TruthBook Religious News Blog

09/11/09

Religion in America is on the decline and has been dropping since the turn of the century. That's not an atheist's happy dream. It's the conclusion of researchers at Faith Communities Today (FACT), the multi-year study of American religion quarterbacked by the Hartford Seminary's Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

The group released a preliminary look this week at results from a major survey done last year. For the bottom line, I really can't improve on their wording:

"The clear and consistent short-term direction is negative -- including worship attendance growth, spiritual vitality and sense of mission and purpose. And as suggested by the eight-year decline in financial health. . . . it is likely that the broader erosion of vitality dates to at least 2000. What makes this even more sobering is the fact that this pattern of decline, here shown for American congregations as a whole, also holds within each of FACT's four primary faith families -- old-line Protestantism, Evangelical Protestantism, Catholic and Orthodox, and Other World Religions with few exceptions."

You want numbers?

Please click on "external source" for the complete article.

Labels: America, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, religion

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Megachurches push for greater spirituality

CATHY LYNN GROSSMAN
September 27, 2008

After decades of soaring growth, the phenomenon of Protestant megachurches — behemoths of belief where 2,000 to 20,000 or more people attend weekend worship — may be stalled.

And Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., the granddaddy of "seeker-sensitive" megachurches geared to attract the spiritually curious, is on a mission to rev the engines.

On paper, megachurches look like a trend still on the rise. Their total number rose from 600 in 2000 to more than 1,250 in 2005, says sociologist Scott Thumma of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in Hartford, Conn.

On Outreach magazine's 2008 list of the largest 100, even the smallest says more than 7,000 people attend. But some of the biggest, including Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, with 43,500, showed slight declines.

Experts see more troubling concerns than slowing growth: no measurable inroads on overall church attendance and signs that many churchgoers are spectators, not driving toward a deeper faith.

"You can create a church that's big, but is still not transforming people. Without transformation, the Christian message is not advanced," says Ed Stetzer, head of Lifeway Research in Nashville, Tenn., which did the Outreach study.

The unchurched remain untouched. While the number of people who say they attend at least once a week hovers around 30 percent year after year, the number who say they "never" go to church climbs.

The tally of "nevers" varies from 16 percent in Gallup surveys to 22 percent in the General Social Survey, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, to 32 percent in an Ellison Research survey this year. The new "nevers" come from the pool of people who once attended monthly or a few times a year.

Many slide away from church to find other answers to their spiritual quest or another church where the preaching or music or family programs better suit their style.

The study, now being marketed to churches nationwide as a self-assessment tool, found many who attend church are not progressing from beginner believers to become "fully centered in Christ" — deep in Bible study, prayer and service.

In response, founder and senior pastor Bill Hybels has changed his sermons to more directly challenge worshipers at every level. Willow has launched a slate of dozens of Wednesday mini-classes focusing on spiritual growth, coached and mentored by the church.

Willow is still "seeker-obsessed," says Hybels. "But today's seekers are different" than years ago.

Today, he says, "I don't think anyone is wandering around looking for a mild dose of God. They want to know: 'What would a life centered on Christ look like in my life? What would that feel like? How do I go about it?' "

Labels: Cathy Lynn Grossman, church, faith, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, megachurches, Scott Thumma, spirituality, unchurched