{"id":32516,"date":"2022-09-10T16:12:35","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/study-theology-matters-for-growing-churches\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:12:35","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:12:35","slug":"study-theology-matters-for-growing-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/study-theology-matters-for-growing-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"Study: Theology Matters for Growing Churches"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Staff<\/p>\n

Growing up in 1970s Canada, David Haskell often went to church with his grandmother. Back then, going to church was the thing to do on Sundays. \u201cGrandma\u2019s church was packed with young and old alike,\u201d he writes in a column for the Calgary Sun.<\/p>\n

And evangelical congregations like his grandmother\u2019s weren\u2019t the only ones drawing crowds, argues Haskell. Churches of all kinds in her town\u2014Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian\u2014were full, he writes.<\/p>\n

But times changed. Many churches in Canada, especially mainline congregations, have faltered. Haskell, a journalist turned college professor, wanted to know what went wrong.<\/p>\n

So he and two colleagues spent five years studying 22 churches in Ontario, Canada\u2014some growing and others failing. Along the way, they surveyed more than 2,000 churchgoers in those congregations.<\/p>\n

They found that what people believe really matters. Churches that adhere to conservative theology are more likely to grow than those that do not.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor example, because of their conservative outlook, the growing church clergy members in our study took Jesus\u2019 command to \u2018Go make disciples\u2019 literally,\u201d Haskell writes in the Washington Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur research suggests that churches don\u2019t have to abandon or water down their core beliefs to remain \u2018relevant\u2019 or attract people to their services,\u201d says co-researcher Kevin Flatt.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the contrary, churches that stick to quite conservative beliefs that emphasize the truth of the Bible, the importance of sharing the gospel, and God\u2019s continuing action in the world are actually more likely to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing churches and declining churches had very different approaches and beliefs, according to the study.<\/p>\n

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Related posts:<\/h3>\n
22 Vital Stats for Ministry in 2022 9 Characteristics of Spiritually Healthy and Numerically Growing Churches Small Churches Continue Growing\u2014but in Number, not Size 6 Major Changes Happening in U.S. Churches <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Staff Growing up in 1970s Canada, David Haskell often went to church with his grandmother. Back then, going to church was the thing to do on Sundays. \u201cGrandma\u2019s church was packed with young and old alike,\u201d he writes in a column for the Calgary Sun. And evangelical congregations like his grandmother\u2019s weren\u2019t the only … Continue reading “Study: Theology Matters for Growing Churches”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}