How big is the church you grew up in?

Doing some research today about megachurches and came across this money quote from Chaves (2006):

The bottom line is that the number of very large Protestant churches has increased in almost every denominalion on which we have data…[however]…Roughly speaking, if you look at the 20 biggest churches at time 1, only half of them are still on that list 20 years later, only one quarter are still on the list 40 years later, and only 2 are still on the list 60 years later. It is not that these very large churches peak and then shrink dramatically, although some do.  Rather, the biggest churches of the moment are overtaken by a new cobort of churches that have caught that decade’s cultural wave and ridden it to the top, and then those churches are overtaken by the next wave, and on and on.

So in essence, while the trend over time is toward a greater percentage of church goers in larger and larger congregations, it is not the case that large churches keep getting bigger.  Rather, new, even larger churches are springing up out of whole cloth.  Fascinating.

Dispatches from London VI

It’s unclear if the guy proselytizing and trying to spread the good word of “Jesus as the salvator” (direct quote) is aware of the sign leaning on the fence behind him which reads “Beware.  Thieves Operate In This Area,” but I find it hilarious.

No Mo’

In addition to the totally obvious awards for worst lyrics and most unwatchable video, this totally wins the following awards:

least interested back-up singer
worst hair for a back-up singer
worst fitting suit for a lead singer
most awkward physical combination of lead singer and back-up singer
worst dancing
worst combination of food items (Lucky Charms and Iced Tea?)
most racial stereotypes ever unintentionally displayed in one song.

I double dog dare you to watch the whole thing.

[via H]

One Thing

If my students in Soc. of Religion and the part of Intro. where we cover religion can only learn one thing, this is it, courtesy of the great Peter Berger:

The basic fault lines today are not between people with different beliefs but between people who hold these beliefs with an element of uncertainty and people who hold these beliefs with a pretense of certitude.

-P. Berger

Sigh

In a move that is akin to watching a shape materialize inside of it’s outline, Tony Jones, former national spokesperson for Emergent Village, just decided that homosexuality is not in conflict with Christianity.  In his reasoning (here) he offers no basis for this other than his own thoughtful reflections and experiences.  Far be it from seventonine to discount the importance of these sources, but we think there is fundamental flaw with these kinds of arguments.  Succinctly put, it cedes the Biblical ground to the fundamentalists and conservatives when there is absolutely no reason to do so.  There are perfectly good theological and Biblically based reasons to argue that Christianity and homosexuality need not be discordant, why not use them?

It’s not that we agree or disagree with Mr. Jones, it’s just that his argument, after many years of “holding the issue in abeyance” for careful consideration, is, well, disappointing.

Renewing Minds, Renewing Spirits

Please, we implore you, stick around to watch the dance solo at the end.

Random Thoughts

I don’t know that these things are connected, but something tells me that they are somehow:

1. I have no idea how I could sustain this energy level for 20 years, or an entire semester.  Class takes so much energy and also provides so much in return.  I want to give as much as I can in a sustainable way.  I think the trick is to push it right to the limit so that I leave with just a little more energy returned to me than I gave.  The difficult part, aside from trying to make such a calculation, is that what I get out of class is directly related to what I put into it.  The more I give, the more I get…but there is a point of diminishing returns-otherwise known as burnout.

2. It is, I think, the greatest frustration in my life that when I look at other people, they do not truly understand the depths of my love for them.  I wish there was some way to communicate these feelings better.  I wish my students, coworkers, the girl running the register at the grocery store, could understand in some way the way that I feel about them.  But then, to tell them would just be creepy.

3. Carbon Leaf is really, really underrated band.  Seriously, check out their myspace page for some samples.  I’ve got a thing for lead singers who don’t play instruments yet still manage to pull it off.  I think it’s so much more genuine than most of the lead singers who just learn a few chords and use the guitar as a prop more than anything else.  Shit or get off the pot, you know.  Anyway, Let Your Troubles Roll By and Life Less Ordinary are great songs.

And So It Begins

Just got around to digging all the crap out of my boxes and decorating my office here at school.  Posters (one promoting reading, another celebrating Chavez-Cesar not Hugo, Postcards (Crazy Horse, Holden Village, Chichen Itza, etc.), and a little printout of an interesting little exercise called “Books that Make You Dumb.”  You can see it here.  Basically it correlates SAT/ACT scores with 10 most popular books as aggregated from Facebook for each university.  Thus we find that students at the school with the highest scores (California Institute of Technology) list the following books as their favorite: Enders Game, 1984, Harry Potter, Dune, Lord of the Rings.  The Bible or The Holy Bible is basically tied for first place among most popular books with the entire Harry Potter series but has a standardized test score correlation that places it in the lower 10% of the books.  In other words, you could conclude (erroneously) that reading the Bible will make you stupid.

So I posted the full list of books on my door along with the institutional profile for my university which includes books like The Bible, Harry Potter, 1984, Catcher in the Rye, DaVinci Code, and an standardized test score ranking which places us pretty much near the middle of the pack.  Then I posed the question: Is this good social science?  The correct answer is that of course it’s not.  Correlation does not equal causation.  There are a myriad of other factors that predict this relationship, and furthermore, SAT/ACT scores don’t actually predict anything other than one’s ability to perform on standardized exams (I’d provide the links to the studies, but I’ve got other things to do), causing many schools to drop them altogether.

Anyway, today a student/person felt the need to tape the following email forward up over the Books that Make you Dumb printout:

We have enjoyed the redneck jokes for years. It’s time to take a reflective look at the core beliefs of a culture that values home, family, country and God. If I had to stand before a dozen terrorists who threaten my life, I’d choose a half dozen or so rednecks to back me up. Tire irons, squirrel guns and grit — that’s what rednecks are made of. I hope I a m one of those. If you feel the same, pass this on to your redneck friends. Ya’ll know who ya’ are.

You might be a redneck if: It never occurred to you to be offended by the phrase, ‘One nation, under God.’

You might be a redneck if: You’ve never protested about seeing the 10 Commandments posted in public places.

You might be a redneck if: You still say ‘ Christmas’ instead of ‘Winter Festival.’

You might be a redneck if: You bow your head when someone prays.

You might be a redneck if: You stand and place your hand over your heart when they play the National Anthem.

You might be a redneck if: You treat our armed forces veterans with great respect, and always have.

You might be a redneck if: You’ve never burned an American flag, nor intend to.

You might be a redneck if: You know what you believe and you aren’t afraid to say so, no matter who is listening.

You might be a redneck if: You respect your elders and raised your kids to do the same.

You might be a redneck if: You’d give your last dollar to a friend.

If you got this email from me, it is because I believe that you, like me, have just enough Red Neck in you to have the same beliefs as those talked about in this email.

God Bless the USA !

Oh, but here’s the best part.  The words “no matter who is listening” from the third to last item have been replaced with “no matter what professor is listening.”  Oh, and those words have been bolded just in case I might have missed them.

We’re still three weeks away from the beginning of the semester, and I’m already making friends!  I can tell that teaching here is going to be very interesting.

Is this the same old record?

Earlier this year, our staff decided that we really needed to focus on where we needed to head as an organization. I immediately had the same feelings that I always have whenever a conversation like this takes place—one of excitement and dread.

Over the years, I’ve been in many conversations like this one. Working within the confines of a church for the past 10 years, it seems as though there comes a point where the status quo just isn’t good enough anymore. The things that used to happen with ease aren’t so effortless as before. When looking at the statistics of attendance and participation, we wonder if what we’re doing is “meeting the needs of the people”. Most often the conversation will begin because those statistics have dropped, or comments are made about how what we’re doing just isn’t challenging and exciting the congregation as much as it did x number of years ago.

Two things stand out to me every time this conversation begins to take place: 1) We want to make sure that the people who we have been reaching will still be committed and involved in our ministry and 2) We realize that there are a lot more people out there who we haven’t reached yet.

First, I’d like to tell you that those having this conversation (more often than not) are committed staff members who have great intentions. They care for this community so much that they want to see it touch the lives of all who are involved. Unfortunately, they are also directly involved, making it extremely hard to let go of the things that they themselves have helped create.

Sometimes, it seems, they don’t really want to have this conversation at all. In fact, they’d rather jump to tweaking their own programs and formats of doing things so that they can bump up the statistics and report that things are going better than before with the “changes” they’ve made. Which leads me to mention that this isn’t really “change” at all—it’s a facelift on the things that are currently in place.

In my experience, this talk of “change” upsets many people—making them more focused on keeping things one way or updating them to another. The people who weren’t happy before come back for a short time, and sensing that this is only a superficial “change” leave once again. The people who were content before either feel as though they’ve made the sacrifices to update the status quo and don’t understand why it isn’t working, or are upset because the status quo had been upset and the way things were aren’t anymore.

That’s a lot of negativity for something rather minor, and it really only focuses on the people who have been involved in our ministry—not the vast number of people who we haven’t begun to reach yet.

That’s why I often feel dread at the onset of these conversations.

On the other hand, I’m excited about these conversations! It has the potential to really bring clarity to the mission and values that the community shares. It has the potential to help us dream big and let go of the things we’ve made untouchable before—all so that we can meet people where they’re at and walk alongside them as we discover our call together. I love to dream, and the potential to do something that will let the current community meet and encounter others is exciting!

We’re pretty far along in the first step of this conversation, which has taken a different twist than all those I’ve had before (so far). I’ll be updating you as to how that conversation goes and where we’ve ended up in the posts to come.

Social Construction and Deconstruction

A student recently asked me the following question via email:

“As a social scientist and a Christian, how do you reconcile your faith with the understanding that everything is socially constructed?”

I didn’t really know how to answer it at first, but now I think I know where I stand on this, and I thought I’d share it here.