![]() He taught lessons of love, empowerment, inclusion, justice-well, you get the idea. Jesus, in the eyes of those in power during his life, was a radical extremist and a threat to the status quo. While the hippie-like costuming and the semi-clown makeup seem to outrage some folks, and are admittedly dated today, the movie should be looked at in the context in which it was created. It's a positive story focusing on Jesus' teachings and parables, told in a lighthearted way, with some outstanding music and spectacular location photography (particularly in the song "It's All for the Best"). ![]() Canada’s four largest mainstream Protestant churches have seen their membership drop by half since the mid-1960s while the population has nearly doubled.The story of "Godspell" is not one of the Christ's Passion, it's not about the angst among his disciples or the sexual tension he had with Mary Magdalen. The Pew Research Centre reported last year that that the congregations of Protestant churches in the US were decreasing by up to a million people a year. The C of E has launched a programme of evangelism in an attempt to stem the decline. Statistics published last month showed that 960,000 adults and children – less than 1.5% of the population – went to church each week during the sample month of October 2015. In the UK, attendance at Church of England services dropped by half between 19. “Theological orientation cuts to the very core of the religious practitioner.” “If you’re in a mainline church and that church is dying, and you’ve just heard that the theological position that you have is likely what’s killing it, you’re not going to be very happy about that,” he said. Haskell said he expected the findings of the study, which was not commissioned by any group or organisation, to be controversial. Confidence mixed with a message that’s uplifting, reassuring or basically positive is an attractive combination.” “That also makes them more confident and, to those on the outside looking in, confidence is persuasive all on its own. Theologically conservative believers were more unified in terms of priorities and what was right and wrong, he added. “This desire to reach others also makes conservative Protestants willing to implement innovative measures including changes to the style and content of their worship services.” “Because they are profoundly convinced of life-saving, life-altering benefits that only their faith can provide, they are motivated by emotions of compassion and concern to recruit family, friends and acquaintances into their faith and into their church. “Conservative believers, relying on a fairly literal interpretation of scripture, are ‘sure’ that those who are not converted to Christianity will miss their chance for eternal life,” he said. ![]() Services at growing churches featured contemporary worship with drums and guitars, while declining churches favoured traditional styles of worship with organ and choir.Īccording to Haskell, research on general social groups has shown that those with a consistent unified message and clear boundaries with people outside the group are attractive to outsiders. The study also found that about two-thirds of congregations at growing churches were under the age of 60, whereas two-thirds of congregations at declining churches were over 60. 100% of clergy and 90% of worshippers agreed that “God performs miracles in answer to prayers”, compared with 80% of worshippers and 44% of clergy from declining churches.This compared with 67% of worshippers and 56% of clergy from declining churches. 93% of clergy and 83% of worshippers from growing churches agreed with the statement “Jesus rose from the dead with a real flesh-and-blood body leaving behind an empty tomb”. ![]() 46% of people attending growing churches read the Bible once a week compared with 26% from declining churches.71% of clergy from growing churches read the Bible daily compared with 19% from declining churches.Only 50% of clergy from declining churches agreed it was “very important to encourage non-Christians to become Christians”, compared to 100% of clergy from growing churches.On all measures, the growing churches “held more firmly to the traditional beliefs of Christianity and were more diligent in things like prayer and Bible reading,” Haskell said. The researchers compared the beliefs and practices of congregations and clergy at mainline Protestant churches whose attendances were growing with declining churches. The paper is to be published in next month’s issue of the respected international journal, Review of Religious Research. The authors of Theology Matters: Comparing the Traits of Growing and Declining Mainline Protestant Church Attendees and Clergy surveyed 2,225 churchgoers in Ontario, Canada, and conducted interviews with 29 clergy and 195 congregants. ![]()
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