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Marginalization as Blessing
Blessed by Micael Faccio I cannot even begin to count the number of experts I have heard or read complain about the losses experienced by liberal/progressive (Mainline, Oldline, Sideline) Christianity...
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The Obsolete Church
condemned historic African American church by Jauna Manuel Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou is an author, documentary filmmaker, public intellectual, organizer, pastor, and theologian. In a recent interview,...
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The Irrelevant Church
A week ago I wrote about The Obsolete Church. In that post I suggested that while the little c church (local congregations or communities of faith) remains vital the big C Church (denominations and...
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The Shrinking Dreams: America & Church
The Shrinking Dollar by frankieloen – flickr.com/photos/armydre2008/5734854387/ In her recent article in The Atlantic, Marianne Cooper considered data from a number of recent surveys before concluding...
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Last Blog Post
This will be my last blog post for awhile . . . History Six years and four months ago, I launched this site. At that time, I never imagined that I would become a prolific blogger who would author...
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Top Religions by State
There are many ways to look at America’s top religions. The Public Religion Research Institute’s new American Values Atlas offers a helpful way to consider the religious makeup of the United States on...
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Small Congregations – Big Challenges
While I have spent most of my life affiliated with large congregations, I realize that there are more small congregations than large ones and that small congregations increasingly face big challenges....
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Closing the Clergy Gender Pay Gap
Fighting for Equal Pay for Equal Work by Senate Democrats – https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdmc/17147154572/ Equal pay for equal work has been the law of the land in the USA for my entire life. That...
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Reflections on Average Worship Attendance
Most American churches have relatively small memberships. Since the accuracy of membership roles varies widely, average weekly worship attendance is often used to compare congregational size. Median...
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Mainline Members – Political Leanings
If you know much about American Christianity, you may expect Mainline Protestants to be more likely to have more liberal political leanings than the average American. The Pew Research Center’s 2014...
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Global Decline in Religious Freedom
Religious Paintings, Museum of World Religions, Taipei by Arun – flickr.com/photos/arunsgallery/2666717412/ According to the recently released United States Commission on International Religious...
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The Disappearing Religious Gender Gap
photo by Greg Smith It is relatively well known that America is a more religious country than most and that in America women are significantly more religious than men based on most traditional measures...
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Post-Christendom Reality Check
The Two Towers by Pelle Sten – flickr.com/photos/pellesten/8287704286/ I recently finished reading Weird Church: Welcome to the Twenty-First Century (Pilgrim Press, 2016) by Beth Ann Estock and Paul...
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Mid-Year Update – Popular Posts
According to Google analytics statistics for So What Faith (based on view counts from January 1 to present) Most popular blog posts published in 2016 Search for a Church: 9 Months & Counting (May)...
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Mainline Protestantism = Old
Until around the year 2000 I always thought of the group of churches to which I have belonged as Mainline or Mainline Protestant. Over the last several years I have heard a variety of terms used that...
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Farewell to White Protestant America
Last week I noted how old Mainline Protestantism has become here in America. Back in 2011 I reflected on a group of pastors from one Mainline denomination that labeled their own tradition “deathly...
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Seminary Size – Evangelicals are #1
How large is large when it comes to a seminary student body in America? The primary accrediting body, Association of Theological Schools (ATS), accredited 246 institutions during the 2015-16 school...
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Choosing a Church – New Research
photo by Greg Smith Yesterday, the Pew Research Center released a report titled “Choosing a New Church or House of Worship: Americans Look for Good Sermons, Warm Welcome.” (I encourage you to read the...
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Are Clergy Underpaid?
Coral Gables Congregational (UCC) Sanctuary – photo by Greg Smith New Research In the March 2016 issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Mark Chaves (author of one of my top ten...
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Religiously Unaffiliated: 25 Years of Growth
Sources: General Social Survey (1991-2012) and PRRI (2014-2016) From 1971 to 1991, the religiously unaffiliated ranged between 5% and 8% of the adult population in America. While data from the General...
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