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Jun 20 2019

Victimizing the Flock: What Sex Assault Victims Mean for Christianity

by Darren Slade, Ph.D.

Darren Slade is director of research at FaithX, general editor of our sponsored acedemic journal, Socio-Historical Exploration of Religion and Ministry, and a regular contributor to the FaithXperimental blog. Darren holds a PhD in theology from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Today’s post is a critical analysis of sexual assault in the Southern Baptist and Roman Catholic denominations.

If there was ever a sign that something drastic needs to change within the Christian religion, it is the countless thousands upon thousands of sex assault cases that have been brought to light in the last few decades. How many more victims have there been? How many more churches are harboring sexual predators? How many more will suffer in the future?

If there was ever a sign that Christianity needs another reformation (or perhaps an outright revolution), it is the countless sex assault victims who have demanded change but have been ignored by their religious leaders.

In June of 2008, at a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) meeting in Indianapolis, a committee representing a number of sex assault victims pleaded with SBC leaders to put in place measures that would prevent SBC churches from hiring and concealing sexual predators. These sex assault victims accused numerous SBC churches of deliberately hiding sex assault allegations and litigation from the public.

Unfortunately, every one of their pleas fell on deaf ears.

[Read more…]

Written by Darren M. Slade, PhD · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Darren Slade · Tagged: Catholic Church, disfellowship, Sexual Assault, Sexual Predators, Southern Baptist Convention

Jun 06 2019

FaithXperimental Spotlight: Compassionate Austin

by Darren Slade

In our travels around the U.S., both digitally and physically, we at FaithX like keep our eyes open for examples of people, programs, communities, or ministries doing creative, innovative, and experimental things in the area of faith. And when we do find one, we like to shine a spotlight on them in a FaithXperimental blog post.

FaithX founder and principal consultant, Ken Howard, bumped into (almost literally) Compassionate Austin in late March while presenting MapDash and FaithX consulting services at the New Story Festival in Austin, Texas (they were back-to-back in the exhibit area). While Compassionate Austin is not an officially religious program, there are many people and communities of faith involved, and Ken was struck by the underlying sense of spirituality that subtly infused the organization.

Compassionate Austin describes itself as a growing grassroots movement united to promote, strengthen, and celebrate compassionate action in Austin, Texas and its surrounding areas. Their vision is to exemplify and champion empathy in its purest form by creating a livable, vibrant, inclusive, and caring community in which all have the opportunity to thrive. By their actions, Compassionate Austin hopes to inspire everyone to become aware and conscious of the importance of showing compassion in the world today (taking care of others, yourself, and the earth). They seek to strengthen people’s empathy skills, tenderness, charity, and accountability toward meeting the needs of their community.

[Read more…]

Written by Darren M. Slade, PhD · Categorized: FaithX Blog, FaithXperimental Spotlight, Posts by Darren Slade · Tagged: Austin City Council Resolution, Charter for Compassion, Compassionate Austin, Compassionate Communities Campaign, FaithXperimental Blog, FaithXperimental Spotlight, grassroots movement, Leadership Austin, New Story Festival

Apr 18 2019

As Pastors Get Older, Churches Start to Die: An Epilogue

by Darren Slade

Having received a larger than expected response to the blog post, “As Pastors Get Older, Churches Start to Die,” I have decided to address a few concerns that have come up. I am personally surprised at some of the negative reactions to what was written, which I thought was quite straightforward (and uncontroversial). What is apparent is that the blog post has struck a nerve with many people, most notably among older ministers and clergy. In one sense, I appreciate the sensitivity surrounding the topic. There appears to be a push in some areas of the church to oust older ministers and recruit younger, more “trendy” leaders. I can see this causing frustration and heartache for a lot of clergy, especially for those who sacrificed their entire youth and devoted their entire life to ministry. It begins to look like a pink slip that reads, “Thank you for your time, but your services are no longer needed. We found someone better.” Older pastors and older congregants start to feel discounted, shoved aside, and forgotten all for the sake of attracting “young blood.”

While this concern is both reasonable and expected, my bewilderment persists. A couple of responses received last week accused me of not valuing the wisdom of older pastors and even suggested that I must think professional pastors should go away completely. Nothing could be further from the truth, and (to be quite honest) I’m not exactly sure how someone could read those things into such a brief post. Another response demanded to know what I plan to do with older pastors, a strange request considering the blog post is meant to have you think about such questions. It’s not my responsibility to have a plan for your aging clergy. Others seem to view the blog as reductionistic, believing it suggests there is only one causative factor for the church’s death. This, too, is not the case. We must not confuse the reporting of one causative factor with the argument for only one causative factor. The post engages in the former, merely reporting about one problem facing the church and, in no way, argues that this is the only or even primary cause for the church’s decline. In fact, you can read an earlier post of mine here where I discuss the myriad of complex factors that lead to church growth and decline.

[Read more…]

Written by Darren M. Slade, PhD · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Darren Slade · Tagged: age, church demographics, Demographics, epilogue, follow-up, older pastors, retirees, senior citizens

Apr 04 2019

As Pastors Get Older, Churches Start to Die

by Darren Slade

In a survey of over 9,500 different congregations from 2008-2017, NCD America reports that 54% of pastors are above the age of 50*. Not surprisingly, there is a direct correlation between the age of the pastor and the age of the congregants who attend church every week. The older the pastor, the older the congregation. These same churches also have very little growth, where the older a pastor/congregation is the less likely the church is to grow numerically. In fact, the growth rate is so minimal that it is virtually nonexistent.

What’s more, these same churches tend to have very few children, adolescents, or young adults attending services, meaning there will likely be no new families to replace current church members as congregants begin to retire from services.

So, what happens when a church is run by and populated with senior citizens? The short answer: it dies. This will happen for a number of reasons. Retirees and senior citizens tend to be on a fixed income. Hence, church contributions plummet. Retirees and senior citizens become less active in outreach and evangelism, preferring to stay within the safety of familiar places and closed circles. Thus, new memberships plummet. Lastly, retirees and senior citizens tend to expire. Hence, attendance plummets.

[Read more…]

Written by Darren M. Slade, PhD · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Darren Slade · Tagged: age, church demographics, Churchianity, Demographics, NCD America, retirees, senior citizens

Feb 07 2019

Correlation is Not Causation: Why Theology is Not What Makes Churches Grow

by Darren Slade

In this article, I will seek to answer whether theological conservatism and strictness play a vital role in denominational switching, as well as what factors cause churches to grow numerically. In the end, the idea that liberal theologies cause a deterioration in mainline Protestantism, while conservative theologies produce growth, is an oversimplification of the relevant factors that account for congregational development. Though theological conservatism tends to correlate with numerical expansion, it does not do so consistently and in all cases. Nonetheless, correlation does not equate to causation. Conservatism and strictness are merely two among a myriad of other influences that are present among growing churches, including (most notably) higher birth rates, higher youth retention, and a focus on evangelistic efforts.

Click Here to Read the Article
Correlation is Not Causation:
Why Theology is Not What Makes Churches Grow

Written by Darren M. Slade, PhD · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Darren Slade · Tagged: Causation, congregational development, Correlation, Darren Slade, denominational switching, liberal theologies, mainline Protestantism, theological conservatism, Theology

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