Something to note :
A study last year may lend some credence to the legend. In “Praying for Recession: The Business Cycle and Protestant Religiosity in the United States,” David Beckworth, an assistant professor of economics at Texas State University, looked at long-established trend lines showing the growth of evangelical congregations and the decline of mainline churches and found a more telling detail: During each recession cycle between 1968 and 2004, the rate of growth in evangelical churches jumped by 50 percent. By comparison, mainline Protestant churches continued their decline during recessions, though a bit more slowly.
The little-noticed study began receiving attention from some preachers in September, when the stock market began its free fall. With the swelling attendance they were seeing, and a sense that worldwide calamities come along only once in an evangelist’s lifetime, the study has encouraged some to think big.
“Bad Times Draw Bigger Crowds to Churches”
Bull. The church that I attend was growing long before times got bad. In two years it went from a 5 member home bible study to a church with 350 regular attendees. We are going to multiple services in October. Do the bad times help? Maybe a little but our church was already growing.
Glad to hear more people are turning to Christ.
What troubles me about this article is since when is NYT happy about more evangelicals?
On a related note, NPR had an upbeat piece on how the crime rate has gone down in the last year. How to explain this incongruity in a recession? ‘Some’ say (the person in the next cubicle) that more people are moving in with family members and staying home with them instead being out on the street. The perky NPR reader made you kinda wish recessions happened more often!
Posted December 14, 2008
Posted December 14, 2008