Posted on 12/07/2014 5:55:06 AM PST by marshmallow
From The Wall Street Journal:
Americans aren’t building churches like they used to anymore.
Construction of religious buildings in the U.S. has fallen to the lowest level at any time since private records began in 1967. Religious groups will build an estimated 10.3 million square feet this year, down 6% from 2013 and 80% since construction peaked in 2002, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. In terms of dollars, spending on houses of worship totaled $3.15 billion last year, down by half from a decade earlier, according to Commerce Department figures.
As the economy heals, churches, synagogues, mosques and temples may move forward with renovation and expansion projects put off during and after the recession. But church-building began to ebb well before the latest downturn.
Behind the decline is a confluence of trends: a drop in formal religious participation, changing donation habits, a shift away from the construction of massive megachurches and, more broadly, a growing taste for alternatives to the traditional house of worship.
(Excerpt) Read more at patheos.com ...
all the while Mosque construction has been skyrocketing...
It’s about time. The mega-church movement and it’s crowd pleasing stadiums built on debt, haven’t added much to the spiritual or cultural growth of this nation. Architecturally, many seem to be competing for America’s ugliest building award.
Alas, Babylon.
The “great falling away” is prophesied in the Bible as one of the signs of the end times. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3)
Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus.
How much of this is due to credit tightening?
No need to build when it is easy to buy existing stock.
Our population is BELOW replacement level. Theirs is booming. Unexpected?
thats a part of the Long Term Plan...
We are looking at adding about 1000 sq ft to our small church...bids are running around $250,000 and up. There is also concern the government will use the addition as an excuse to make up upgrade the main building to meet all the regulations added since it was built in 1964. Our congregation is small and cannot afford the debt, and upgrading the existing building would ruin us.
In California years ago, the church I was in wanted to pave the parking lot. In order to meet county and city requirements added since the church was built, we were going to have to add lighting suitable for a supermarket and pay for new power lines, handicap bathrooms, etc...the total bill would have run close to a million in upgrades they would require in addition to just paving the lot we used. So we added gravel and continued on with our existing grandfather waivers...
Could have fooled me. But maybe I’m just noticing the mega-church mall “compensations” being built, not new churches.
I guess we were against the odds then in building a new church that was dedicated in February of 2014.
For photos, send me a Freepmail.
That's worthy of a hearty "Amen"!
My 2000+ strong church rents a high school auditorium in the morning for 2 services and another church for another service in the evening. We don’t need no stinkin’ building. The church is people, not a building.
Tons of empty strip mall retail space still available, lots of Churchs popping up in those spaces. So many in fact local gov here in western wa is tinkering with zoning to try and stop it.
An article written for hand-wringing on the right and gloating on the left, all the while ignoring church formation. I’d wager there are more houses of worship now than in 2002 nationwide. The whole country isn’t Buffalo.
They just built one down the road from me.
That could be a good thing.
Christianity isn’t about church buildings anyway.
Better off renting or buying an already existing but abandoned structure and renovating it if necessary.
A quick question.
What about Catholic parishes being built in the least likely of places, such as the south or the famous “Bible Belt” area?
AMEN!
.....Yet the good news is that the Gospel is still going out the four corners of the world, as commanded by Jesus in Mathew 28.
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