{"id":1350,"date":"2008-12-14T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-14T00:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/why-bad-times-are-good-for-churches.html"},"modified":"2008-12-14T00:15:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-14T00:15:00","slug":"why-bad-times-are-good-for-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/why-bad-times-are-good-for-churches.html","title":{"rendered":"Why bad times are good for churches"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>The current economic woes seem to bear out the old idea that tough times can lead to crowded pews. (There are no atheists in foxholes and all that). <\/p>\n

From Sunday’s New York Times<\/a>: <\/p>\n

The sudden crush of worshipers packing the small evangelical Shelter Rock Church in Manhasset, N.Y. \u2014 a Long Island hamlet of yacht clubs and hedge fund managers \u2014 forced the pastor to set up an overflow room with closed-circuit TV and 100 folding chairs, which have been filled for six Sundays straight.<\/p>\n

In Seattle, the Mars Hill Church, one of the fastest-growing evangelical churches in the country, grew to 7,000 members this fall, up 1,000 in a year. At the Life Christian Church in West Orange, N.J., prayer requests have doubled \u2014 almost all of them aimed at getting or keeping jobs.<\/p>\n

Like evangelical churches around the country, the three churches have enjoyed steady growth over the last decade. But since September, pastors nationwide say they have seen such a burst of new interest that they find themselves contending with powerful conflicting emotions \u2014 deep empathy and quiet excitement \u2014 as they re-encounter an old piece of religious lore:<\/p>\n

Bad times are good for evangelical churches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful time, a great evangelistic opportunity for us,\u201d said the Rev. A. R. Bernard, founder and senior pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, New York\u2019s largest evangelical congregation, where regulars are arriving earlier to get a seat. \u201cWhen people are shaken to the core, it can open doors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nationwide, congregations large and small are presenting programs of practical advice for people in fiscal straits \u2014 from a homegrown series on \u201cFinancial Peace\u201d at a Midtown Manhattan church called the Journey, to the \u201cGood Sense\u201d program developed at the 20,000-member Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., and now offered at churches all over the country.<\/p>\n

Many ministers have for the moment jettisoned standard sermons on marriage and the Beatitudes to preach instead about the theological meaning of the downturn.<\/p>\n

The Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, who moved much of their door-to-door evangelizing to the night shift 10 years ago because so few people were home during the day, returned to daylight witnessing this year. \u201cPeople are out of work, and they are answering the door,\u201d said a spokesman, J. R. Brown.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bernard plans to start 100 prayer groups next year, using a model conceived by the megachurch pastor Rick Warren, to \u201cfoster spiritual dialogue in these times\u201d in small gatherings around the city.<\/p>\n

A recent spot check of some large Roman Catholic parishes and mainline Protestant churches around the nation indicated attendance increases there, too. But they were nowhere near as striking as those reported by congregations describing themselves as evangelical, a term generally applied to churches that stress the literal authority of Scripture and the importance of personal conversion, or being \u201cborn again.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check out the rest<\/a>. And hit your knees. <\/p>\n

Photo: by James Estrin, New York Times<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The current economic woes seem to bear out the old idea that tough times can lead to crowded pews. (There are no atheists in foxholes and all that). From Sunday’s New York Times: The sudden crush of worshipers packing the small evangelical Shelter Rock Church in Manhasset, N.Y. \u2014 a Long Island hamlet of yacht…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,12,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-churches","category-ripped-from-the-headlines","category-the-people-in-the-pews"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy bad times are good for churches - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/why-bad-times-are-good-for-churches.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why bad times are good for churches - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The current economic woes seem to bear out the old idea that tough times can lead to crowded pews. 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