'Some Fell on Good Soil': Church Planting in Religious Ecologies

In the midst of the decline of mainline denominations and the rise of the “nones” in the U.S. something surprising is happening.[i] Church planting is booming.  According to Ed Stetzer and Dave Travis, the number of new churches started annually jumped from approximately 1500 in the late 1900s to 4000 by 2006.[ii]  Such a spike is not only the greatest surge in church planting in the last century but Warren Bird claims it has yielded such a flurry of planting that the number of churches opened annually has outpaced church closures—a much more discussed and visible reality.[iii]  This rising phenomenon calls for sociological study, not only to describe and explain its occurrence, but also to understand the factors influencing the vitality of these new congregations.

I have contributed to this needed area of study by seeking to bring insights from organizational and religious ecology perspectives to understanding the influences upon the vitality of new congregations and their networks.  An organizational ecology approach “focuses on the influences of the characteristics of organizations and of the demography and ecology of the populations in which they operate.” [iv]  Thus it explores not only the impact of internal factors such as the church’s attributes, but also of external ones, such as the existence and characteristics of other churches.  Animating this study, then, is the question: What are the most relevant ecological factors impacting the vitality of new congregations and church planting initiatives in the U.S.? 

In the final section, I employ the most relevant theories toward an analysis of Churches for the Sake of Others (C4SO), a new church planting initiative on the West Coast of the United States.  Based on the factors identified as pertinent to new congregations generally, I highlight some of the features of C4SO that promise to be either liabilities or assets.


My article, originally published in Witness: Journal of the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education, v. 27 is available in its entirety here.

________________________________

[i] Mark Chaves, “All Creatures Great and Small: Megachurches in Context,” Review of Religious Research, 47(4) (2006), 329-346; Michael Hout and Claude Fischer, “Why More Americans Have No Religious Preference: Politics and Generations,” American Sociological Review, 67(2)(2002), 165-190.
[ii] Ed Stetzer and Dave Travis, “Who Starts New Churches?: State of Church Planting USA” (Leadership Network, 2011), 2.
[iii] Warren Bird, Warren, “More Churches Opened Than Closed in 2006,” Rev Magazine (August 2007), 68.
[iv] Michael Hannan, “Ecologies of Organizations: Diversity and Identity,” The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19(1) (2005), 54.

The Deconstructed Church: Marti & Ganiel on the Emerging Church

The Emerging Church Movement is here to stay.  So say researchers Gerardo Marti and Gladys Ganiel in their new book, The Deconstructed Church: Understanding Emerging Christianity.  I'm looking forward giving it a careful read and drawing on their research as I reflect on my study of New Seattle Churches.

Marti and Ganiel's research is "based on ethnographic observation of emerging congregations, pub churches, neo-monastic communities, conferences, online networks, in-depth interviews, and congregational surveys in the US, UK, and Ireland" and the book intends to offer "a comprehensive social-scientific analysis of the development and significance of the Emerging Church Movement. Emerging Christians, they find, are shaping a distinct religious orientation that encourages individualism, deep relationships with others, new ideas about the nature of truth, doubt, and God, and innovations in preaching, worship, Eucharist, and leadership." (from the Amazon blurb)

For more of their findings, check out these videos in which Marti defines ECM and discusses its demographics, distinctive practices, and the role it plays as a "last stop" for those on the way out of Christianity.  Below, I've also included excerpts from an interesting interview with Marti and Ganiel. 

Ecclesial Pioneers in the Pacific Northwest

If you're a church planter or doing ministry in Seattle or Portland, you should check out "Ecclesial Pioneers in the Pacific Northwest," which I wrote as a contributing editor for Christ & Cascadia, a new online collaborative journal thinking about God in Pacific Northwest culture.  The piece is based on my ongoing research on new Seattle churches (church plants, emerging churches, multisite churches, etc).  It explores why the Pacific Northwest is a uniquely fertile environment for religious innovation, points to some new churches in Seattle breaking the mold.

The Rise of the "Nones": Change is a comin'

The so-called "Rise of the Nones" as been all over the news lately, thanks to new research released by the Pew Forum on Religion, which found that the number of US adults who claim no religious affiliation has almost reached 1 in 5, the highest in American history.

Even more striking is the clear age correlation to the trend; younger generations have increasingly higher unaffiliated rates.  That means that as the next decade or so at least progresses this number is sure to move from 1 in 5 toward 1 in 3, the current ratio for those between 18-29. Other key findings from the study include the historic new reality that Protestants make up less than half of Americans for the first time since the nation's founding and globally "Nones" now make up the third largest religious affiliation behind Christianity and Islam.

Religious leaders have reacted in diverse ways to this news, ranging from: hand-wringing to hallelujahs!  However you interpret it, one thing is clear...change is a comin'.  The question I believe Christians must face is how to faithfully and humbly follow the way of Jesus in our new post-Christendom, post-Christian context.  

Ecclesiology & Ethnography - US Conference 2012 Reflections

Twenty-four hours after we closed the Ecclesiology and Ethnography Conference at Luther Seminary, here’s is what I’m left with:

Mostly questions.  Of course, often questions can be more generative than answers.  As my high-school history teacher, Lowell Hagan, taught me: the kinds of questions you ask determine the kinds of answers you can get.

Among the questions, this first one was particularly poignant for me at this stage in my work:

What has been the method implied in my practical theological projects to date…and what method do I intend to use in my future work?

In other words, the conference compelled me to be more reflective and intentional about the methods evident in my theologizing.  As a practical theologians, we share the basic assumption of the Ecclesiology and Ethnography proposal that the social sciences have a place in the work of theology.  Pete Ward, who edited the book whose release was timed with this conference, Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ethnography, summarizes its proposal as the conviction that understanding the church requires viewing it as simultaneously a theological and social/cultural entity and that as a result both qualitative and theological methods will be needed.  More precisely, the proposal asserts that instead of using both varieties of method sequentially, the research needs to be simultaneously theological and “ethnographic.”

The Sociology of Catalyst Pt 5: Trying to Change the World

While all “religions create action orientations,” one of the most striking, and for some alarming, facts about Catalyst is its undeniable attention to impacting, engaging and changing the world.[38]  As Smith notes in Christian America?, evangelicals are the most “most intensely distinctive and most publically oriented subgroup of conservative Protestants.”[39]  Furthermore, as Smith documents repeatedly, the language used by some evangelicals has caused media and society generally to view them as organized and poised for a rather aggressive campaign to change the nation.

The Sociology of Catalyst Pt 4: Hipsters in the Kingdom

In contrast to the “coolness” of being “in the world,” Catalyst also nurtures the “hipness” of a distinct subculture, which it sees as equally important to its mission.  Smith, who argues that evangelicalism is “the strongest of the major Christian traditions in the United States today,” attributes this vitality to what he calls their “subcultural identity.”[33]  In the wake of secularization theory’s demise, Smith articulated a “subcultural identity” theory of religious vitality through eight propositions:

1) human needs for meaning are socially met,
2) group identity is necessarily in distinction,
3) religious adaption is not necessarily accommodation,
4) individual choice can strengthen religious identity,
5) reference groups, not society en mass, establish group and individual meaning,
6) modern pluralism promotes formation of strong subcultures,
7) intergroup conflict typically strengthens group identity and
8) modernity can intensify the felt needs that make religion appealing.[34]  

Through the lens of this theory, evangelicals are thriving because they, better than other Christian groups, “possess and employ the cultural tools needed to create both clear distinction from and significant engagement and tension with other relevant outgroups, short of becoming genuinely countercultural.”[35] 

The Sociology of Catalyst Pt 3: The Culture of Cool

Catalyst manifests the coolness-pursuit of being “in the world” in a myriad of ways.  First, the music used in the interims, rather than being your typical slate of Christian worship or even Christian rock, was rather a mix of popular secular hits.  Live bands in hallways, outside and from the mainstage played songs including: Jack Johnson’s “Waiting on the World to Change”; U2’s “City of Lights”; Maroon 5’s “All I Need”; Kanye West’s “Gold Digger”; Lenny Kravitz’s “Fly Away”; Boyz 2 Men’s “End of the Road”; Enimem’s “Not Afraid”; Michael Jackson’s “Beat it”; and B.o.b’s “Airplanes”.  Tweeter @jasongrant777 expressed a common sentiment: “Best Christian event ever. Yesterday an Eminem cover and today the band just covered Kanye West's gold digger now MJ's beat it #cat10 #fb”.   While I believe an in depth analysis of the lyrics and themes of these songs would yield profitable insights (for I am sure these songs were not thoughtlessly selected), this is, unfortunately, beyond the scope of this project.  Suffice it to say that Catalyst embraces popular music as a legitimate means of coolness.  

      Second, Catalyst, its exhibitors, and its attendees are sold out on popular technology.
The clearest evidence of this was the ubiquity of iphones.  I’d approximate based on my observation that half of all people present were carrying the devices.  There was enough iPhone use that I noted several comments, both on Twitter and on site, about the resultant slowing of AT&T’s 3G network.  For example, this one from @SiteOrganic: “Skinny jeans, plaid shirts, black glasses and iPads (with really slow wireless). Welcome to #cat10!” 

The Sociology of Catalyst Pt 2: Engaged Orthdoxy and Hipster Christianity

Christian Smith’s landmark American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving labels the evangelical posture toward society as “engaged orthodoxy.”  Smith traces this to the founding of the American evangelical movement to the likes of Billy Graham, Harold Ockenga, Charles Fuller, and Carl Henry, beginning in the 1940s.  These reforming fundamentalists were “fully committed to maintaining and promoting confidently traditional, orthodox Protestant theology and belief, while at the same time becoming confidently and proactively engaged in the intellectual, cultural, social, and political life of the nation.”[16] 

            Almost 70 years later, “engaged orthodoxy” is alive and well with Catalyst as one of its freshest champions. 

The Sociology of Catalyst Conference Pt 1: Anonymous Evangelicalisms Hip New Hub

In October of 2010, 13,000 zealous Christian leaders gathered and talked about changing the world. This study applies some of the tools of the sociology of religion to an understanding of the organization behind this gathering, Catalyst. The research that informs this work includes participant observation at the annual Catalyst East Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on October 5-7, 2010, analysis of Catalyst’s presence on the internet, attention to participant comments via Twitter and relevant written sources. The primary questions pursued in this research center around the posture of Catalyst and those who affiliate with it toward the wider culture. In this respect, the work of Christian Smith and others on American evangelicals has proven immensely helpful.

Book Review: Christian America?: What Evangelicals Really Want by Christian Smith

Some have referred to Christian Smith as a “rock star” among sociologists of Religion due to his prolific and wide-ranging work. Currently serving as the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame, he has recently released titles exploring the nature of the human person (What is a Person?, 2010) and teen and emerging adult spirituality (Soul Searching, 2009 and Souls in Transition, 2010) and has on a forthcoming on evangelical readings of Scripture (The Bible Made Impossible, 2011).  Following up on the landmark American Evangelicalism released in 1998, Smith produced Christian America? drawing on the same body of research that intentionally accessed the thought of common self-identified evangelicals.  

American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving by Christian Smith: Book Review

As the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame, Christian Smith is a notable figure in contemporary Sociology of Religion.  His recent work has explored American Evangelicalism as well as the religious lives of teenagers and emerging adults.  According to his faculty page, his “larger theoretical agenda has been to move culture, morality, and identity to the center of sociological theorizing.”  Released in 1998, American Evangelicalism preceded the increased national and media attention on Evangelicals after they

Book Review: Christian Smith's Moral, Believing Animals: Human Personhood and Culture

Christian Smith is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame.  He is the author of numerous books including Christian America: What Evangelicals Really Want, Evangelicals: Embattled and Thriving and very recently, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers and What Is a Person?: Rethinking Humanity, Social Life, and the Moral Good from the Person Up which shares and develops themes from Moral, Believing Animals which was released in 2003.

The seven chapters of Moral, Believing Animals begin by identifying Smith’s agenda as resolving the age-old question of how to describe what it means to be a human.  Smith’s thesis is that