Interesting stats with evangelicals and recessions

I saw this on the NY Times page today, thanks to BW3:

Dr. Beckworth, a macroeconomist, posited another theory: though expanding demographically since becoming the nation’s largest religious group in the 1990s, evangelicals as a whole still tend to be less affluent than members of mainline churches, and therefore depend on their church communities more during tough times, for material as well as spiritual support. In good times, he said, they are more likely to work on Sundays, which may explain a slower rate of growth among evangelical churches in nonrecession years.

Bad Times Draw Bigger Crowds to Churches - NYTimes.com

The first part is great. I see that in our own church. We help those that have a need. However, there are two things about the part I highlighted. Either it is good, because we are finding people who come to know Christ after trying to do it their way and working 7 days a week, with no rest; or it s bad because we are forgetting who truly provides for us, and become swept up in the consumeristic hype of prosperity. This would almost signal a cycle that the nation of Israel had in the Old Testament.

Blogged with the Flock Browser