church launched a publicity drive pitching religion.

The Daily Episcopalian discussed Episcopalian membership trends from the supply-side perspective here, and from the demand-side here.

Filed under church growth, but that may be misleading—the Rev. Michael Ruk is one of an apparently growing number of priests that are heading up more than one church, according to the Bucks County Courier Times.

Doubling up this way is a new phenomenon in the Episcopal Church. The Episcopalians — like many mainstream denominations — are finding there aren't enough clergy to go around and because most Episcopal churches have small congregations, few can support one full-time minister, Ruk said.

“It's an economic move, an example of thinking outside the box. It will be quite an adventure,” Ruk said.

Bishop Charles Bennison was also interviewed for the article, noting that this trend wasn't necessarily a sign of shrinking attendance so much as a reflection of the times. During the colonial period, it was necessary for people to be close to their churches.

... Early American settlers developed a pattern of building many small Episcopal churches very close to each other, each with its own full-time clergyman. The church was the center of a community's social life and the faithful needed to be able to walk to their houses of worship.

The invention of the automobile and the increased diversity of the population soon found many Episcopalian worshippers traveling to bigger, more centralized churches, Bennison said.

“The early setup was an economic model for church life that is no longer practical,” the bishop said.

"Yoked" parishes and parish clusters are related arrangements with one or more clergy pastoring multiple churches. In some cases, Bennison noted, a church might sell its property and disband to become part of another Episcopal church.

“But just because a church closes, doesn't mean it's dying. We'd rather have 100,000 people worshipping in 80 churches than 25,000 worshipping in 150 churches,” Bennison said.

Churches can be sizable institutions with serious administrative responsibilities. To what extent should the Church look to the secular business community for assistance? These are questions that are explored in a commentary by Tom Horwood in the Guardian.

Noting that the Catholic Church in England turned to an outside commission (the Cumberlege Commission) to advise it about how to prevent future child abuse by clergy in the future, Horwood notes that churches have much to learn about leadership and management:

At the same time, like the rest of the voluntary sector, churches are having to become more professional - from child protection to health and safety, financial accountability to data protection. This draws faith leaders out of their comfort zone because they have tended to rely on traditional models of hierarchy to govern their flocks. They were normally recruited on the basis on orthodoxy and conservatism, and received little training when they were promoted.

There is a resistance to this change, as the Cumberlege report notes. Some religious leaders would prefer to devote all their energies to spiritual and pastoral matters, despite being responsible for multimillion-pound charities and large workforces. There is a temptation to leave practical problems to others. Yet Cumberlege criticises this attitude because it fails to make vital issues such as child protection part of the mainstream life of the organisation. Faith leaders need to be, and be seen to be, in the driving seat if the necessary culture change is to happen.

To effect this change, other organisations can teach churches a thing or two. Secular management theory has been grappling with change management for the last decade, as companies and the public sector have increasingly valued the importance of persuading people to modify how they behave to improve the organisation, whether the motivation is profit or public service. This way of thinking is now commonplace and mainstream, but it has yet to make a significant impact in most faith communities.

Elements of what works in the secular working world can be consistent with the ethos of religion. Strategic management does not conflict with theology or doctrine. I and other writers, managers and pastors across the denominations have been suggesting ways of integrating good management practice with faith.

Those who argue that the two are irreconcilable could consider these words of the management author Charles Handy, written for a secular audience in language that could be as at home in the presbytery as the boardroom: "The leader's first job is to be missionary, to remind people what is special about them and their institutions; second it is to set up the infrastructure" to make things happen.

If faith leaders took to heart the lessons of other sectors, they would be better able to set strategies for what their communities would look like in the future. They would inspire people to bring about a shared vision, rather than responding defensively to crises. They could bring about the attitude changes the Cumberlege Commission believes are so necessary. They could find new ways of turning their faith communities into the beacons of hope and inspiration they aspire to be.

Read it all here.

When is it appropriate for the church to learn from the business community? Is there a danger that this can lead us to buy into the more materialistic aspects of our culture?

The Rev. Tom Ehrich, writer for On a Journey, suggests that churches declare August customer service month in his most recent syndicated column. The reason? Churches are competing for "business" in much the same way that banks and hardware stores. It's not that salvation is a commodity, he notes, but he was inspired by customer service agents poised to meet his needs from the moment he walked in to his new bank.

Imagine a similar cadre of customer service reps positioned inside the church door. Imagine them trained to do more than hand out a bulletin or point toward a coffee urn. Instead, they would engage both visitor and member and respond appropriately to their different needs.

Imagine another cadre trained to respond to people after worship.

Instead of a long line hoping for 10 seconds of the pastor's time, imagine people trained in the delicate craft of identifying need, helping people talk to one another and gathering information for pastoral follow-up.

...

These are trainable skills. Sunday greeters, for example, can be more than nice people wearing "Greeter" badges. They can be trained in the psychodynamics of being a church visitor and of coming to church mid- or post-crisis. They can prepare for questions and unusual circumstances.

The whole thing is here.

News out of Willow Creek is that programs are not the key to real success. Does this spell hope for the small and medium-sized church?

To some extent there's no arguing with sheer success in numbers. Megachurches have found a formula for attracting people to church.

To its credit, one of the most well known of those megachurches, Willow Creek, has studied it success beyond mere numbers. Moreover, it has shared those findings even though they are not entirely self affirming. Out of Ur reports:

Directly or indirectly, [their] philosophy of ministry—church should be a big box with programs for people at every level of spiritual maturity to consume and engage—has impacted every evangelical church in the country.

So what happens when leaders of Willow Creek stand up and say, “We made a mistake”?

Not long ago Willow released its findings from a multiple year qualitative study of its ministry.
...
In the Hawkins’ video he says, “Participation is a big deal. We believe the more people participating in these sets of activities, with higher levels of frequency, it will produce disciples of Christ.” This has been Willow’s philosophy of ministry in a nutshell. The church creates programs/activities. People participate in these activities. The outcome is spiritual maturity. In a moment of stinging honesty Hawkins says, “I know it might sound crazy but that’s how we do it in churches. We measure levels of participation.”

Having put all of their eggs into the program-driven church basket you can understand their shock when the research revealed that “Increasing levels of participation in these sets of activities does NOT predict whether someone’s becoming more of a disciple of Christ. It does NOT predict whether they love God more or they love people more.”

Read it all here.

Over at Opinion Journal there's a discussion of James B. Twitchell's Shopping for God:

As Mr. Twitchell acknowledges, most don't have "high barriers to entry"--that is, they don't demand a lot of their congregants. They're often referred to as "seeker" churches because they appeal to nonbelievers--and not always successfully. It's easy to get in; but it's also easy to get out.

So "pastorpreneurs," as Mr. Twitchell calls them, face a challenge: How do you get more people to join than quit? One way is by having current members proselytize. The fastest-growing denominations, Mr. Twitchell says, are "selling, selling, selling." They are "foregrounding growth as a sign of value." As he explains: "Missionary zeal is at the heart of their attraction not only because showing the Way to others is a source of jubilation but because it means that you yourself must have found your way. The value of the next sale (the convert) proves the value of the previous sale (yours)." It all comes down to a kind of narcissism, apparently, like taking pride in your Prius.

Another key to product success, Mr. Twitchell argues, is "innovations in supply." Thus megachurches offer playgrounds, coffee shops and a mall's worth of services. But megachurches have also, crucially, found ways of attracting men. Just as department stores put men's products near the entrance because they know that men are the hardest customers to draw into a retail space, so megachurches, Mr. Twitchell says, have catered to men's interests.

Citing Bill Hybels, the pastor of Willow Creek Church in Chicago, Mr. Twitchell explains: "Men are the crucial adopters in religion. If they go over the tipping point, women follow, children in tow." So now megachurches sponsor sports ministries and groups whose members ride motorcycles together. The language of prayers and sermons has moved away from a condescending lecture tone and taken up sports metaphors instead, asking congregants, for instance, to step up to the plate and help the team. In such a way are men induced to buy the megachurch product.

The article concludes, 'But consultants can only do so much, and the point of church outreach surely has less to do with improving "brands" than with saving souls.' Or advancing the Kingdom.

Read the Opinion Journal article here.

Other analysts are more positive about megachurches. See also the recent work by Scott Thumma and Dave Travis, Megachurch Myths described here. The myths:

MYTH #1: All megachurches are alike.
REALITY: They differ in growth rates, size and emphasis.

MYTH #2: Megachurches exist for spectator worship and are not serious about Christianity.
REALITY: Megachurches generally have high spiritual expectations and serious orthodox beliefs.

MYTH #3: Megachurches are not deeply involved in social ministry.
REALITY: 79 percent of churches surveyed have joined together with other churches on local community service projects, and 72 percent on international missions.

Henry G. Brinton in USA Today discusses the growth of Do It Yourself Christianity and the shrinking of brand name denominations. A story related to The Lead article on loss of members in the Episcopal Church.

A generation ago, people turned to trusted authorities such as newspapers and mainline churches to get information. But trust in such institutions has fallen over the past 30 years, eroding the relationship between Americans and a number of traditional sources of trust. A poll called the General Social Survey has asked people whether they have "a great deal of confidence" in social institutions, and their answers reveal a clear decline.

According to this survey by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, confidence has dropped since the 1970s in:

* Banks and financial institutions (From 35% to 28%).

* Major companies (26% to 17%).

* The press (24% to 9%).

* Education (36% to 27%).

* Organized religion (35% to 24%).

Whether you attribute this fall to Watergate or Enron or clergy sexual misconduct, the damage has clearly been done.

This is a serious concern to pastors like me, who serve churches associated with what used to be the "trusted brands" of Methodist, Episcopal, Lutheran, United Church of Christ, and Presbyterian Christianity. These mainline denominations grew through the 1940s and '50s but began to lose members about 1965. Today, some are one-third smaller than they were 40 years ago.

He also notes:

Of course, denominational pastors like myself have some lessons to learn from successful independent churches. I need to accept that today's spiritual seekers want quality, clarity, convenience and community in their practice of faith, and they will choose the church that offers the programs that best meet their personal needs. Few people will join my church simply because it is Presbyterian, just as a shrinking number of people will buy a car because of loyalty to General Motors. Consumers today want a product with the best features, whether it is a church with a dynamic youth program or an automobile with an excellent crash-test rating.

Individual choice and control are affecting all of our institutions, from financial organizations (Internet banking) to journalism (blogging) to education (distance learning). The church is not immune from this, and we'll see increasing diversity in the "emerging churches" that are attracting a new generation of people in their 20s and 30s who are suspicious of organized religion. Overseas, independent churches are experiencing explosive growth, especially in Brazil and South Africa, and it won't be long before churches in the USA feel the effects of this movement.

Henry G. Brinton is pastor of Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Virginia and author of Balancing Acts: Obligation, Liberation, and Contemporary Christian Conflicts.

Read it all here

Thanks to epiScope

Texas Monthly features St. James' Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas. William Martin writes of his recent visit:

One seldom encounters the Nicene Creed and the gospel-country classic “Sweet, Sweet Spirit” in the same worship service. But Austin’s St. James’ Episcopal Church, “an inclusive multicultural community,” is not your average Anglican assemblage. In the early forties, when a small group of African American Episcopalians found themselves unwelcome at the city’s all-white churches, they enlisted the Reverend John D. Epps, the dean of the Colored Convocation of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, to help them form a “Negro” congregation. Today, the five-hundred-plus-member church is fully integrated, flourishing, and such an exemplary parish that its former rector, the Reverend Greg Rickel, was installed this past summer as bishop of the Diocese of Olympia, which includes Seattle and the rest of western Washington. As an even more visible sign of its vitality, the church, which had outgrown its facilities on East Martin Luther King Boulevard, recently moved into spacious new quarters a few blocks away, on Webberville Road.

Continuing his description of the the mix of ancient liturgy and modern concerns, and highlighting the ministry of the St. James' School and the blessing of its teachers, Martin concludes:

The service ended in a grand manner, as we sang James Weldon Johnson’s rousing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which the NAACP designated “the Negro National Anthem” in 1919 and has long been a standard in black churches. It was a fine way to climax two hours of encouragement, worship, and fellowship, acknowledging the deep imperfections of our country but refusing to surrender to despair—and recognizing that churches, Episcopal and other, can be a bastion of privilege or a beacon of hope

Read it all here.

Manya Brachear of The Chicago Tribune has written a story that should be read by everyone who thinks about church growth, whether in numerical or spiritual terms.

For more than three decades, Willow Creek Community Church has defined its success by tallying the throngs who walk through its doors.

But a survey recently revealed something the South Barrington mega-church hadn't realized: Some of its members had become unsatisfied, saying they felt abandoned on their spiritual journeys.

The research yielding this uncomfortable revelation came from the business world. Using a model originally designed to find what emotionally drives consumers to buy perfume, running shoes and insurance, each of Willow's members was placed on a spectrum of belief, ranging from curious about Christ to seeing Christ at the center of their lives.

Read it all.

Brachear keeps a SAS (short and simple) blog, as well.

In USA Today Stephen Prothero writes:

For the past two years, I have asked students in my introductory religion courses at Boston University to get together in groups and invent their own religions. They present their religious creations to their classmates, and then everyone votes (with fake money in a makeshift offering plate) for the new religions they like best. This assignment encourages students to reflect on what separates "winners" and "losers" in America's freewheeling spiritual marketplace. It also yields intriguing data regarding what sort of religious beliefs and practices young people love and hate.

... my students' "dogma aversion" (as one put it) goes liberal Protestantism one further. These young people aren't just allergic to dogma. They are allergic to divinity and even heaven. In the religions of their imagining, God is an afterthought at best. And the afterlife is, as one of my students told me, "on the back burner."

What about established religion and tradition?

In their final exam this past semester, I asked my students to reflect on whether young Americans are the canaries in the mines of more traditional religions. Study after study has shown that American college students are fleeing from organized religion to mix-and-match spirituality. So what will happen to what one of my students referred to as the "religions of discipline" when this millennial generation (born in the late 1970s through the 1990s ) grows up? What will today's youth do with religions whose ethical injunctions arrive as strict commandments rather than friendly suggestions? Will they be able to abide religions that divide the human family into the saved and the damned, that present as absolute truth what they suspect is mere speculation?

My students' projects suggest that traditional religions are in trouble. Of course, these young people might eventually see the light. Who cares about heaven or hell when there is a party to go to and a hot young thing eager to meet you there? But after college, after your children are born and your parents die and your body grows old, traditional religions might look more appealing.

Read it all here.

Perhaps you were unaware the neurology plays an essential role in congregational development, especially during times to transition. In this presentation to the annual Convention of the Diocese of Washington, Peter Steinke explains to you why individuals and communities resist change, no matter how obvious the need for such change might be. And he will make you laugh as he does so.

As reported on The Lead yesterday with commentary and links, the survey on Religion in the US by the Pew Forum continues to engage churches and media with its results and possible meaning for the future of religion and its role in the US.

The Wall Street Journal comments:

America's shifting religious landscape could affect voting patterns, scholars say. Pew has found, for example, that when Latinos leave Catholicism for evangelical churches, they often become more politically conservative. The changes also could have financial implications for religious schools and social services -- homeless shelters, food pantries and clinics -- that rely on donations from religious denominations.

NPR is featuring the report on Morning Edition today.

Steve Inskeep discusses the report's findings with Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

One of the major findings, Lugo says, is that immigration trends are affecting religion demographics in America — tilting the Christian balance in the U.S. toward Catholicism and diversifying the range of choices that are nontraditional to the U.S.

According to the study, more than one-quarter of American adults (28 percent) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion — or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, 44 percent of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.

Listen live here.

The Boston Globe has some interpretive graphics to go with their report:

The new study is filled with findings about a remarkably diverse nation, with a population that is shaped by affiliation with a vast and shifting array of religious groups and sects. Every religious family - Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists - is represented by a number of subgroups. Scholars believe, for example, that the Muslim population of the United States - which is made up of African-Americans, whites, and immigrants from both south Asia and the Arab world - is more diverse than anywhere else.

From The St. Petersburg Times:

This latest challenge is not about losing weight, saving money or eating more vegetables.

It's about having sex. Lots of it. Every day, if you're married. Or not at all, if you're single.

An openly edgy Christian church in Tampa has launched a 30-Day Sex Challenge to help members improve their relationships and rediscover themselves. Single folks are to abstain from sex for 30 days, even if they are in a committed relationship. Married folks, on the other hand, are supposed to have sex every day for 30 days.

Leaders at Relevant Church launched the campaign the Sunday after Valentine's Day.

''Of course, all the guys say it's genius,'' said Pastor Paul Wirth. ``The married women think we're out of our minds.''

Read it all. Then visit the Relevant Church Web site.