Reorganized Religion

Secularists may also show up when disaster strikes because they are about the health of their community. Still, they are not organized in the same way as a religion is and are not able to mobilize people in the way that religious groups can. We’ve mentioned this before, but it is worth repeating. Religious communities, said Campbell, are unique in

“This situation is augmented by the smallest-sized congregations being the least willing to change and less likely to be looking for new members or having their people actively recruiting others.

in communities with a clear mission and sense of purpose,”

Today study, the median attendance is sixty-five people—or half of the median attendance in 2000.

“Live Better, Help Often.”

mega-identities, where people’s political views and religious beliefs are merged with their social and regional preferences.

“mega-identities,” as Johns Hopkins political scientist Lilliana Mason puts it, where their political, cultural, regional, and religious beliefs are all combined.

A 2018 survey from Lifeway Research found that just under half (46 percent) of Protestant churchgoers—and 57 percent of churchgoers under age fifty—said they prefer to go to church with people who share their politics.8 Forty-two percent said that they were open to attending services with people who had different views. That same survey found that

Small churches—which make up the vast majority of congregations in communities across the US—have a shrinking number of people and resources to work with.