The pandemic has done nothing to dim the rock ‘n’ roll vibe inside one of America’s biggest churches, where Sunday morning at Flatirons Community Church brings fog machines and laser lights and chest-thumping bass lines. Lead pastor Jim Burgen still strides onto the stage in a tight black polo shirt and jeans, drawing laughs as he teases meaning in his sermons from NASA, a fitness regime and the Bible.
Even then, the empty seats point to thousands of missing people. “We’re not really sure where those 5,000 people went,” said Jesse DeYoung, the executive lead pastor at Flatirons. But the pandemic arrived at a time when the ferocity of political debate in the country had already alienated some people from the church – “CNN and Fox News are doing a better job discipling our people than we are,” Mr. DeYoung says. He sees people who, when they discover a contradiction between their political views and biblical teaching, conclude that “actually, Jesus is wrong.
Lifeway Research, an evangelical research firm, has tracked a decline in church giving in 2020 but a rebound in 2021, with almost half of Protestant pastors now saying the current economy is not affecting their church – the highest number in 11 years of polling. At the same time, only 12 per cent of pastors said the economy is providing a boost to their churches, the lowest such number since 2012.
Most interesting story. My impression in Canada is that protestant churches that are more evangelistic and based on tithe funding will better survive covid.
Perfect.
You mean as people are told to be afraid of their neighbors by the talking heads on TV.
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