Copyright 2005 Star Tribune  
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
October 1, 2005 Saturday Metro Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Faith & Values; Pg. 5B

LENGTH: 1681 words

HEADLINE: Marketplace churches;
What makes a church grow in 21st-century America? Research reveals this combination: a wide range of secular-style offerings with a Bible-based foundation.

BYLINE: Amy Gage

BODY:
Special to the Star Tribune


Sociologist Penny Edgell is asking some provocative questions. Do
the mainstream churches that prospered in the 1950s still meet the
needs of changing families? Do men and women attend church for the
same reasons?

Are churches even relevant in our secular, media-driven culture?

Edgell, a professor of sociology and director of graduate studies
at the University of Minnesota, has written an academic book that
may gain broader readership. "Religion and Family in a Changing
Society" follows years of research in upstate New York, where
Edgell taught at Cornell University.

In interviews with more than 100 people, she heard a consistent
theme: Successful churches provide a sense of community, a respite
from daily pressures and a faith-based embrace, a place where
people comfortably can confirm their beliefs.

"People would say, 'Look, if I want to volunteer or sing or find
some activity for my kids, I can do that anywhere. I'm at church
because it's a place where I can express something that's really
valuable to me,'-" said Edgell in a recent interview.

Culturally conservative suburban megachurches thrive, her
research shows, because they offer amenities for busy families and
stick to a clear, consistent message. "They maintain a distinct
brand identity," Edgell writes.

"They're niche marketing," she said. "These churches know what
they are and who is going to be attracted to them. And they have a
theological set of reasons for what they do."


Gender breakdown

Women often are seen as more religious than men, said Edgell, and
yet men have long wielded more power in churches. "Money and
property and big decisions were controlled by male boards," she said.

Men typically join churches to fulfill their family obligations
and explore the personal side of themselves that they can't reveal
elsewhere, Edgell said.

"Some of the men I talked to said they couldn't talk to the guys
at work about parenting and their marriage," she said. "Women have
more venues and more permission for talking about the personal.
Nobody is surprised if a woman says that motherhood is a central
aspect of her identity. For a man, that's odd."

Women who attend church regularly tend to fit a stereotypical
definition of the female role: more likely to work part time once
they become mothers, to spend more hours on housework and, like
churchgoing men as well, "to favor conformity in children," Edgell
writes.

The churches that are gaining in a less- churched society uphold
that family ideal with a modern twist.

Newer suburban churches recognize that young families "don't want
their parents' churches." They do want theology and a moral core
for their children. "These churches often are quite conservative in
their messages about family," she said.

But in their music (loud Christian rock), their dress code
(strictly casual), their worship environment (durable carpeting,
flashing lights) and worship style (hand-clapping, raucous), they
are far from traditional.

Visit the website of any large, newer church in the Twin Cities
and you'll see ministries for people of all ages and stages in
life. The churches offer workout classes and Christian-oriented
recovery groups. They have bookstores, youth hangouts,
playland-like Sunday schools and services at various days and hours.

"These churches are very flexible about the details," Edgell
said. " They are totally willing to organize around the exigencies
of people's lives."

Like their big-box retail counterparts, they also understand the
efficiencies of size. "Being big means you can pay a lot of
professional staff, which means you can offer multiple kinds of
ministries," she said. "People can find a place to plug in."


Who goes to church?

More than 29 million adults in the United States claim to be
atheist, agnostic or have no religious affiliation, according to
the American Religious Identification Survey, published in 2001.
That number had more than doubled since 1990.

Eighty-one percent of U.S. adults identify themselves with some
religious group, the study says, but only 54 percent live in a
household where anyone attends a worship service regularly. Where's
the disconnection?

Churches that are gaining members these days appeal to the same
population that churches did in the 1950s: middle-class nuclear
families with a breadwinner dad and a homemaker mom.

But that population is declining in the United States, from 43
percent of U.S. households in 1950 to 25 percent today. Single
parents, married couples with no children at home and people in
other family structures attend church less frequently, if at all,
Edgell's research shows.

"By organizing around this traditional nuclear family structure,
these churches are making environments where a lot of people today
would not find a good fit," she said. "That would include many
well-educated, single, professional women. It would include gay and
lesbian couples. It would include anyone who feels that alternative
family structures are valid."

Whether married or single, parents or not, more people in our
culture today define religion for themselves, not according to
their upbringing or current family status. The trend is
particularly prevalent among women, who are "more critical than are
men in judging the fit between religious institutions and their own
lives," she writes.

People with a self-oriented approach to religion see most
churches as conformist. But, Edgell stressed, that doesn't mean
they are less "moral" or spiritual, or even less religious.

"People say: Does the religious institution fit with my life? If
you're not in a traditional family structure, the answer's more
likely to be no," she said. "People with a self-oriented rhetoric
don't see a value in religious institutions per se, although they
may have a strong sense of faith."

Self-oriented churchgoers more likely attend theologically
liberal churches that are losing ground to churches where the word
of God and a blueprint for living are firmly defined.

"In the communities that I studied, the liberal churches that
thrived were doing exactly what the suburban churches were doing,"
Edgell said. "There was a religious content to their message. They
didn't just say, 'Oh, if you're gay or lesbian, come here,' without
working through the theology of family and sexuality."


The 1950s model

The economy and the nation's sense of possibility boomed after
World War II, when church growth and attendance also were
expanding. "New churches were planted. National organizations grew.
Money flowed in," Edgell said. "A lot of money and expertise were
deployed to figuring out how to do family-oriented ministry."

Although baby boomers in particular remember the '50s fondly, it
was a time of extreme social change that paved the way for the
tumult of the '60s, Edgell said. She cites: a move from the urban
core, less reliance on extended families for financial and
emotional support, the isolation of middle-class women in their
suburban homes.

"It's not that no women worked in the 1950s. There was a working
class," she said. "But this suburban, stay-at-home nuclear model
became a goal, whether you lived it or not. It became associated
with being prosperous, respectable and a good American."

Mainstream churches responded to and promoted the ideal, Edgell
said, whose areas of study include the sociology of religion, the
sociology of culture and family-and-gender issues.

"During the '50s this template for ministry was set in these
churches - mainline Protestant, Catholic and more mainstream
Evangelical - that had a lot of social influence. At the time, they
pretty much were the only religious players in town. Now," she
said, "there's a lot more religious diversity."

Edgell's research focused on four communities in upstate New York
whose houses of worship hark back to an earlier era. The population
she studied is largely white (94 percent) and Christian (only two
synagogues participated). Deliberately homogenous, her study
reflects a model of worship developed in the 1950s that remains
prevalent today.

"We re a very religious and a deeply moral society. That's really
what separates us from Western Europe," Edgell said. "We still
believe strongly and deeply that there's a moral basis for
citizenship."

Churches that want to grow must use the tools that have worked at
megachurches:


Be more flexible with programming, more creative with ministries,
more willing to exert influence through the web and direct-mail
campaigns.

And emphasize religion, Edgell added, however defined: "People
who want to be in church want an authentic, sincere, faith-based
message." Without that, "All the other things you do aren't going
to matter."


Amy Gage is at agage@charter.net.Innovative family programming


A study by University of Minnesota sociologist Penny Edgell found
that theologically conservative churches, often located in the
suburbs, are providing programming that meets the needs of busy
families while supporting the nuclear family ideal. As a result,
membership is booming.

                   Liberal    Moderate    Conservative Catholic
                 Protestant  Protestant    Protestant
Hold services/
programs at a
variety of times     23%        38%           65%
.
Host some programs
closer to members'
homes                 9%         5%           32%  
Provide empty
nesters' groups      14%         5%           37%  
Provide mothers'
groups               23%        14%           39%   
Sponsor tutoring
for children          9%         5%           20%  
                             Catholic
Hold services/
programs at a
variety of times               54%  
Host some programs
closer to members'
homes                          11%  
Provide empty
nesters' groups                22%  
Provide mothers' groups        22%  
Sponsor tutoring
for children                   39%  

- Source: "Religion and Family in Changing Society" (Princeton
University Press, 2005)

GRAPHIC: CHART; PHOTO

LOAD-DATE: October 14, 2005 PENNY EDGELL (95%);