Monday, December 18, 2006
Evangelist Churches On The Decline?
It could possibly be. Over at Minnesota Monitor, in a blog thread on the sudden hot water in which Mac Hammond, Michele Bachmann's favorite preacher man (he's the guy who endorsed her from the pulpit, remember?) may be soaking, a woman reared in a evangelical faith had this to say about tithing and the church:
The ten percent tithe is fading though, even among evangelicals. (at least according to some study I read and can't readily cite.) People say it's because many evangelicals (who tend to be white, suburban types) are like lots of other Americans----mortgaged to the hilt and living on credit. If tithing is fading, get ready to watch evangelical growth fade too. Because one of the secrets to evangelical church growth in the last 50 years has been that their members tithed at about triple or quadruple the rate of mainline Protestant or Roman Catholic churches. And if your members tithe at triple the rate, your church can afford more youth pastors, a bigger building, better music. Which then brings in more people. And so forth.This would explain the desperate, backs-to-the-wall feeling that pervades much evangelist thought nowadays. Satan is winning from their perspective, and I can see some of these people trying to pull a John Wilkes Booth last-ditch attempt to "win" by offing somebody like Paris Hilton or Tom Cruise.
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