Posted on 06/03/2009 7:26:03 PM PDT by fgoodwin
"What if church wasn't just a building, but thousands of doors?" asks a new website launched by the United Methodist Church. "Each of them opening up to a different concept or experience of church. . . . Would you come?" After watching its membership drop nearly 25 percent in recent decades, the United Methodist Church, which is still the nation's largest mainline Protestant denomination, thinks it knows the answer. So it's pouring $20 million into a new marketing campaign, including the website, television advertisements, even street teams in some cities, to rebrand the church from stale destination to "24-7 experience."
"The under-35 generation thinks church is a judgmental, hypocritical, insular place," says Jamie Dunham, chief planning officer for Bohan Advertising & Marketing, the firm that designed the United Methodist campaign. "So our question is: What if church can change the world with a journey?"
With their pews having thinned dramatically, other mainline Protestant denominations are posing similar questions in like-minded campaigns. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a major mainline denomination, has TV ads spotlighting the church's charitable work and encouraging Lutherans to take pride in and to share their faith with friends. And the Episcopal Church recently launched a website called "I am Episcopalian," where half a million church members have uploaded videos explaining their faith.
These are the kinds of entrepreneurial church-building strategies that are more typical of evangelical megachurches, which have focused on member experiences by offering contemporary music and weeknight small-group meetings. Mainline denominations, meanwhile, have clung to hymns and centuries-old worship styles. "In the competitive spiritual marketplace, mainline churches are trying to reinvent themselves," says Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University.
Some mainline church officials admit to taking a page from the evangelical playbook. And no wonder. Since 1990, the number of Americans identifying themselves as members of mainline denominations, including Presbyterians and the United Church of Christ, has slid from nearly 19 percent of the population to under 13 percent, a loss of 3.5 million people. Over the same period, the number identifying themselves as nondenominational Christians, the evangelical-style tradition of the megachurches, has exploded, from fewer than 200,000 to more than 8 million. "The megachurch folks learned that they have to address people where they are in their daily lives, and that's not in the sanctuary," says the Rev. Larry Hollon, who heads communications for the United Methodists. "The Methodist Church is beginning to recall that that is who we are as well."
With their new branding campaigns, mainline churches are betting that many young Americans are looking for worship alternatives to politically conservative evangelical congregations. A recent study conducted for the United Methodist Church by the Barna Group, a consulting firm specializing in faith-based polling, found that a third of Americans under 35 consider themselves spiritual but are not deeply connected to a church. "These young people have rejected too close a tie between religion and politics," says David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group. "So the mainline sensibility provides a unique opportunity to speak to them."
Barna's polling also found that young Americans share an increasingly global outlook and a concern for social justice issues like poverty. Ninety-six percent say they want to make a difference in the world. So the United Methodist Church's new ads and website feature Methodist-led service projects around the globe. The Lutheran Church's new branding campaign, called "God's Work, Our Hands," spotlights a church soup kitchen in North Dakota and a mission in Senegal that teaches women business skills.
For all their marketing research and high production value, though, mainliners' branding campaigns face big challenges. Many young people are more likely to volunteer through college organizations or groups like Habitat for Humanity than by joining a new church. Indeed, some religion scholars say the campaigns' social justice messages aren't distinct enough to break through. "Study after study has shown that religions that grow are the ones that are hard-core in some way. They have something that differs sharply from the culture in which they operate," says Boston University's Prothero. "That's the problem with mainline Protestantism: It's not different enough from mainstream America."
And bringing any kind of change to centuries-old denominations won't be easy. "The brand and character of the Episcopal Church is being driven by a lot of things that came out of 17th-century England," says Robert Putnam, a Harvard University professor who has studied church growth. "You can't change that with an ad campaign."
Some mainline church officials say their denominations have begun making broader changes, updating worship music and offering small-group environments for congregants. But the branding campaigns, they say, are just as important. "The large churches have been extremely good at initial evangelizing," says Anne Rudig, the director of communications for the Episcopal Church. "But I'm an evangelist, too."
(Before hand, I realize that what I am saying here might/will hurt some of you Roman Catholics... But I am hurt myself and I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE! So GO AHEAD and "let me have it," that's ok. My main concern here - after givin an explanation why I feel the way I feel, is, hopefully, to find another church.)
Let me ask you a question to ALL YOU YOU, especially Yudan. If you were a "Roman Catholic" at heart (Raised RC since birth) but you were so disgusted with your church, due to the recent scandals, which would be the CLOSEST to the Roman Catholic Church?
Let me say one more thing... for me a church is more than a "set of teachings and rules." It's a CULTURE. I was born and sorrounded by the RCC until I finshed H.S... Eveything in my life (girlfriends, school, sports, sex), everything was connected and affected by my church)
I must say that I still love the church (the way I thought it was). I loved their traditions through the centuries, the rituals, the heavily ornamented buildings, the saints, the statues, the celibate priests, nuns, the candles, the incense, the processions, even its toughness on many aspects...like when I was a teenager. In those days I was thought sin was black and white... no middle ground.... and I believed it… And it affected my life!... I really thought it was an HONEST, tought, corageous church.
When I heard of the children abuses, homosexual priests and everything else, I thought naively: "Oh no problem... As soon as Rome hears about this... They will come and CLEAN UP and get rid off all the ones who did this...
SURPRISE... SURPRISE.... Even with a new Pope - whom I like (it could have been worst)... I still don't see the kind of action a church of this size and power should be doing to protect our family-values at this critical time.
If I could have my wish, I would keep the SAME church with all its rituals and teachings WITHOUT THE CORRUPTION. More than anything I would change all its power structure (from the Pope down). I would have a Pope with the power to clean up things like a dictator, for the good of the church.
Every time I say something about the Pope, I hear a million excuses that he could not do this or that, that he did not have the power for this or the other words, NO ONE takes responsibility for what happened. And even as of today!... Even though the Pope admitted to the failings of the CC in his last trip to the U.S. – which sounded good – I still DON’T SEE THE ACTIONS of a church that cares to defend us from the present war on culture and values. We have HUGE enemy with Media, Teachers, Hollywood, TV, university establisments,etc etc.. fighting us
Instead, I see a church – a powerful church – THAT SITS BY… AND DOES NOTHING of substance. I am sure there are exceptions, but that is not what I mean… Why is not the Pope himself speaking against all the evil that is about to overtake us here in America and probably the world.
I’ve had it!.. I lost all TRUST and respect for the RCC and from what I’ve seen in the last ten years, this church will keep playing the same games, acting more like politicians… and I seriously doubt they will ever change in my lifetime.
So I am considering to move on, I would like to find a new church it that is possible at all, so I ask for your advice. How about “Eastern Greek Orthodox Church?” They seem to be closest to the Roman Catholic Church?
(Before hand, I realize that what I am saying here might/will hurt some of you Roman Catholics... But I am hurt myself and I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE! So GO AHEAD and "let me have it," that's ok. My main concern here - after givin an explanation why I feel the way I feel, is, hopefully, to find another church.)
Let me ask you a question to ALL YOU YOU, especially Yudan. If you were a "Roman Catholic" at heart (Raised RC since birth) but you were so disgusted with your church, due to the recent scandals, which would be the CLOSEST to the Roman Catholic Church?
Let me say one more thing... for me a church is more than a "set of teachings and rules." It's a CULTURE. I was born and sorrounded by the RCC until I finshed H.S... Eveything in my life (girlfriends, school, sports, sex), everything was connected and affected by my church)
I must say that I still love the church (the way I thought it was). I loved their traditions through the centuries, the rituals, the heavily ornamented buildings, the saints, the statues, the celibate priests, nuns, the candles, the incense, the processions, even its toughness on many aspects...like when I was a teenager. In those days I was thought sin was black and white... no middle ground.... and I believed it… And it affected my life!... I really thought it was an HONEST, tought, corageous church.
When I heard of the children abuses, homosexual priests and everything else, I thought naively: "Oh no problem... As soon as Rome hears about this... They will come and CLEAN UP and get rid off all the ones who did this...
SURPRISE... SURPRISE.... Even with a new Pope - whom I like (it could have been worst)... I still don't see the kind of action a church of this size and power should be doing to protect our family-values at this critical time.
If I could have my wish, I would keep the SAME church with all its rituals and teachings WITHOUT THE CORRUPTION. More than anything I would change all its power structure (from the Pope down). I would have a Pope with the power to clean up things like a dictator, for the good of the church.
Every time I say something about the Pope, I hear a million excuses that he could not do this or that, that he did not have the power for this or the other words, NO ONE takes responsibility for what happened. And even as of today!... Even though the Pope admitted to the failings of the CC in his last trip to the U.S. – which sounded good – I still DON’T SEE THE ACTIONS of a church that cares to defend us from the present war on culture and values. We have HUGE enemy with Media, Teachers, Hollywood, TV, university establisments,etc etc.. fighting us
Instead, I see a church – a powerful church – THAT SITS BY… AND DOES NOTHING of substance. I am sure there are exceptions, but that is not what I mean… Why is not the Pope himself speaking against all the evil that is about to overtake us here in America and probably the world.
I’ve had it!.. I lost all TRUST and respect for the RCC and from what I’ve seen in the last ten years, this church will keep playing the same games, acting more like politicians… and I seriously doubt they will ever change in my lifetime.
So I am considering to move on, I would like to find a new church it that is possible at all, so I ask for your advice. How about “Eastern Greek Orthodox Church?” They seem to be closest to the Roman Catholic Church?
In the 1940's theologian H. Richard Niebuhr indicted liberal Protestantism for teaching
"a God without wrath who brings humans without sin into a kingdom without judgment through a Christ without a cross."
That anti-creed ought to be memorized by every orthodox Christian, the better to guard against the seduction of *modern heresies.
*oxymoronic, because most heresies are just 1st and 2nd century lies in contemporary language.
Some Orthodox parishes are very ethnic; not all are Greek or even "Eastern." Many Antiochian Orthodox (traditionally Arabic) parishes are actually composed of almost all converts from Protestant or Roman Catholic backgrounds.
The Orthodox Church is not perfect. Far from it. It is, however, the true Church.
Yes, this is a given but... ANY scandals like in the RCC?... More importantly, if the same would have happened in the Orthodox church, how would the power of the church have corrected the problem?
I realize you may not know the answers and that is ok. I would have to read a lot, before making a decision, but perhaps, you and others can help somewhat...
Any websites you or ANYONE can recomend? Thank you.
I heard there was a sex scandal involving a now closed Orthodox monastery in Texas. I don't know the details.
There is no systematic history of abuse and cover-up like happened in the Roman Catholic Church, perhaps because Orthodoxy has always been wary of institutional power (see Dostoevsky's The Brother's Karamozov). That also means, however, the Church does not have dictatorial power to correct abuses. Yet, obedience is stressed. The Orthodox learn to walk in this and many other paradoxes.
As far as reading, The Orthodox Way by Kallistos Ware is a great place to start. For the view of a convert, I recommend Peter Gillquist's Becoming Orthodox. Anything by Frederica Matthew's Green is good; she also has a number of essays posted on line.
The Greek Orthodox Church has a good web site, http://www.goarch.org/ with lots of links and background info.
There are also Orthodox Internet radio stations, notably Ancient Faith Radio, http://ancientfaith.com/, that have a lot of informational podcasts and Orthodox music. It is said that the real theology of the Church is expressed in its hymns.
Hope this helps!
“With their new branding campaigns, mainline churches are betting that many young Americans are looking for worship alternatives to politically conservative evangelical congregations.”
I think they might be betting incorrectly.
Thank you Martin. Thank you for the information. I will read.
First and foremost, Martin is a better source of info and wisdom than I.
Martin is a full Orthodox convert, I am merely what is referred to as a Catechumen - the difference is like the difference between being married and being engaged.
I was not, and never have been an adherent of the Church of Rome. I was a Protestant.
Speaking personally, I immediately felt three things in my first Liturgy and Sunday Coffee Hour (fellowship and food after liturgy, as fully observant Orthodox usually will fast from Midnight Saturday until after receiving Communion):
1. The palpable presence of the Holy Spirit;
2. The people were there to WORSHIP, and they love The Lord; and
3. The people love each other truly and were genuinely happy we were there.
Again, speaking personally, I was drawn to Orthodoxy because for 2000 years the Church has said, “Here’s the truth. It isn’t about you, it’s about God. It’s FOR you, not ABOUT you. You can take it or you can leave it. We’re delivering a message and we’re not going to shape it to suit you. Feel free to drink all you want of this fountain of truth, it never stops flowing. But understand - it doesn’t change. The flavor is always the same.”
I love Orthodoxy. It has re-ignited my faith.
Why else do they go to the big mega churches?
For us, we chose the Missouri Synod Lutheran church. They do not belong to the NCC, they teach Christ crucified to save us from our sins and it was also the LCMS who excommunicated Killer Tiller before he chose to attend the welcoming ELCA.
There are some LCMS that may have gone to the "contemporary" type services so check it out. Ours is very traditional. The new hymnals post the scripture from which the liturgy is taken. It is very beautiful and one learns scripture by reciting or singing the liturgy.
Paul, the Apostle, said “I am determined to know nothing among you but Christ, and Him crucified.”
As I said in post, it has to be church that "works" for me. Everyone will say/think their church is the best, the truthful one. Otherwise why would they be members of it? and I understand that, but I am a funny individual and I have my own needs, one of them as I said, is that its "culture" (people, rituals, etc) is as close to the RCC as possible. That is important to me.
I will read and thank you again for your help.
The LCMS had earlier excommunicated Tiller.
More and more, the megachurches are selling a package deal, of not just the church, but of a church-run and maintained community. That isn’t offering trendy as much as stability. And while I wouldn’t care to live in such a community, it is extremely popular with those who do.
Why is why such communities are growing instead of shrinking.
And what do they stand for? I already found out what the NCC is :)... it won't be simple to figure all this out.
Yes, that is a great saying by Niebuhr and so true. There are two kinds of liberal Protestants: elitist and stupidist (I just made this word up). The liberalism that we see in the mainline Protestant denominations is governed by “intellectual†elitist educated in the methods of higher criticism. They look upon the laity as a bunch of unwashed ignoramuses. The stupidist liberals are those in many nondenominational churches and mega-churches. It is a dumb-downed Christianity that is emotionally driven, the happy clapies.
“So it’s pouring $20 million...
Let’s see, perhaps if they TAUGHT THE TRUTH FROM THE BIBLE,
instead of ignoring it, they wouldn’t be dying.
“The megachurches have swapped the Christian gospel for feel-good socializing and whatever sells.
Not sure what megachurchs are in your definition.
My church is growing like crazy (just passed 8,500),
and teaches the Gospel. People are coming to Christ
from every kind of background you can imagine -
tattoos and all.
best,
ampu
Those closest to us at our LCMS are not crazy about the Ablaze movement. It is akin to the church growth movement. We are more traditional and I want to keep it that way.
The new hymnal is wonderful and I want to remain true to the hymnal which is based on scripture.
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