Evangelistic belief and behavior among Canadian congregants. (December 2022)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Evangelistic belief and behavior among Canadian congregants. (December 2022)
- Main Title:
- Evangelistic belief and behavior among Canadian congregants
- Authors:
- Thiessen, Joel
Quantz, Kennedy
Wong, Arch Chee Keen
Walker, Keith
McAlpine, Bill - Abstract:
- With the recent surge of "religious nones" in many Western nations, there is a growing interest among some church attenders to effectively "reach" this demographic. In this article, we build on theories of strictness and social embeddedness to tackle three questions regarding evangelistic belief and behavior in Canadian Catholic, mainline Protestant, and conservative Protestant congregations. First, in what ways are evangelistic beliefs and behaviors similar or dissimilar across theological traditions, notably when comparing stricter and less strict contexts? Second, how are evangelistic behaviors similar or dissimilar based on a person's frequency of church attendance? Third, what challenges do people confront in their evangelistic efforts? Drawing on survey data with over 9100 Catholic, mainline, and conservative Protestant respondents in over 250 Canadian congregations, this study compares responses across theological sectors, reported levels of importance that church members attach to evangelism, as well as church attendance frequency. Data reveal that those in religious traditions with stricter "insider–outsider" boundaries and who were more socially embedded in their religious groups (i.e., conservative Protestant traditions) were the most likely to embrace evangelistic attitudes and behaviors, in contrast to those in religious groups with less strict boundaries or social embeddedness in their religious group (i.e., United Church of Canada). However, those with theWith the recent surge of "religious nones" in many Western nations, there is a growing interest among some church attenders to effectively "reach" this demographic. In this article, we build on theories of strictness and social embeddedness to tackle three questions regarding evangelistic belief and behavior in Canadian Catholic, mainline Protestant, and conservative Protestant congregations. First, in what ways are evangelistic beliefs and behaviors similar or dissimilar across theological traditions, notably when comparing stricter and less strict contexts? Second, how are evangelistic behaviors similar or dissimilar based on a person's frequency of church attendance? Third, what challenges do people confront in their evangelistic efforts? Drawing on survey data with over 9100 Catholic, mainline, and conservative Protestant respondents in over 250 Canadian congregations, this study compares responses across theological sectors, reported levels of importance that church members attach to evangelism, as well as church attendance frequency. Data reveal that those in religious traditions with stricter "insider–outsider" boundaries and who were more socially embedded in their religious groups (i.e., conservative Protestant traditions) were the most likely to embrace evangelistic attitudes and behaviors, in contrast to those in religious groups with less strict boundaries or social embeddedness in their religious group (i.e., United Church of Canada). However, those with the strongest "us–them" boundaries also found those boundaries particularly prohibitive to their evangelistic efforts reflected, in part, in a widespread leaning toward passive versus assertive forms of evangelism. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Studies in religion. Volume 51:Number 4(2022)
- Journal:
- Studies in religion
- Issue:
- Volume 51:Number 4(2022)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 51, Issue 4 (2022)
- Year:
- 2022
- Volume:
- 51
- Issue:
- 4
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2022-0051-0004-0000
- Page Start:
- 459
- Page End:
- 479
- Publication Date:
- 2022-12
- Subjects:
- Canada -- church growth -- congregations -- evangelism -- religious nones -- sociology of religion
Canada -- croissance des églises -- congrégations -- évangélisme -- non-religieux -- sociologie de la religion
Religion -- Periodicals
Religions -- Periodicals
200.5 - Journal URLs:
- http://sir.sagepub.com/ ↗
http://www.uk.sagepub.com/home.nav ↗
http://www.uk.sagepub.com/journals/Journal201983/permissions#tabview=title ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1177/00084298211055072 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0008-4298
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 23270.xml