{"id":662,"date":"2009-04-03T08:01:22","date_gmt":"2009-04-03T14:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/crawler\/?p=662"},"modified":"2009-04-02T08:07:03","modified_gmt":"2009-04-02T14:07:03","slug":"black-church-participation-on-the-rise-in-urban-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2009\/04\/03\/black-church-participation-on-the-rise-in-urban-areas\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Church Participation on the Rise in Urban Areas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newswise.com\/articles\/view\/550667\/\"><a title=\"Creative Commons licensed photo by quinn.anya on flickr.com\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/53326337@N00\/3358038570\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3569\/3358038570_000e96c9d4_t.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"A little smashed, otherwise fine\" \/><\/a><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newswise.com\/articles\/view\/550667\/\">Newswise<\/a>, a press release service, brought to my attention interesting new research out of Vanderbilt University by Sandra Barnes suggesting that, &#8220;churches with predominantly black congregations are thriving in urban and suburban areas, and the most successful churches employ a variety of sophisticated marketing and programming strategies to draw members.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The research offers insights into what successful black churches have in common today, when parishioners have more choices and expect more from their churches than they have in the past.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Contrary to expectations, I found that the black church is still a very important part of the lives of many African Americans,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cThose churches that market themselves, make sophisticated use of technology, offer practical sermons and programs for families and children over and above typical Bible studies are most likely to draw and keep new parishioners.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>People are expecting more from their churches&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Barnes found that today\u2019s parishioners are \u201creligiously savvy\u201d and expect more from their church service, such as sermons and Bible studies relevant to everyday life, activities for individuals and families, and innovative worship services that incorporate dance and music.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe broader societal change we have seen in consumerism is also manifesting in the religious arena. We expect more, bigger and better,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cAs in the retail environment, today\u2019s church goers are savvy shoppers. They are looking for a worship experience that meets their needs and programs that meet their needs and they\u2019re willing to shop around to find it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This consumerism has led churches to use sophisticated marketing tools, specifically the Internet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuccessful churches are very savvy when it comes to marketing. Word of mouth continues to be an important tool, but it is no longer the primary mechanism,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cWeb sites, television ads and prime time exposure all play a role. Churches are using very intentional marketing strategies and much of it relies on technology.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newswise.com\/articles\/view\/550667\/\">Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Newswise, a press release service, brought to my attention interesting new research out of Vanderbilt University by Sandra Barnes suggesting that, &#8220;churches with predominantly black congregations are thriving in urban and suburban areas, and the most successful churches employ a variety of sophisticated marketing and programming strategies to draw members.&#8221; The research offers insights into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39074],"tags":[42,12,125],"class_list":["post-662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sightings","tag-religion","tag-technology","tag-urban"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions\/665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}