December 22, 2008
Worship services may still be the USA’s most segregated hour, but fewer congregations are now completely white, finds a study comparing churches, synagogues and mosques last year with a decade ago.
The National Congregations Study says 14% of primarily white congregations reported no minorities in their midst last year, compared with 20% in 1998.
Such steep change in a short period is noteworthy because “religious traditions and organizations are widely considered to be remarkably resistant to change,” says sociology professor Mark Chaves of Duke University School of Divinity, the lead researcher. “There’s movement in the right direction.”
The study, in the journal Sociology of Religion, compared 1,505 congregations in 2006-07 with 1,234 in 1998. It was based on surveys by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for the 2006-07 data and 3 percentage points for 1998 data.
The increase in diversity is only among primarily white churches; majority black churches are as segregated as ever, Chaves says. Among primarily white congregations, the number reporting at least some blacks rose from 27% in 1998 to 36% in 2006-07; those reporting at least some Hispanics rose from 24% to 32%.
Worship is not only more diverse, it’s also “more informal and more enthusiastic by every measure,” Chaves says, with more shouting, clapping and hands raised overhead in praise. Use of drums in worship jumped 70% in eight years, from 20% in 1998 to 34% in 2006-07. “We find drums almost everywhere, even in Catholic and Jewish services,” he says.
These trends come to life in places such as Crossover Community Church in Tampa, where Sunday’s rap Christmas pageant drew “everyone from grandparents to little kids,” says pastor Tommy Kyllonen, who also goes by his hip-hop performing name, Urban D.
Since he took over Crossover seven years ago, Kyllonen, a pastor’s son whose own heritage is a European mix from Greek to Finnish, has built a diverse congregation — he estimates that the high-energy worship services attract a congregation that is about 50% Hispanic, 30% black and 20% non-Hispanic white.
“It’s still cutting-edge to have our kind of mix, but our society is becoming more and more culturally and racially mixed, and as time progresses, more churches will look like ours,” says Kyllonen, author of Un.orthodox: Church. Hip-hop. Culture.
Another multi-racial, multi-ethnic congregation is Sanctuary Covenant Church, founded by Efram Smith in 2003 in North Minneapolis. It uses every musical style from traditional hymns to hip-hop.
“Our idea is to engage everyone in prayer and service, and we found that if people know they’ll have music that is familiar to them, they’re willing to try other styles,” Smith says.
The study also found that both clergy and their congregations are substantially grayer now than in 1998. The average age of the lead clergy person in congregations has risen from 48 to 53, and one in three members are over age 60, up from one in four. This is partly the result of people living longer and fewer young families joining congregations.
“The two-parent family with kids is still the main basis of American religious congregational life, but that kind of household is somewhat less common than it used to be,” Chaves says.
“And each generation, as it reaches that stage of life, seems to be joining or returning to (a religious congregation) at a slightly lower rate than the one before it.”
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December 22, 2008
Ken Johnson, Phantom Pew Sitter, sounds like the title of a dime novel. A “phantom pew sitter,” a title coined by Johnson, is a church’s answer to the secret shoppers who slip through retail stores to assess the sales staff and facility. Johnson, now retired, has been a church consultant, preacher, church business manager, church music director and held other pivotal roles. He’s booked this time of year.
“The three most important times of the year for churches are the Sunday before Christmas, Easter Sunday and the Sundays in late July and August,” Johnson said.
“In summer, young couples with children have moved before school starts and are trying to find a church. Most churches have a tendency to lie back and relax in August. The pastor goes on vacation. The choir takes a month off. But that’s the time when you need the real service — the service people are going to be used to if they start coming to church here.”
Johnson has his phantom pew sitter consulting service down to a science. Before visiting a church, he checks its website and calls its main number, at night, to hear the recorded message.
He knew one church was in trouble when he got a brief recording so generic — “You have reached 303-xxx-xxxx; please leave a message” — that he called again, thinking he’d punched in the wrong number.
On the Sunday that Johnson attends a service, he deliberately dresses against the church’s demographic grain — suits for a contemporary church, informal clothing for a buttoned-up congregation. Will the church’s regulars approach an obvious stranger?
He arrives 45 minutes early, parking nearby to scout the parking scene. Do people greet each other as they emerge from cars? Do they park their cars together or with lots of space between vehicles? The latter is a reliable sign of an uncommunicative congregation, Johnson said.
Do greeters welcome people crossing the threshold? Are people lively and talkative, or silent? Is music playing as congregants enter? Do they sing the opening hymn?
“If I’m going to worship, then I want to worship,” Johnson said.
“But I was the only one singing, as a phantom pew sitter, at a church in Brighton. There was no reaction from others. It was a dead church.”
Other things on his checklist: Is the sermon relevant, with jokes to engage the congregation? Is the facility clean? Are children in day care or Sunday school? Is there a youth choir? Is there a bin collecting nonperishable food for the needy? Does the church bulletin describe ministry projects and upcoming events?
In the wake of his phantom pew sitter report, do churches institute the changes he suggests?
“About 35 to 50 percent of the time,” Johnson said, after a longish pause. Nearly all of his clients, he knows, hire him with the expectation of getting an “A” on his report card. But A’s are rare, and nobody likes getting a “C” or worse.
“Most churches I go to don’t do things right, but they don’t want to change what they’ve been doing for years,” he said.
“I’ve had older people tell me, ‘I know the church needs to change to grow, but they can change after I die.’ Well, by then, the church will have closed its doors. We just went through an election won by the side that said, ‘Change! Change!’ And that’s what most churches need to do.”
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December 20, 2008
I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step (1 Corinthians 9:26, NLT).
Dear friends:
Some critics have said that Campus Crusade for Christ has not always met its very ambitious goals in the past.
That may be true, but I believe it is always good to set goals. If you shoot at nothing, you are certain to hit it. If you don’t have any goals, you’re not going to achieve anything worthwhile for the glory of God.
We have always been a goal-setting movement, and I have always believed in big plans, because small plans do not influence the minds and hearts of men and women. Also, God is glorified when we bear much fruit (John 15:8), and I know that it is God who works in me to will and to act according to His good purpose (Philippians 2:13).
We have not always seen our goals fulfilled, however. For example, we set a goal of attracting 100,000 people to EXPLO ‘72 in Dallas. “Only” 85,000 showed up, which still made it the biggest event of its kind in history. Actually, more than 200,000 attended a special musical event on the last day. Approximately ten times more people participated in EXPLO ‘72 than in any other similar Christian training event. Yet some of the newspapers said it was a failure because we didn’t achieve our goal!
Friends have cautioned me against goal-setting because they think falling short of announced targets makes me look stupid. I am not worried about what people think. I want to please the Lord, so I do what He tells me to do. And God has led us to set many goals and prayer targets from the beginning of this ministry.
There is no doubt in my mind that our goals, whether we achieve them or not, have helped bring additional millions of people to Christ. So I am happy to undertake great and ambitious things for God even at the risk of failure and being criticized by others.
Goal setting involves aiming. You have to have a target at which to aim. The opposite of aiming is aimlessness. Paul said, “Aim for perfection” (2 Corinthians 13:11, NIV). Let us aim for perfection in all that we do for the Lord and He will take care of the results.
I do not believe our Lord will rebuke me for aiming at 100,000 at EXPLO ‘72 and only getting 85,000. But He might not be pleased if we only aimed and planned for 50,000 and missed those extra 35,000 He wanted to reach.
Yours for helping to fulfill the Great Commission
each year until our Lord returns,
Bill Bright
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December 08, 2008
I just returned from Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic. The purpose for my trip was to plan an event that we’ve scheduled for 2009 called Cre8Change: The Cultural Change Symposium. It is going to be an amazing time as we explore the principles and strategies of creating cultural change in various sittings. Some of the topics include:
- Cultural Change in Organizational Structures
- Cultural Change through Generational Transition
- Cultural Change in a Mosaic Community
- Cultural Change Through Comissional Strategy
- Cultural Change and the “S” Factor
- Cultural Change as a Personal Experience
This format of this symposium is different from most of the events that you have attended. This will be a fast paced presentation and dialogue.
Mark your calendar for September 29 - October 2, 2009 and make plans to attend this special gathering.
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